Thursday 23 April 2020

Songs for sax and voices

Songs for sax and voices

Who remembers the 1994 ECM Records album Officium? The legendary producer Manfred Eicher brought jazz and experimental saxophonist Jan Garbarek together with early music vocal group the Hilliard Ensemble: the collaboration became a world hit. 

These sacred 13th -16th century songs float upwards and reverberate in the acoustics of an Austrian monastery, seemingly suspended in space, while Garbarek improvises, meandering around and through these vocals with subtle, brilliant and mysterious colours. The whole takes us out of this world, to some other level. Listening again after twenty-five years, I found myself entranced, inspired to improvise my own clouds of multi-layered watercolour. 
 
Watercolour 68 x 50 cm. And below a close-up 

3 comments:

  1. Wonderful image of sound and space, or actually sound in space..!

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  2. Two directions, one up to heaven, one down to earth. Beautifully connected through colour and sound. Great.

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  3. The notes of a saxophone floating upward. Quite lovely.

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