BITOI is a bass-voice hybrid. The Swedish-Danish ensemble features award-winning composer, electric bass player, and producer Cassius Lambert, alongside a choir:
The group performs in a quartet format with Cassius Lambert (SE) on bass and three vocalists, chosen from a rotating lineup: Alexandra Shabo (SE), Lise Kroner (DK), Anja Tietze Lahrmann (DK), Ella Cronberg (SE), and Lydia Cronberg (SE). Their name—Bass Is The Original Instrument—nods to Joan La Barbara’s 1976 record Voice Is The Original Instrument, mirroring Cassius’s exploration of the bass as the “first” instrument, in dialogue with the original: the voice.
However small, BITOI crafts a lush timbre: full-bodied yet agile. With piercing clarity, the female trio interlock bite and softness in a firm grip. They “sing with equal power and precision, in evocative voices—devotional, as in an ancient choir” (Sydsvenskan), delivering a “genuinely soul-cleansing performance” (Crack Magazine). For lyrics, they use phonetically transcribed bird songs, evoking “a folkloric sound as timeless as it is utterly unfamiliar” (The Wire).
Born two years ago as a commission from Inkonst, the project premiered at Intonal 2023. Since then, they have performed at festivals such as Roskilde, Le Guess Who?, Rewire, Clandestino, Spot, Paesaggi Sonori, Stanser Musiktage, and Babel XP, reaching audiences in more than ten countries within two years. They released their debut EP – O – in 2023 on Kaprifol Records, followed by their first full-length album Sirikulu in 2025 on Supertraditional Records. Along the way, they were named Newcomer of the Year at both Folk och Världsmusikgalan and DMA Roots, and toured Japan, collaborating with Okinawan musician Aragaki Mutsumi.
BITOI embodies Cassius’s miximalism, a way of flipping minimalism on its head: instead of stripping things down to bare bones, Cassius packs maximum detail and expression into a minimal framework. It’s about carving gold out of every tiny sound, layering complexity in a sparse setup. With BITOI, this means lush choral textures and quarter-tone twists balanced on the lean structure of bass and voice alone—no drums, no excess—just focused, hyper-detailed sound that feels both intimate and grand. A finely tuned play of extended vocal techniques, polyrhythms, and prepared textures—minimalism pushed to its richest edge.
Cassius Lambert - Bass Guitar, Composition
Alternating singers:
Alexandra Shabo (SE)
Anja Tietze Lahrmann (DK)
Lydia Cronberg (SE)
Ella Cronberg (SE)
Based in Sweden/Denmark
LINK TO CV
2 May BOK, Odsherred, Denmark
27 May, TBA, Malmö, Sweden
19 June Sagrantino Wine & peformance, Gualdo Cattaneo, Italy
26 June BAO Music Festival, Brescia, Italy
2 July TBA, Leria, Portugal
4 July LES BEAUX JOURS, Nantes, France
11 July, TBA, Oxie, Sweden
16 July Sajeta festival, Tolmin, Slovenia
18 July Øhavet Festival, Marstal Havn, Denmark
26 July, WOMAD, Wiltshire, England
2 December, Jazzhus Montmartre, Copenhagen, Denmark
5 December, Afternoon Jazz, Kristianstad, Sweden
2026
31 January HUSET-KBH, Copenhagen, Denmark
4 February Victoriateatern, Malmö, Sweden,
14 February Sottencopa, Napoli, Italy
4 April Under the rug, Oslo, Norway
23 April Jazzahead, Bremen, Germany
24 April Jazzahead, Bremen, Germany
2025
March 13 Release Concert Inkonst, Malmö, Sweden
March 20 Babel Music XP, Marseille, France
April 4 Rewire, The Hauge, Netherlands
April 5 Rewire, The Hauge, Netherlands
April 12 Odsherred BOK, Nykøbing Denmark
1 May Gellerup Højskole, Brabrand, Denmark
May 3 Roots & Hybrid, Aarhus Denmark
May 10 Skissernas Museum, Lund, Sweden
May 31 Ställbergs Gruva, Kopparberg, Sweden
June 7 Uddebo byfest, Uddebo, Sweden
July 2 Kunsten, Aalborg, Denmark
July 18 Terna, Sula, Norway
July 24 Beijers Parks Café, Beijers Park, Malmö, Sweden
July 25 Secolare Festival, Corato, Italy
July 27 Sinsal, Virgo, Spain
August 8 Way Out West, Gothenburg, Sweden
August 9 Jazz & Glass, Flen, Sweden
August 16 Cph Opera Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
August 22 Phre Festival, Munich, Germany
August 24 Teatr Leśny, Gdansk, Poland
September 26 Opera Di Santa Croce, Genius Loci, Florence, Italy
September 27 Chimera Fest, Casertavecchia, Italy
3 October Cinema Sala Pegasus, Factory Festival, Spoleto, Italy
4 October, Teatro Comunale Luciano Pacarotti, Modena, Italy
19 October Stockholm Jazz Festival, Debaser Strand, Stockholm, Sweden
25 October, WOMEX, Tampere, Finland
