"It was a spine-tingling coup-de-théâtre that set the tone for a mesmeric hour and a half.   Each piece, each experiment with moving voices around in the space of the building, built on the previous one, until the concert ended with the sheer perfection of the 17th-century Scottish lament Remember Me My Dear gradually receding into silence."
The Times Oct 2010

"It's hard to think of music more suited to the new age of austerity: a soundtrack to snow, heartbreak, devotion and sacrifice. The remarkable combination of human voice and astringent, often skirling saxophone remains as haunting as when the group's debut album unexpectedly sold 1.5 million copies 16 years ago."
The Daily Telegraph Oct 2010

OFFICIUM NOVUM

The inspired bringing together of Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble has resulted in consistently inventive music making since 1993. The unprecedented Officium album, with Garbarek’s saxophone as a free-ranging ‘fifth voice’ with the Ensemble, gave the first indications of the musical scope and emotional power of this combination. Mnemosyne (1998) took the story further, expanding the repertoire beyond ‘early music’ to embrace works both ancient and modern.

Now, after another decade of shared experiences, comes Officium Novum, the third album from Garbarek/Hilliard, recorded, like its distinguished predecessors, in the St Gerold monastery. A central focus this time is music of Armenia based on the adaptations of Komitas Vardapet, pieces which draw upon both medieval sacred music and the bardic tradition of the Caucasus. The Hilliards have studied these pieces in the course of their visits to Armenia, and the modes of the music encourage some of Garbarek’s most impassioned playing. Alongside the Armenian pieces in the Officium Novum  repertoire:  Arvo Pärt’s Most Holy Mother of God in an a cappella reading , Byzantine chant,  two pieces by Jan Garbarek, including a new version of We are the stars, as well as the Spanish Tres morillas. There is also a new account of Perotin’s Alleluia, Nativitas: the freedom of interpretation is testimony to the way the project as a whole has grown since its introduction on ECM New Series, with the Hilliard Ensemble now very much involved in the music’s improvisational processes and implications.

In the last eighteen years Garbarek and The Hilliard Ensemble have given hundreds of concerts in many of the most beautiful cathedrals and churches of the world and each one is unique. In the concert performances of Officium Novum the musicians draw their material largely from the disc but the programme content and order is never quite decided upon until the performers reach the venue and let the building – the sixth voice – speak to them.

JAN GARBAREK

Nobody plays the saxophone quite like Jan Garbarek. His sound has become an unmistakable trademark and this sound for some time now has acquired another dimension than what is generally understood as jazz.  Innumerable record releases, concerts in the most significant concert-halls throughout the world, the many years he collaborated with Keith Jarrett or his unprecedented work with the Hilliard Ensemble have made this unique saxophonist popular across all musical genres and borders. It has never been of any interest to him that critics need to find convenient labels to sort people out into musical categories. Garbarek eludes this attempt. You find his work in jazz, classical and pop charts. Since the early days of the Munich cult label ECM he has been one of its most successful representatives.

The sound alone certainly does not make the music. In his compositions and improvisations Jan Garbarek is a master of unbelievable tuneful music that cuts right into our soul. Expansive sound spaces stretch from absolute tranquillity to expressive rapture, radiating an astounding sense of peace that however does not allow a moment of boredom. His concerts develop in a highly organic manner providing a wide ark of rising tension. This music breathes and provides space to breathe. This music sounds simple and complex at the same time. This music is hymnal and sparse, playful and serious, immersed and exceptionally open, intense rather than sentimental.

Currently, Garbarek’s touring activities are split primarily between his work with the Garbarek Group which features Trilok Gurtu and with the Officium Novum project.

THE HILLIARD ENSEMBLE

countertenor   DAVID JAMES
tenor   ROGERS COVEY-CRUMP
tenor   STEVEN HARROLD
baritone   GORDON JONES

Unrivalled for its formidable reputation in the fields of both early and new music, The Hilliard Ensemble is one of the world's finest vocal chamber groups. Its distinctive style and highly developed musicianship engage the listener as much in medieval and renaissance repertoire as in works specially written by living composers.

The group’s standing as an early music ensemble dates from the 1980s with its series of successful recordings for EMI (many of which have been re-released on Virgin) and its own mail-order record label Hilliard LIVE, now available on the Coro label; but from the start it has paid equal attention to new music. The 1988 recording of Arvo Pärt’s Passio began a fruitful relationship with both Pärt and the Munich-based record company ECM, and was followed by their recording of Pärt’s Litany. The group has recently commissioned other composers from the Baltic States, including Veljo Tormis and Erkki-Sven Tüür, adding to a rich repertoire of new music from Gavin Bryars, Heinz Holliger, John Casken, James MacMillan, Elena Firsova and many others.

In addition to many a cappella discs, collaborations for ECM include most notably Officium and Mnemosynewith the Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, a partnershipwhich continues to develop and renew itself, and Morimur with the German Baroque violinist Christoph Poppen and soprano Monika Mauch. Based on the research of Prof. Helga Thoene, this is a unique interweaving of Bach’s Partita in D minor for solo violin with a selection of Chorale verses crowned by the epic Ciaconna, in which instrumentalist and vocalists are united.

The group continues in its quest to forge relationships with living composers, often in an orchestral context. In 1999, they premiered Miroirs des Temps by Unsuk Chin with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Kent Nagano. In the same year, James MacMillan’s Quickening, commissioned jointly by the BBC and the Philadelphia Orchestra, was premiered at the BBC Proms. With Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic, they performed the world premiere of Stephen Hartke’s 3^rd Symphony which was subsequently premiered in Europe by the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern and Christoph Poppen. They have also collaborated with the Munich Chamber Orchestra with a new work by Erkki-Sven Tüür. In 2007 they joined forces with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra to premiere Nunc Dimittis by the Russian composer Alexander Raskatov, also recording this for ECM. In 2009 they joined forces with the Arditti Quartet for a sunbstantial new work, Et Lux by Wolfgang Rihm.

A new development for the group began in August 2008 with the premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival of a music theatre project written by Heiner Goebbels in a production by the Théâtre Vidy, Lausanne: I went to the house but did not enter. This has subsequently been presented throughout Europe and the US and in early 2011 will premiere in Korea and then at the Prague Spring Festival.

Highlights of their 2010/2011 season includes the release and launch concerts of their third collaboration with Jan Garbarek on the ECM label, namely Officium Novum. The group touring extensively in Europe with Garbarek. The composer Alexander Raskatov features highly in their planning, and performances of his Obikhod and Nunc Dimmittis are scheduled with the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and the Basel Symphony Orchestra respectively.