Fanm d’Ayiti begins with breathless harmonics from Spektral Quartet. The translucent layers welcome in Nathalie Joachim’s petalled voice — perhaps the only word that can describe her tender vocals. Her lyrics are in Kreyòl (Haitian Creole) and her timbre is positively floral, sweet and geometric in that Fibonacci way.
This semester, Cal Performances has gone virtual — the performances are prerecorded onstage, with documentary-style features of the artists speaking about their works. Joachim stands in a luminous seafoam dress that drapes in stiff folds. Behind her are the wings of the masked quartet: Clara Lyon (violin), Maeve Feinberg (violin), Doyle Armbrust (viola) and Russell Rolen (cello). Their eyes follow the hinge of Joachim’s jaw, the strain of her lips with lengthened words, for signs. And signs arise, providing them opportunities for synchronicity. Alternating between voice and flute, Joachim flows together with the strings to ride a pitch or turn, offering a shelter from dissonance and syncopation, a beautiful reprise.
San Francisco Classical Voice: Nathalie Joachim Has a Long Reach on Fanm d’Ayiti
At the start of Nathalie Joachim’s “Madan Bellegarde” — a short, somber Haitian folksong describing a Haitian woman’s condemnation — the taut voice of an elder Ipheta Fortuma floats out of a hidden speaker. Joachim, standing center stage in a flood of purple light, surrounded by the masked, physically distanced members of the Spektral Quartet, hears Fortuma’s voice and nods, listening. The scene is intimate: the glint of an earring, the repositioning of a sneaker, the contour of a cheek, the hint of a smile in an eye.
As Fortuma’s voice fades, Joachim signals to the ensemble with a breath, and the group embraces the melody left behind: Joachim, first singing the tune herself, then playing it on flute; the quartet, harmonizing it in different registers, adorning it with insistent sustains; the electronics, triggered by Joachim, providing gentle blooms of rhythm and color. The melody of “Madan Bellegarde,” passed from Fortuma to Joachim and her ensemble, becomes the sign of a tender occasion, the mark of varied distances; for its sounds are celebrations of lives overlooked, and its shaking, primary voice — Fortuma’s — is that of Joachim’s own grandmother.
WQXR: Hear Me Out – Fanm d’Ayiti
“It’s difficult to describe — in a single word or overwrought analogy — how Haitian-American composer / flutist / vocalist Nathalie Joachim’s Fanm d’Ayiti makes me feel. So, I’m going to tell you something about myself that, somehow, encapsulates the emotional journey I have when I listen to Famn d’Ayiti.
I used to cry a lot, until I was about 14. Unsurprisingly, this was a source of frustration and confusion and annoyance for my parents, presumably because no one wants to be out in public with a 12-year-old boy prone to breaking down and weeping at the slightest emotional disturbance. The weird thing about those tears was that they weren’t (always) from genuine sorrow or pain. They just showed up, and there was nothing I could do about it. It was a wave of emotion that was less “this is very very bad” and more “I just gotta wash out these vibes so I can get on with my day.” I’m bringing this up because that feeling — the one that used to precede a deluge of tears onto my boyish cheeks — is exactly what Joachim does to me on this album.
The first part of the album is bright and comforting; the sound of Joachim’s voice is what I imagine a cloud to feel like (refreshingly vapor-y). The strings of the Spektral Quartet in the opening track, “Papa Loko,” are restless, as if they’re waking up from the most rejuvenating of slumbers, but don’t actually need to be awake at the moment. They take their time getting ready, emphasized by the cello walking ever-so-slightly behind the beat, but then catching up right before the bar ends.”
Second Inversion: Top 10 Albums of 2019
“The music of singer, flutist, and composer Nathalie Joachim’s newest album draws on a long history, and not just from the classical tradition: Joachim was inspired by the music of her Haitian heritage on Fanm d’Ayiti, creating a beautiful blend of tuneful melodies sung in Haitian Creole with forward-thinking, colorful accompaniment. With help from the Chicago-based Spektral Quartet, Joachim weaves together flute, string quartet, voice, electronics, spoken passages from her grandmother, and advice from some legendary women of Haitian music to make for an album that celebrates the women of Haiti.”
The Nation: Ten of 2019’s Best Albums
“Fanm d’Ayiti is a gorgeously vivid musical scrapbook of testaments by Joachim, a seasoned composer and vocalist whose debut was long overdue, to the women of Haitian heritage who inspired her.”
Bandcamp Daily: The Best Contemporary Classical Albums of 2019
“She’s empathically supported by the lustrous strings of Spektral Quartet—sometimes solemn, sometimes playful—and several pieces meticulously deploy electronic beats and her own serene flute lines. For ‘Suite pou Dantan’ she built the pieces around a children’s church choir she recorded in Dantan, underlining how Haitians adapted Catholic liturgy to tribal religious beliefs from West Africa. Her singing has a measured, crystalline soulfulness to it, and throughout this spectacular record she effortlessly blends the past and present, tradition and the contemporary.”