2024
February 3 Tranemo Jazzdagar, Tranemo, Sweden
March 3 Lumen Project, Stockholm, Sweden
March 6 Moriska Paviljongen, Malmö, Sweden
March 29 Turkis, Aarhus, Denmark
April 7 ALICE, Copenhagen, Denmark
April 10 Stanser Musiktage, Stans, Switzerland
April 11 Import Export, Munich, Germany
April 13 Unterton, Treibhaus, Innsbruck, Austria
April 14 Atrium Žižkov, Prague, Czech Republic
July 2 Roskilde Festival, Roskilde, Denmark
July 5 Clandestino, Larv, Vägs ände, Sweden
July 6 Clandestino (Filmstudion 1), Gothenburg, Sweden
July 7 Clandestino, Tossene Kyrka, Sweden
July 14 Half Die Festival, Rome, Italy
July 19 Anfiteatro del Venda, Padova, Italy
July 21 Paesaggi Sonori, Abruzzo, Italy
August 2 Urkult, Näsåker, Sweden
September 4 Hokage, Osaka, Japan
September 5 Socrates, Kyoto, Japan
September 7 Asagaya Tabasa, Tokyo, Japan
September 8 Sakurazaka Theater (with Aragaki Mutsumi), Naha, Japan
September 9 Polaris, Tokyo, Japan
September 21 Oto-Ichiba (with Aragaki Mutsumi), Okinawa City, Japan
October 2 Fasching, Stockholm, Sweden
November 9 Resonator Festival, Odense, Denmark
2023
April 30 Intonal, Malmö, Sweden
August 13 Malmöfestivalen, Malmö, Sweden
August 29 The Conference, Malmö, Sweden
August 30 The Conference, Malmö, Sweden
November 12 Le Guess Who?, Utrecht, Netherlands
Vilda Mormor och Kapten Noelia (2025)
Collaborated with the production company Heart Archive to compose and record original music and sound design for the children’s show “Vilda Mormor och Kapten Noelia”
Co-composed 40 minutes of original music with Okinawan musician Mutsumi Aragaki, which we later toured across Okinawa. During this tour, we also collaborated with Manami Kakudo.
Composed orginal music for Yasmina Karli Malmstens monumental sculpture “Systrar i Sten” (13x6x6m). Part of the exhibition Omfamnad at Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in stockholm.
Sirkulu
(2025)
-O-
(2023)
(2023)
Bandcamp
Apple Music
Spotify
BITOI - PA-SI-PA (Live Sunnanå)
(2025)
Band:
Cassius Lambert - Bass
Alexandra Shabo - Voice
Anja Tietze Lahrmann - Voice
Lise Kroner - Voice
Art director:
Daniela Doe
Recording engineer:
Markus Nilsson
Recording, mixing, mastering
Markus Nilsson, Sunnanå Studios
Video:
Marcus Lundgren, ML Productions
Cassius Lambert - Bass
Alexandra Shabo - Voice
Anja Tietze Lahrmann - Voice
Lise Kroner - Voice
Art director:
Daniela Doe
Recording engineer:
Markus Nilsson
Recording, mixing, mastering
Markus Nilsson, Sunnanå Studios
Video:
Marcus Lundgren, ML Productions
BITOI- SEKOMITSE (Live Inkonst, Blackbox)
(2025)
(2025)
Band
Band:
Cassius Lambert - Bass
Alexandra Shabo - Voice
Anja Tietze Lahrmann - Voice
Lise Kroner - Voice
Art director:
Daniela Doe
Light Technician:
Ronnie Källback
Recording engineer:
Markus Nilsson
Recording, mixing, mastering
Markus Nilsson, Sunnanå Studios
Video:
Marcus Lundgren, ML Productions
Copenhagen, Denmark
Photo: Ida Guldbæk Arentsen
Inkonst, Malmö, Sweden
Photo: Alexandra Grigorean
Den Haag, Netherlands
Photo: Justine Ellul
Stockholm, Sweden
Photo: Olga Androsova
Abruzzo, Italy
Photo: Fabrizio Giammarco
Tossene, Sweden
Photo: Leonardo Taddei
Modena, Italy
Rolando P Guerzoni
Oslo, Norway
Photo: Sofia Lambrou
Selected Quotes:
"The three women's voices are unreal, gliding together in an alien harmony, trilling and tapping their throats to achieve a warbling effect. Singing in this ancient avian language, transposed for human ears, BITOI evokes a folkloric sound as timeless as it is utterly unfamiliar." - The Wire (UK)
“A genuinely soul-cleansing performance.” - Crack Magazine (UK)
“With their blend of ethereal vocals, bass, and electronics, BITOI (Bass Is
the Original Instrument) conjures a sound that feels both ancient yet
completely new, marrying operatic grandiosity with intimacy and
warmth.” - Bandcamp (US)
“Overall, Bitoi is a free-thinking and wide-open musical project that impresses with its intimate and atmospheric expressions”. - Lira (SE)
“BITOI is, in the end, the story of a prodigious metamorphosis: of women who became birds, and of a man who transformed into a bass string”. - L’indiependente (IT)
“However, with BITOI we never feel threatened or unsettled; on the contrary, we are warmly received by the friendliness they display on stage, even if there is also a sense of strangeness—and it is precisely within that vertigo that processes of discovery take place”. - Rimas e Batidas (PT)
Links: