Nimbus is in prerelease!!

Fuse Ensemble’s fourth album together is ready! Neuma Records has released the CD version, with the full digital release for listening platforms to happen in February. I couldn’t be more excited!!

Nimbus is an artistic collaboration between composer Gina Biver and poet Colette Inez that allows the listener a glance into the early life of Ms. Inez, the lovechild of a Roman Catholic priest and the young French scholar assigned to assist him. 

The music of Nimbus is a set of seven miniatures for electroacoustic chamber ensemble, spoken word and soprano voice. Several audio recordings made by the composer at Ms. Inez’s apartment in New York present the beautiful aging voice of Ms. Inez as she reads her poems; others are sung by soprano Tula Pisano or read by the composer. Ambient audio recordings of church bells, children, city sounds and

the interiors of churches were captured live in the town of Nérac, France and its environs in August 2018 by the composer. 

The poems chosen by Ms. Inez for this project include the poet’s contemplations on her parents’ lusty, hidden affair in warm southwest France: thoughts of her father as he cast aside his priestly vows, the aftermath of her mother’s pregnancy in 1930s Nérac, France, and their abandonment of the baby Colette to an orphanage in Belgium. The co-mingling of forbidden sex, lust and religion are laid bare in these unapologetic poems that become richer as they subtly manifest the poet’s young life spent longing for the lost embrace of her family. 

Through Ms. Inez’s husband Saul and the generosity of her cousin Jean-Jacques Dulong, Ms. Biver was able to compose the music for Nimbus in 2018 in the Dulong family estate -- the river house in Nérac, France that Ms. Inez mentions in her memoir “The Secret of M. Dulong” (University of Wisconsin Press).