Ensemble Gilles Binchois - Vellard, D.: 7 Dernieres Paroles Du Christ En Croix (Les) - Stabat Mater - Missa Laudes Deo (2007)

Since 1979 Dominique Vellard has been the inspirational driving force behind the Ensemble Gilles Binchois – nearly three decades of research and performance that have led to the creation of some of the essential recordings in the catalogue, especially of music from the medieval and early Renaissance periods. In more recent years, Vellard has expanded his interests into other repertories – Southern and Northern India, as well as Spanish and Breton traditions – and he also has quite a passion for composers such as Monteverdi and the lesserknown Guillaume Nivers. In all such vocal explorations he leads the way with his own distinctive tenor voice. However, for his first collaboration with Glossa – and for the label’s own desire to create new artistic visions – there is an additional facet of Dominique Vellard’s musical character on display. In Vox Nostra Resonet Vellard presents himself as the composer of five vocal works (all scored for a small number of voices from the Ensemble Gilles Binchois) for which he has turned to profound religious texts and draws deeply on his own spiritual learnings as much as his experience and interests in monodies and polyphonies from both the Western and the Eastern traditions. Vellard’s compositional process – reaching both inside and outside the Western tradition – is documented in an article accompanying this awesome and different disc.