New Release: A Koine Greek Worship Album

GlossaHouse is pleased to announce the release of The Leaves of the Tree, a full-length Koine Greek worship album. This unique project features ten original songs set to lyrics inspired by Scripture, ancient hymns, and writings of the church fathers. The warm acoustic-folk style of the album is carried by the soothing voice of female vocalist, Leaf.

We sat down with Leaf to ask her a few questions about herself, her work as a musician, and her new album. Here’s what she had to say!

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

My name is Hibbe, I’m married to Antonio, we live in the Netherlands, and together we have two small children.

Can you tell us about your musical journey? I’ve been playing music for as long as I can remember. Growing up, we had a little keyboard on which I played by ear with the demos. On the computer, I loved to write short symphonies (I couldn’t read musical notes back then, so I used the letters instead). Above all though, music was a way for me to cope with my feelings and express myself.

Music and nature, especially trees, are two things I love. That’s how the artist name Leaf came about: it refers to the leaves of the tree and, also, to the phonetic pronunciation in Dutch: "lief," which can be translated as sweet or lovely, an undertone in all my songs. Under the name Leaf, I’ve written several songs about life: fun things, sadness, fantasies, disappointments, dreams. I like purity, surrounded by poetic language. You can find more of my songs on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ohK1NwxDxLpWp9itVtVew.

What about your Koine Greek journey?

When I met my husband, I found that he was interested in all kinds of languages, as well as theology. He studied the Bible and asked me if I could add melodies to Bible passages, which would make them easier to remember. I did, and we had a lot of fun singing Colossians together.

A few years back he wanted to be able to read the NT in its original language and found a Koine Greek course at CKI, taught by Michael Halcomb. Though I don’t speak Koine, I overheard some things and thought the language was really poetic and even soothing to listen to when I was restless. Antonio had the idea to add melodies to ancient passages and hymns in Koine. And, that’s how it basically started. It turned out to be more enjoyable to work in Koine than in Dutch, because in Koine many words rhyme well. Antonio looked for the texts, translated them for me, and helped me with the pronunciation. Just reading the texts themselves was a joy, for they’re so lively and poetic. In the album The Leaves of the Tree I tried to find the melodies that do justice to the original intent of the passages.

For those interested in technical specs, what kind of equipment did you and your team use to produce The Leaves of the Tree?

For the production on this album, I’ve used my mic, interface, Audacity audio software, my guitar, my electric piano, and I had someone else play the drums. All the songs were recorded at home, which was quite a challenge with two little kids.

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For a limited time, The Leaves of the Tree will be on sale for 25% off. To listen to portions of the album or to make a purchase, visit Leaf's page on our website at www.glossahouse.com/leaf.