Tourlou brings folk songs and tunes from various parts of Europe to life. With two violins, a cello and vocals they play and sing melancholic laments and folk dance melodies. Like their repertoire the three Tourlou musicians originate from various places: Spain, Iceland and the Netherlands. The group is based in the Netherlands and is a musical mix of David Alameda Márquez (violin, viola d’amore, voice), Anna Vala Ólafsdóttir (cello, voice), Mayumi Malotaux (violin, voice, mandoline).
David has two passions in life: nature and music; the first one led to a research on ecology and the second one to studies of violin and musicology. Since 2013 he has been focused on folk music; studying, traveling, collecting, arranging and performing traditional music. This resulted in performances in numerous countries, workshops at conservatoire and a better understanding of what folk is. Part of this work was developed within the project Folk Combo.
Tourlou has given him the opportunity to keep on learning and to travel for and through traditional music.
Anna Vala has been singing and playing cello since an early age. Her musical background is predominantly in classical music, which has also encouraged her to maintain her profession as a classical singer. When she began playing folk music with Tourlou, a whole new and fascinating world opened up to her. Anna Vala loves the freedom and room for personal expression that folk music has to offer.
As well as making music, Anna Vala is a dedicated knitter and she loves to cook (and eat) vegan food.
Mayumi has a strong interest in stories told through folk songs and has been focusing on Scandinavian and south-east European music traditions.
She was a lead singer in Balkan orchestra Bikavar in the period of 2005-2012, performed as a solo artist with own compositions and studied traditional Swedish music at Malungs folkhögskola in Sweden in 2012.
She is very happy to combine and express these various interests within Tourlou.