Product Description

Migration of peoples across borders has shaped the human experience for millennia. While securing permanent shelter-a home-has become a goal for the majority of individuals in our world, migration remains one of our main strategies for survival. Today, tens of millions of individuals live a nomadic lifestyle as hunter gatherers or pastoralists. Pilgrims seek moral or spiritual significance through extended physical journeys. Immigrants and refugees seek freedom, stability, and safety in a new community or country. Whether physical or metaphysical, humanity survives by way of continuous movement-our culture, beliefs, and histories are marked by impermanence. Music functions as a container of meaning, a vehicle we have used for centuries to express and grapple with the ineffable. We want to capture music-to write it down with a notation that clearly defines and preserves our musical ideas for generations to come. Yet, we have struggled to create a collection of symbols that can fully express our intentions-intentions that go far beyond pitch and rhythm. With this evolution came an ever-expanding musical vocabulary, new levels of complexity, and an increased desire to prescribe performance practices with the pen. But music resists this containment-the possibilities precede and outlast the technology that seeks to write them down. The repertoire on this album is rife with symbolism and metaphor that further teases out concepts of impermanence, migration, and the transient nature of musical language. From the wordless vocalises of Takemitsu's Windhorse depicting Tibetan nomads, to the 12th century polyphony of the Codex Calixtinus sung by pilgrims traveling along the Camino de Santiago, to the dramatic shifts of polyphonic style seen in the 15th century motets of Du Fay and the Turin Manuscript, to Peter Gilbert's contemporary meditation on the phases of the moon-temporality is a common and unmistakable thread

Review

This first recording by the Boston-based Lorelei Ensemble for Sono Luminus displays a stunning precision of harmony and intonation, and often spectacular virtuosity in music that has accompanied and reflected 'our changing cultures, beliefs, and histories' -- from a 12th-century songbook used by pilgrims travelling along the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain, via Peter Gilbert's eight short exquisite movements, to Japanese poems celebrating the full moon, and in audiophile sound no less.
Guillaume Dufay dominates an imaginative programme. Working from Alejandro Planchart's new 'Opera omnia' edition at the University of Oxford, artistic director Beth Willer and Lorelei respond to four motets with the radiance of liberated joy, like unlocking the secrets to ancient charms: the strange ectasy of 'O proles Hispanie' or their appropriately glorious 'Apostolo glorioso'.
Then there is the hypnotic intricacy of excerpts from the 15th-century Turin Codex, with a curiously sing-song 'Sanctus in eternis regnans' and a warmth of humanity in 'Pour ce que point'. There is an emotional intensity to everything Lorelei sing; even the two meandering Vocalises from Takemitsu's 'Windhorse' -- depicting Tibetan nomads and otherwise incongruously inconsequential - tug at the heart with tender folk-song memories.
The sound has wonderful spatial dimensions and an airy quality. Beth Willer's invaluable booklet notes are academically focused yet absorbing all the same for the context they set and the philosophical depths they suggest. --Laurence Vittes / Gramophone

Speaking of ''utterly gorgeous''... Impermanence, the third album by the Boston-based, all-female Lorelei Ensemble, has consistently rendered me verklempt since it was released in September. The group's angelic singing and probing interpretations of works both ancient and modern makes for instantly affecting listening. --WQXR's ''The Best Classical Albums of 2018''

• Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.51 x 4.92 x 0.35 inches; 3.17 ounces
• Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Sono Luminus
• Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2018
• Date First Available ‏ : ‎ July 25, 2018
• Label ‏ : ‎ Sono Luminus
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 2