Lautten Compagney - Circle Line (2019) [Hi-Res]

With their new album, the ensemble combines early Renaissance music with minimal music - and that sounds simply fascinating in combination and with old instruments. Between the Franco-Flemish composer Guillaume Dufay (c. 1400-1474) and the American minimal music icon Philip Glass (*1937) lie about 600 years of music history. Nevertheless, their respective musical languages possess an astonishing kinship, not least in their refined handling of rhythm and melody. And it is exactly this amazing closeness that the Lautten Compagney under the direction of Wolfgang Katschner dedicates itself to on "Circle Line". Thus, pieces by Guillaume Dufay alternate with compositions by Philip Glass, but also by Steve Reich, John Cage, Meredith Monk, Wim Mertens and Peter A. Bauer. Right at the beginning, the tense music of "Train To São Paulo" from Philip Glass' film music for "Powaqqatsi" is confronted with the signal-like "Gloria ad modum tubae" by Dufay. This was followed by the composition "In a Landscape", with which John Cage anticipated the principles of minimal music as early as 1948. Among the sacred works of Guillaume Dufay, some three-part motets are particularly impressive, including the Marian chants "Flos florum", "Ave regina coelorum" and "Ave maris stella". Meredith Monk achieves a very similar sound effect with the piece "Dawn" and Peter A. Bauer with the composition "Segreto intimo". In between there is a direct fusion of renaissance and minimal music. The musicians have interlocked chansons by Guillaume Dufay (Par droit je puis bien and Se la face ay pale) with Steve Reich's legendary "Clapping Music" and then again with the "Dance V" by Philip Glass. Early music instruments such as viola da gamba and lute also meet saxophone and striking percussion. "The title of the programme is a symbol for the constantly pulsating metropolis," says Wolfgang Katschner. "In Berlin, 'Circle Line' is the name given to the circular railway, and Berlin is also represented by the noisy compagney. Both circle through the city districts and through the centuries of music."