Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble – Mnemosyne (1999) [in FLAC]

Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble – Mnemosyne (1999) [in FLAC]

There´s no need of descriptions here, except the one provided by Hölderlin´s poem, itself the inspiration for this timeless album.

Mnemosyne – Friedrich Hölderlin

“Noi siamo un segno non significante,

Indolore, quasi abbiamo perduto

Nell´esilio il linguaggio.

Davvero quando sopra gli uomini

C´è in cielo una contesa e possenti

Vanno le lune, allora parla il mare

E anche il fiumi debbono cercarsi

Un sentiero. Ma Uno non ha dubbio.

Egli può ogni giorno trasformare.

Appena ha bisogno d´una legge.

La foglia allora suona e querce alitano

Presso i ghiacciai. Non tutto possono

I Celesti. Prima

I mortali raggiungono l´abisso.

Si volge così l´eco insieme a loro.

Lungo è il tempo

Ma il vero avviene.”

Tracklist

Disc 1:

1. Quechua Song (Peruvian Traditional)

2. O Lord, in Thee is all my trust, anthem for 4 voices (Thomas Tallis)

3. Estonian Lullaby (Veljo Tormis)

4. Remember Me My Deir (Robert Edwards’ Commonplace Book) (Scottish Anonymous)

5. Gloria, for 3 voices (also attributed to Hugo de Lantins) (Guillaume Dufay)

6. Fayrfax Africanus (St. Albans)

7. Agnus Dei (Antoine Brumel)

8. Novus novus (French Traditional)

9. Se je fayz dueil, for 3 voices (Guillaume le Rouge)

10. O ignis spiritus Paraclitus, sequence (Hildegard of Bingen)

Disc 2:

1. Alleluia Nativitatis (Christmas Traditional)

2. Delphic Paean (Athenaeus)

3. Strophe and Counter-Strophe (Jan Garbarek)

4. Mascarades (Basque Traditional)

5. Loiterando (Jan Garbarek)

6. Estonian Lullaby (Veljo Tormis)

7. Russian Psalm (Russian Anonymous)

8. Eagle Dance (Native American Traditional)

9. When Jesus Wept, fuging tune (William Billings)

10. Hymn to the Sun (Mesomedes)

The Crew:

Jan Garbarek: Soprano and Tenor Saxophones

& The Hilliard Ensemble:

David James: Countertenor
John Potter: Tenor
Rogers Covey-Crump: Tenor
Gordon Jones: Bariton

Download Here in FLAC: (Part 1), (Part 2), (Part 3) and (Booklet scans)

Buy It Here

Not to miss this year (2010), if you´re in Europe or in the USA:

Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble World Premiere Concert Tour Presenting The New CD Officium Novum

Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble – Officium (1993)

Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble – Officium (1993)

This is immemorial music, both because it is from time immemorial as because it is to last forever. But there´s another immemorial sense in it, and this is due to the fact that it not only brings to the present the music of the past, but because it creates in the present feelings that have belonged to the past, and it does that by introducing so sensitively another voice from the present (Jan) in the middle of a so wonderful and delicate set of “ancient” voices (The Hilliard Ensemble). By doing this, one cannot say anymore that the result is, technically speaking, a historical reconstruction made possible only by the carefull resource of research, deep care, and extreme fidelity, because there´s something new on it, too. And that novelty couldn´t be more loaded with the sense of uniqueness and singularity as it´s presented here, because one cannot find in this set of special sonorities any traces of the mundane, of the evanescent present that lacks the unbearable softness of being. And, despite it´s unbearableness, we crave for it. For it is with music like that that we recover the lost sense of our own timelessness.

Tracklist:

1. Officium Defunctorum, for 4 voices: Parce mihi domine (Cristobal de Morales)

2. Primo tempore (Czech Anonymous)

3. Sanctus (Czech Anonymous)

4. Regnantem sempiterna (Czech Anonymous)

5. O Salutaris Hostia (Pierre de la Rue)

6. Procedentem Sponsum (Anonymous)

7. Pulcherrima rosa (Czech Anonymous)

8. Officium Defunctorum, for 4 voices: Parce mihi domine (Cristobal de Morales)

9. Beata viscera, conductus for solo voice (Magister Perotinus)

10. De Spineto Nata Rosa (Anonymous)

11. Credo (Czech Anonymous)

12. Ave maris stella, hymn for 3 voices (2 versions)  (Guillaume Dufay)

13. Virgo flagellatur (Sarum Chant)

14. Oratio Ieremiae Prophetae (Gregorian Chant)

15. Officium Defunctorum, for 4 voices: Parce mihi domine (Cristobal de Morales)

The Crew:

Jan Garbarek: soprano and tenor saxophones

The Hilliard Ensemble:

David James: Countertenor
Steven Harrold: Tenor
Rogers Covey-Crump: Tenor
Gordon Jones: Bariton

Download Here

Buy It Here

To Andrea: Not to miss this year (2010), if you´re in Europe or in the USA:

Jan Garbarek & The Hilliard Ensemble World Premiere Concert Tour Presenting The New CD Officium Novum

Jan Garbarek, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan & Musicians From Pakistan – Ragas And Sagas (1992)

Jan Garbarek, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan & Musicians From Pakistan – Ragas And Sagas (1992)

This is a must! Every time I thought of building a blog to share my personal preferences, Ragas and Sagas was always the album I had in mind to share you with. This is world music in its best, that is, it not only brings about traditional instruments, musicians, spiritualities and rare sonorities, often gathered far off where the Occidental influence had not arrived yet, at least in the musical sphere, but it also recreates and mingles that kind of popular ambience with the use of more Occidental instruments, artists and atmospheres, like the Norwegian Jan Garbarek´s special use of the saxophone. Jan brings his instruments into a variety of registers, ranging from sharp melodic lines that pierce vitally into our senses penetratingly like the small, precise needles  of acupunture that works out to create body & soul energetic equilibrium, to the more bold and plain textures, warm monophonic graves that recreates the lythurgical feelings of what might have been the medieval hymns and chants of Gregorian music, but which can be found also in the repertoire of other musical traditions, especially those cultures where a special place is given to meditative practices, like the Chinese and the Hindu. Beside these feelings of balance that are directly convened to the listener, there´s also in Ragas and Sagas something of a somewhat disturbing path. As a matter of fact, a neophyte could easily have the impression – faux, or only apparent, nevertheless – that the drive given especially by Garbarek´s use of delicate but very acute notes in some passages could be a disarranging instead of a rearranging personal experience. But what actually happens is that this same displeasing sensations are a necessary step on an ecstatic journey to the appropriate accomplishment of a truly ritual experience, the very basis and true context of such kind of music, the same that one must keep in mind when listening to the present recording if one wants  to fully appreciate all its marvellous  and rare potentialities.

Tracklist:

01. Raga I (8:40)
02. Saga (5:26)
03. Raga II (13:05)
04. Raga III (11:53)
05. Raga IV (12:46)

The Crew:

Ustad Fateh Ali Khan : Voice
Jan Garbarak: Soprano,Tenor Saxophones
Ustad Shaukat Hussain: Tabla
Ustad Nazim Ali Khan: Sarangi
Deepika Thathaal: Voice
Manu Katche: Drums

Download Here (mp3)

Or in FLAC Here: (Part 1), (Part 2) and (Part 3) – password: ragas

Buy It Here

Jaco Pastorius – Word Of Mouth (1981)

Jaco Pastorius – Word Of Mouth (1981)

This is a very special momento for me, as I share this album with you. Word Of Mouth is the last full album Jaco recorded before he died in stupid ways in a bar fight with a stupid jerk, still in his 30´s. One can just imagine what he could have done if he had not died so young, because besides his solo projects he already had an intense and solid participation on the Weather Report band.  Actually this is the album through which I was first acquainted with Jaco´s works. Curiously enough, I owned the vinil of the album, but was never able to rehear it since my vinil player broke and I just couldn´t find it in the net, until now! So I´m sharing it with you girls and guys at the exactly same time that I am able to hear it again, after almost 15 years! So put on your best headphones, and enjoy it…

