January 15, 2003
Swiss sisters bring sound to TC
Area residents reunite with musicians they met at Montreux
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Playing in the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland this July, Adam Bartling and Mike Parrish brought home more than memories of a great experience: they began a friendship and collaboration with two young and talented Swiss musicians.
The two Traverse City musicians and their families have hosted the Derib sisters - Noemie, 17, and Diane, 21 - for the past few weeks. The Deribs arrived the day after Christmas and will be in the area through January 20.
The sisters have dived right into the cultural scene in Traverse City. They performed with Song of the Lakes Friday night at Horizon Books, singing a new song with the band. Mike Sullivan, a member of Song of the Lakes, wrote the song, which ironically was entitled "Montreux." The band had never performed this song because they had been waiting for the appropriate voices to sing it.
After that performance, Bartling and Parrish joined Noemie and Diane on stage for a foursome, highlighting many of the sisters' original compositions. The sisters sang in both English and French, their native language in that part of Switzerland.
The Deribs also sang for students in Traverse City West High School's choral program and will sing this week at the Leelanau School.
"This is a really beautiful place, very open, nice and friendly," Diane said. "We enjoyed playing at West, they asked many questions like how we work individually and as a team."
The Swiss and Traverse City musicians clicked as friends after a chance meeting at a festival kiosk where the sisters were selling Teddy Bears. Bartling originally played with a band called Fourth House In that auditioned via CD last year to Montreux. After being accepted, two of the band's original musicians could not go so Parrish and Matt Jacob substituted. Kyle Sullivan was the other original band member who went; the band performed twice in the pop rock category.
Montreux was an unforgettable experience for the Traverse City musicians.
"It is far and away the most beautiful place I've ever been," Bartling said. "The festival was great, music everywhere for free. I'd love to go back, even if I'm not invited to play again, just to go back and experience Montreux again."
After getting to know the Deribs and playing music with them a few times, Bartling casually invited them to visit the United States "sometime." They discussed maybe putting together a little group and playing some gigs.
A few months later, an e-mail from Noemie to Bartling - then at college in Oregon - took him up on the invitation. The two began hatching plans for an extended Christmas vacation visit.
"When we met them in Switzerland and they played some of their songs for us, we were blown away," said Bartling, a bass player and a 2002 graduate of West High School. "Their voices work well together and they play songs they've written; Mike and I are sort of their studio musicians and they are the headliners."
"It still blows my mind when I think about the fact that we went across the ocean and met these people and came back; now they're here and we're all playing music together again," Bartling noted.
Traveling to the United States had been a dream of the sisters for years. They took the casual offer seriously and worked to make it happen.
"Since we were young, we have wanted to come to the United States," Diane said. "Our parents are really open to the idea because they are artists too, both my father and mother are comic book illustrators."
Bartling, Parrish - a percussionist - and the Deribs are also cutting a CD of their music together. They plan to sell the disc as well as having it as a keepsake of their collaboration.
"We're going to complete this recording by the end of the week and then we're all going to leave town," said Bartling, who will head back to his studies in English at Lewis and Clark University in Oregon.