Officium

Description

Fruit of the meeting between Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble, under the impulse of the ECM label. In 1993, these musicians offered music lovers an "Officium" in which the fine polyphonic textures of the Middle Ages (Pérotin, Gregorian chant) and the Renaissance (Dufay, Morales) were suddenly illuminated by the flashes of a fifth voice, that of the Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek. The fusion of these two seemingly opposing aesthetics reached peaks as fascinating as they were unsuspected, and the global success established Garbarek as a jazz star, while the Hilliard Ensemble majestically confirmed its prominent place among vocal ensembles, not without dividing commentators often destabilized by this bold mix of ancient music and improvisation from jazz and folk repertoire.