Tracklist:

1. Crisis

2. 3 Views of a Secret

3. Liberty City

4. Chromatic Phantasy (Jaco Pastorius, after Johann Sebastian Bach)

5. Blackbird (Jaco Pastorius, after John Lennon)

6. Word of Mouth

7. John and Mary

The Crew:

Don Alias, Jack DeJohnette, Peter Clark Erskine, Herbert Jeffrey Hancock, Paul Hornmuller, Othello Molineaux, Robert Thomas Jr., Leroy Williams, David Bargeron, Roger Bobo, John Clark, David Duke, Bobby Findley, Chuck Findley, Peter Gordon, Tommy Johnson, William Lane, Charles Loper, Waren Luening, Lew McCreary, Jim Pugh, William Reichenbach, Jeff Reynolds, David Taylor, Brad Warnaar, Snooky Young, Michael Brecker, David Breidenthal, Robert Cowart, Howard Johnson, Hubert Laws, Lorin Levee, Tom Scott, Wayne Shorter, Toots Thielemans, James Walker, David Weiss, George Young, Jim Gilstrap, John Lehman, Edie Lehmann, Myrna Matthews, Marti McCall, Petsye Powell, Alfie Silas, Zedric Turnbough, and others…

Download Here – password: fucksarko

Buy It Here

The Official Web Site Of The World´s Greatest Bass Player

John Dowland – In Darkness Let Me Dwell

From the Booklet:

A fascinating project initiated by Hilliard Ensemble tenorist John Potter with producer Manfred Eicher, which re-examines the beautiful songs of the great sixteenth century composer from a present-day perspective. Potter: “This is the first time anyone’s approached Dowland not from an ‘early music’ angle, but simply as music. We’re working with Dowland as though he were still with us.” The subject matter of the songs, with despair and ‘alienation’ uppermost, is entirely pertinent for our times, and the exceptional ensemble ranged around John Potter restores an improvisational flexibility to the music.

“The essential impulses of music are song and dance, and the great examples of each always feel ‘contemporary’. And it is songs and dances, rather than the larger structures that they can sustain, that were exactly the province of John Dowland: he brought to them a degree of art – visionary directness and skilful subtlety – which makes them timeless. His songs with accompaniment not only speak to us as poignantly as song ever can, but also opened the way to the development of the 19th century lied and mélodie, while his body of music for viols and lute cultivates qualities of texture and expressiveness that make it a major early landmark of chamber music.

Again, it speaks as directly to us as any later chamber music, shortcircuiting any sense of chronology. So on both counts, Dowland belongs to the group of artistic giants born in the 16th century – among them Monteverdi, Gesualdo, Schütz, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Velázquez – who fashioned the genres and set the standards for our creative world, with implications that we are still working through four centuries later.

The concerns behind Dowland’s music remain our own – all those tears point to his age’s preoccupation with ‘melancholy’, mirroring our preoccupation with ‘depression’, while European divisions of religion and politics caused him to spend many years of exile from England in Italy, Germany and Denmark, making him an artist fuelled by a sense of what we now think as ‘alienation’. What his age knew, and we sometimes lose sight of, is that meditating on a beautiful expression of sadness can help to provide a thoroughly uplifting sense of consolation.” -Robert White

John Dowland – In Darkness Let Me Dwell: Potter, Stubbs, Surman, Homburger, Guy.

