Photos: LES ITINÉRANTES Will Present New Album HYSTERÆ

Les Itinérantes make their PENTATONE debut with HYSTERÆ, an exploration of the many faces of the Feminine. Mothers, queens, witches, workers, saints, fairies and enchantresses come together in a rich tapestry of stories, archetypes and emotions that have shaped cultures across the world and throughout history.

Photo Credit: Maeva Simonnet

Through melodies from diverse musical traditions, original compositions and rarely heard works by women composers and writers, the album gives voice to figures who have been revered, feared, idealised, silenced and misunderstood. HYSTERÆ is both an intimate journey and a universal celebration, embracing the contradictions that define the human experience: tenderness and rage, fragility and strength, creation and destruction.

Renowned for their captivating a cappella performances and their unique repertoire spanning fifty languages, Manon Cousin Cipriani, Pauline Langlois de Swarte and Elodie Pont create a sound world where borders, eras and genres dissolve. Blending influences from early music, world traditions, sacred song and contemporary composition, Les Itinérantes invite listeners on a powerful voyage of self-discovery, liberation and imagination.

The album's physical release date (standard CD) is November 2026, with a digital release date of 13 November 2026.

'Mothers, queens, widows, witches, workers, wives, fairies and enchantresses… Powerful, defenceless, adored or feared, rendered invisible or idealised, fantasised and demonised, vengeful and merciful, victims, idols...

The representations of the Feminine across the world and throughout the ages are numerous and fascinatingly paradoxical. Whether they take the form of enchanting creatures with infinite powers, malevolent goddesses or saints, or unfold through the many roles that human society assigns, these archetypal figures always tell a complex, contradictory and infinitely rich story.

With HYSTERÆ, we wanted to go out and meet them, and to listen to the most intimate and buried voices: those of the children we once were, those of long-silenced angers, inherited wounds, muzzled desires and rediscovered potential. We sing to free these presences, to restore them to their rightful place, to accept that they coexist and find balance; tenderness and rage, the creative and destructive force, fragility and power.

Carried by melodies from around the world with surprising stories, original compositions and little-known works by women composers and writers, HYSTERÆ is a crossing, a celebration, a love song and a song of liberation. It is embracing the whole, accepting ambivalence, letting our contradictions dance, and embodying all the women we carry within us.' — Manon Cousin Cipriani, Pauline Langlois de Swarte & Elodie Pont

Les Itinérantes (the Wanderers), a one-of-a-kind female vocal trio, draws its strength from the diversity of its repertoire. Carried by original compositions and arrangements, the three singers perform a cappella songs from all eras in fifty different languages, in a journey through styles, time and space.

Manon Cousin Cipriani, Pauline Langlois de Swarte and Elodie Pont shape a sound with multiple personalities to dress the different musical stories they tell. Gentle, powerful, celestial or earthly, the voices meet, blending forgotten tales with original compositions, in languages sometimes vanished or invented, in a journey where eras intertwine and borders dissolve.

Tracklist

1. La Blanche Biche (Arr. by Manon Cousin Cipriani) — 16th-century French folk song

2. Na Carenza al bel cors avinen (13th-century Occitan song; arr. by Elodie Pont) — Na Carenza, Alais and Yselda (traditional attribution, 12th century)

3. Elle était descendue au bas de la prairie (Arr. by Pauline Langlois de Swarte; Lyrics: Francis Jammes) — Lili Boulanger (1893–1918)

4. Téir Abhaile Riú (Adaptation by Pauline Langlois de Swarte) — Traditional Irish song, David Downes (b. 1975), Caitríona Ní Dhubhghaill (b. 1975), Barry McCrea (b. 1974)

5. Heiemo óg Nykkjen (Arr. by Pauline Langlois de Swarte) — Traditional Norwegian song

6. Cieli, Stelle, Deitadi (Arr. by Elodie Pont; Lyrics: Sig. Cavalier (Giuseppe) Artale) — Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677)

7. Pirtzi, Firtzi — Pauline Langlois de Swarte (b. 1994)

8. Lorelei (Based on the poem by Heinrich Heine) — Manon Cousin Cipriani (b. 1988)

9. Óró, Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile (Arr. by Pauline Langlois de Swarte & Elodie Pont) — Traditional Irish song

10. Mari (Arr. by Pauline Langlois de Swarte; Lyrics: Josu Zubia) — Eva Ugalde (b. 1973)

11. Ashe Oshun (Lucumí prayer to Oshun) — Elodie Pont (b. 1990)

12. Agni Parthene (Arr. by Manon Cousin Cipriani) — Saint Nectarios of Aegina (1846–1920)

13. Durme, durme mi linda Donzella (Arr. by Manon Cousin Cipriani) — Aron Saltiel, Joshua Horowitz

14. La Tisseuse (Lyrics: Manon Cousin Cipriani) — Elodie Pont

15. Aya Meria — Manon Cousin Cipriani

16. Dream Land (Poem by Christina Rossetti) — Pauline Langlois de Swarte

17. O Virtus Sapientiae / وحيدة على شواطئ الأطلسي (Poem by Abbas Amara) — Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179) / Ghalia Benali (b. 1968) (improvisation)