Voxfire - Fontis (2019)

FONTIS represents a novel collaboration across ten centuries between artists, genres, and technologies. In 13 tracks, words and music from the chapels, courts, and countrysides of medieval Spain and France travel forward in time to share the limelight with contemporary jazz, rock, folk, and classical music. Each song inhabits its own sound world, enhanced by computer processing, loops, and the latest in recording studio techniques and effects. Fontis is performed by VOXFIRE — an ensemble comprising vocalists Samela Aird Beasom, Christen Herman, and Susan Judy, and composer/arrangers and instrumentalists Nick DePinna and Ross Garren.

With this production, DePinna and Garren bring their mastery of traditional and non-traditional instruments, synthesizers, and computer processing to Voxfire’s latest explorations. Their accomplished skills as composers and arrangers further augment the ensemble’s signature focus on medieval song — now elevated and expanded by modern harmonies and probing textures — transporting the listener to a multidimensional world that celebrates the timeless beauty of this art form.