Tracklist:
1. Weep You No More
2. Sad Fountains
3. In Darkness Let Me Dwell
4. Lachrimae Verae
5. From Silent Night
6. The Lowest Trees Have Tops
7. Flow My Tears
8. Come Heavy Sleep
9. Fine Knacks For Ladies
10. Flow My Tears
11. Now, Oh Now I Needs Must Part
12. Lachrimae Tristes
13. Go Crystal tears
14. Lachrimae Amantis

John Potter: tenor
Maya Homburger: baroque violin
Stephen Stubbs: lute
John Surman: soprano saxophone and bass clarinet
Barry Guy: double-bass

Download Here (Part 1) and Here (Part 2)

Buy It Here

Jaco Pastorius – Jaco Pastorius (1976)

Jaco Pastorius – Jaco Pastorius (1976) [Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered]

This is a one changing mind record. After hearing Mister Pastorius plays the bass, you will never forget how he does it. He´s one of the first idols I had in my teenager years, more than 25 years ago, and still remains today, after many of them had faded into obscurity during the long and painfull process of maturation. Due to people like him, I started to pay attention more closely to music, to the beautiful and delicate ways it can surprise and marvel us. To an anxious and agitated aborrescent, this is quite an accomplishment. To have a better idea of what Jaco´s style represented, see what Pat Metheny says about him on the booklet of the present album´s reissue:

“jaco pastorius may well have been the last jazz musician of the 20th century to have made a major impact on the musical world at large. everywhere you go, sometimes it seems like a dozen times a day, in the most unlikely places you hear jaco’s sound; from the latest tv commercial to bass players of all stripes copping his licks on recordings of all styles, from news broadcasts to famous rock and roll bands, from hip hop samples to personal tribute records, you hear the echoes of that unmistakable sound everywhere.“

Tracklist:

01. Donna Lee (C. Parker) – 2:28
02. Come On, Come Over (J. Pastorius, B. Herzog) – 3:52
03. Continuum (J. Pastorius) – 4:33
04. Kuru / Speak Like A Child (J. Pastorius, H. Hancock) – 7:42
05. Portrait Of Tracy (J. Pastorius) – 2:22
06. Opus Pocus (J. Pastorius) – 5:29
07. Okonkole Y Trompa (J. Pastorius, D. Alias) – 4:25
08. (Used To Be A) Cha-cha (J. Pastorius) – 8:57
09. Forgotten Love (J. Pastorius) – 2:14
10. (Used To Be A) Cha-cha (alternate take) (J. Pastorius) – 8:49
11. 6/4 Jam (previously unreleased) (J. Pastorius) – 7:45

The Band:

Jaco Pastorius: electric bass
Herbie Hancock & Alex Darqui: keyboards
Randy Brecker & Ron Tooley: trumpet
Peter Graves: bass trombone
Wayne Shorter: soprano sax
David Sanborn: alto sax
Michael Brecker: tenor sax
Howard Johnson: baritone sax
Lenny White, Narada Michael Walden & Bobby Economou: drums
Don Alias: percussion
Sam Moore & Dave Pratter: vocals
Othello Molineaux & Leroy Williams: steel drums on “Opus Pocus”
Peter Gordon: french horn on “Okonkole Y Trompa”
Hubert Laws: piccolo, flute on “(Used To Be A) Cha-Cha”
+ strings on “Speak Like A Child” & “Forgotten Love”

Download Here (320kbps + full cover scans) – password (if required): fucksarko

Buy It Here

The Official Web Site Of The World´s Greatest Bass Player

Die Verbannten Kinder Eva’s – In Darkness Let Me Dwell

Die Verbannten Kinder Eva’s – In Darkness Let Me Dwell (1998)

This album brings dark, melancholic, and calm ambient tunes forged by the use of synthetizers, sometimes accompanied by a soft martial beat or delivering stone castle and vampiresque melodies, while the lyrics drink the substance of the poetry of John Dowland and Percy Bysshe Shelley, which are sung by an enchanted deep female and a grave bold male vocal.

Tracklist:

01. Intro
02. Brief Even As Bright
03. On A Faded Violet
04. Overpast
05. Cease Sorrows Now
06. In Darkness Let Me Dwell
07. Shall I Strive
08. Arise From Dreams Of Thee
09. From Silent Night

Download Here – password: schlagz

Buy It Here

Die Verbannten Kinder Eva’s on MySpace