The Lyre Ensemble, Temesgen Zeleke

Taking poems and texts from up to 4500 years ago, The Lyre Ensemble set ancient words to new music. Passionate and mysterious, but also funny and quirky, with themes around the place of women in society, these songs bring us closer to the Mesopotamian world,which suddenly seems not so far from ours.

Played on magnificent replicas of the Gold Lyre of Ur (2550BC), the world’s oldest surviving musical instrument, and the Silver Lyre also found in the Royal Graves of Ur, and with the stunning voice of Stef Conner (The Unthanks, Streetwise Opera), the Lyre Ensemble seeks to preserve and bring to life the very ancient cultures that are currently being destroyed in the Middle East, and point to the connectedness of humanity across history and geography.

Tracks from The Flood have had nearly 1,000,000 streams on Soundcloud, an overwhelmingly positive public response to simply beautiful music.