Artist: Esther Sévérac
Album: Work Witch!
Genre: Classical, Chamber Jazz
Release Date: 2023
Audio Format:: FLAC (tracks) 24 bit, 96 kHz
Duration: 34:53
Total Tracks: 11
Total Size: 665 MB

Tracklist:

01. Esther Sévérac – Ouverture (04:19)
02. Esther Sévérac – The Alien Dog (05:45)
03. Esther Sévérac – Baba Yaga I (00:36)
04. Esther Sévérac – Debussy sur le toit (05:39)
05. Esther Sévérac – Baba Yaga II (00:35)
06. Esther Sévérac – Neskatxa (03:48)
07. Esther Sévérac – Baba Yaga III (00:40)
08. Esther Sévérac – Catillon I: Flames (04:32)
09. Esther Sévérac – Catillon II: Ashes (04:46)
10. Esther Sévérac – Catillon III: Walpurgis (02:32)
11. Esther Sévérac – Invention 12 BWV 783 (01:36)

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The Alien Dog is based on a cool children’s book that I read when I was seven years old.

Debussy sur le toit is an improvisation based on Debussy’s first Arabesque. I like to imagine the composer sitting on a roof and dreaming about his own music.

Neskatxa (pronounced « Neskatcha ») is a Basque word that means « little girl ». The melody came to my mind when I was in the French Basque country visiting a friend, who called her baby daughter by this name.

Catillon was the last woman burned for witchcraft in Switzerland in 1731. The first two movements are about the horror of the witch hunts: the stake (Flames) and the elegy that follows (Ashes). The third movement, Walpurgis, is the comforting fantasy that, thanks to their real magical powers, the victims of witch hunts escaped their fate and danced together around a big fire.

In Eastern European folklore, the Baba Yaga is a witch who lives in a hut that has chicken legs. The hut wobbles through a fairy tale forest during the Baba Yaga Interludes, guiding the listener from one piece to another.

The Invention 12 in A Major is my favorite of the two-voice inventions by Bach. It brings this album to a majestic and elegant close and pays tribute to my classical harp education.