Ted Gioia: The 100 Best Recordings of 2019
HONORABLE MENTION
Nathalie Joachim: Fanm d'Ayiti
Genre-Crossing Music from Haitian-American Composer/Performer
I Care If You Listen: Editor’s Picks: 2019 Contemporary Classical Albums
“Nominated for a GRAMMY award in the Best World Music Album category, Fanm d’Ayiti is one of the most personal and genuine albums released this year. The album ranges from delightfully off-kilter ostinati accompanying the girl’s choir from her family’s village of Dantan (“Alléluia” from Suite pour Dantan) to stripped down unaccompanied vocals (Lamizè Pa Dous) to the voices of influential women professing, ‘Have faith in yourself and keep going…don’t ever feel inferior.’ Part ethnomusicological exploration and part personal discovery, Fanm d’Ayiti is an absolute triumph.”
The New Yorker: Nathalie Joachim
“No more joyous chamber-music collection has arrived this year than “Fanm d’Ayiti,” the exuberant, expressive song cycle that Nathalie Joachim recorded with Spektral Quartet, a brilliant Chicago-based string outfit. The flutist and composer, best known for her work in the ensembles Eighth Blackbird and Flutronix, dug deeply into her Haitian heritage for this work, which she and Spektral perform at Merkin Concert Hall, on Oct. 26, as part of the Ecstatic Music series. Over soaring flute figurations, crystalline string textures, a recorded girls’ choir, and electronic beats, Joachim sings sweetly and strongly in praise of Haitian women—some of whom, including Joachim’s grandmother, speak for themselves in pre-captured testimony.”
New York Times Classical: A Musical Reflection on Haitian Matriarchy
“Delicately entrancing songs for string quartet, flute, and electronics — led by Joachim’s powerful and unpretentious voice — alternate with recorded spoken interludes as well as the singing of a girls choir from Joachim’s family’s village. Released in August on New Amsterdam Records, the project arrives at Merkin Hall in Manhattan on Saturday, as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival, with Joachim joined by the intrepid Spekral Quartet.”
I Care If You Listen: Nathalie Joachim’s Fanm d’Ayiti: a Complex and Multi-Faceted Celebration
“On her debut solo album, Fanm d’Ayiti (New Amsterdam Records), Haitian-American composer, flutist, and vocalist Nathalie Joachim offers the listener an intimacy of vocal storytelling and a blossoming sense of familiarity. It is a program that clearly lives in a special world in both its live performance and audio recording forms. While not wanting to spoil that experience for those who haven’t listened yet, the magic of the album lies in the accruing nature of the work. Each track deepens the relationship between Joachim and the listener, with the support of Spektral Quartet’s remarkable musicianship. As in life, the power of the connection is realized once each chapter has been experienced and we arrive at the final exaltation overcome with the beauty of the whole.”
The Nation: A Haitian Music Oral History That Bends Space and Time
“Three of the songs on the album, including the opener, “Papa Loko,” and the closing title track, “Fanm d’Ayiti,” are Haitian folk songs Joachim rearranged, maintaining the traditional feeling of the material but updating and brightening it with judiciously clever use of her electronics and subtle, often wry string work performed by the Spektral Quartet, a chamber ensemble in residence at the University of Chicago.”
San Francisco Classical Voice: What Should I Wear With This Album?
“Composer and flutist Nathalie Joachim has delivered my favorite album of the summer with her Fanm d’Ayiti (Women of Haiti), released by New Amsterdam Records on Aug. 30. Within my first listen I knew I would be going back, for full vacations and just for short visits to sunny tracks like the tripartite “Suite Pou Dantan.”
…
Each song brims with significance, but without undue weight, and Joachim’s singing is mixed just in the right spot throughout. There is fresh air in the instrumentation of these tracks — Spektral Quartet and Joachim on flute, with electronics. The small number of instruments makes each arrangement intimate, and yet with fewer people, the space between their voices is open. It is a very intense experience to listen to the whole album, especially once you are knee deep in “Madan Bellegarde.” It has an elegant arc, though, that makes the brightness in the final, titular track cathartic in a way that is not too large to carry.”
Best of Bandcamp Contemporary Classical: August 2019
“She’s empathically supported by the lustrous strings of Spektral Quartet—sometimes solemn, sometimes playful—and several pieces meticulously deploy electronic beats and her own serene flute lines. For “Suite pou Dantan” she built the pieces around a children’s church choir she recorded in Dantan, underlining how Haitians adapted Catholic liturgy into tribal religions from West Africa. Her singing has a measured, crystalline soulfulness to it, and throughout this spectacular record she effortlessly blends the past and present, the rustic and sophisticated.”
Read the entire article here