The artist who saves the forests of Romania with the help of music has new project in the country, funded by Cambridge University

Known on the music scene as DJ / Producer Nico de Transilvania, Nicoleta Cărpineanu has dedicated her international career to a cause that concerns us all: the revitalization and conservation of forests in Romania, considered the “green lung of Europe”. In the last two years, dozens of artists around the world have joined her initiatives, contributing to a large-scale planting operation, through which approximately 100,000 trees will be bequeathed to future generations. Her music, a mix of electronic rhythms and elements collected from folklore, gives voice to the forests and unites people on the dance floor. The story of the artist who has lived in the UK for over 20 years, dedicating her art to the country’s forests, continues in 2022 with a creative residency funded by Cambridge University and supported by AFCN, in which a whole team of British producers will collaborate with rhapsodists and musicians from Nucșoara commune.

In a world where the love of country and respect for tradition have become tools used excessively in the construction of populist discourses, thousands of miles away, Nico de Transilvania puts her music in the service of revitalizing and protecting the place she will always consider at home. She has lived in Brighton for the past 20 years, but grew up in Romania. She spent her childhood at the edge of the forest, with her grandmother Rozalia, in Ortelec, a small village near Zalău. Here, Nico learned the unwritten rules of living with nature. She discovered her passion for music and dance at an early age, exploring Balkan styles, swing, blues and Latin rhythms since adolescence. It didn’t take long for her to fall in love with electronic music and stand out on the international stage. In 1998 she began her studies in the UK, learned to mix and became an ambassador of global electronic music, combining dance beats with the traditional sounds of folklore around the world.

A global artist who celebrates her Romanian roots through music, DJ Nico de Transilvania promotes popular art on the big stages of the world. With each project she signs, she returns home to extract songs, sounds and sayings transmitted live from mother to daughter, then translating them into the music of a new generation. From clubs in Brighton, to the Dubai Art Fair, from the Reykjavík International Film Festival to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in India, the USA, Australia, Austria, Germany, France and Greece, her mixes set the world in motion. “I like to combine music from all over the world, so that each person can be found in one way or another. And this to create a unity between people, because regardless of culture or religion, we all have a place on the dance floor “, explains the artist.

Music saves the forest

For DJ and producer Nico de Transilvania, the forest is not only a source of inspiration, but also the cause that motivates her to create. After setting up her own production company in 2018, Music Without Frontiers, a project that combines two musical elements that represent it – folklore and electronic music, she started working on her first album. Accompanied by a whole team of specialists, she returned home and toured the Carpathians, met rhapsodists and local artists, with whom she recorded live traditional musical elements and composed from scratch BE ONE, the electronic music album inspired by them. Out of a desire to return to the community all the support she received in her artistic development, Nico founded Forests Without Frontiers, a charitable initiative dedicated to planting trees and reforesting degraded landscapes, with the support of a network of artists and musicians, as well as businesses and stakeholders to get involved in nature conservation.

The funds raised from the album’s release were redirected to the planting of the first 15,000 trees in November 2019. Her initiative had important ambassadors such as Russel Brand, Stephen Fry, Francesca Martinez and Adam Freeland. They all joined the cause of reviving the virgin forests, giving a new chance to the deforested areas. Jamie Catto, co-founder of the British band Faithless, described Nico de Transilvania as “an alchemist who transforms the shadows of Romania’s forgotten forests into music and unity”. With funds raised from around the world, Forests Without Frontiers (FWF) has planted 85,000 trees in Romania and over 5,000 trees in the UK. The planting actions in the country were carried out in collaboration with the Foundation Conservation Carpathia, which will protect and care for the trees, in order to leave a legacy to future generations. At the beginning of this year, Nico de Transilvania was appointed Ambassador of the Făgăraș Mountains.

“Support the Forests Without Frontiers mission to plant a million trees by 2025! I’m proud to be a tiny pine needle or acorn in this giant and wonderful project ”, actor Stephen Fry emphasizes in his message of support. Properly afforested actions, as implemented by the FWF, with native species planted in areas inaccessible to loggers, are an important element in reducing the carbon footprint, bringing many benefits to the Community as well, by creating places for work, protecting biodiversity and stimulating ecotourism.

The story of the Be One album, recorded with 20 musicians from across the country and the UK .

A creative residency funded by Cambridge University and AFCN, organized next year in Nucșoara

The artist’s plans for 2022 aim at developing a new music project, which in the spring will bring to Nucșoara, in Argeș County, a whole team of producers and sound engineers from Great Britain, who will collaborate with local photographers and videographers in a funded residency by Cambridge University and AFCN. One of the protagonists of the project that will combine musical creation with film and photography will be Silvia Dan, one of the old women who live in Nucșoara, with a special voice and special songs. Nico met her in 2020, when she organized Music for Earth, an online event through which she raised funds for planting actions, jobs and food boxes for 51 elderly people from Nucșoara commune. The preparatory stage of the project began this year, with the composition of the team and the identification of the artists involved.

“The preservation of the environment is intrinsically linked to the protection of traditions, instruments and folklore. If we lose the forests, we lose the communities there, their popular culture is wasted. Both the forests and the traditions need our protection, of all of us”, the artist emphasizes.

The common goal of the projects she coordinates is to bring nature back to life, bringing people back to the heart of nature. “Be the voice of the forest!” is the message of her initiative, which aims to attract artists, brands and companies interested in making a valuable contribution to the environment, financially supporting planting actions. In December 2021, the artist also registered a Romanian branch of the NGO Forests Without Frontiers, in order to offer supporters in the country the opportunity to get actively involved in these projects. In 2022, outside the budget, from her own resources, Nico proposed to register at UCMR all the rhapsodists and musicians in the area in which she had access, so that they and their descendants have rights over the creations they sign.