The past as message in a bottle - disrupting the flow of current trends
Tomorrow, 4 October, is the official release of our new CD:
EX NIHILO - Polyphony beyond the Order of Things.
It opens with Josquin’s Praeter rerum seriem (“beyond the order of things”) and contains other motets by Josquin next to works by Obrecht, Ockeghem, De Wert and De Ribera.
Please watch here the videoclip of Bernardino de Ribera’s Vox in Rama in avant-première.
We love the review of new Ex Nihilo CD this month in German music magazine Fono Forum by Reinmar Emans: five stars and Empfehlung des Monats!
“We are used to Björn Schmelzer always tending towards the Gesamtkunstwerk. The gloomy automaton pictures certainly belong in this context. Schmelzer’s booklet text opens up completely surprising perspectives. Based on a 16th century pedagogue’s critique of polyphony, according to which the chants make no sense and the singers themselves can hardly know what they are singing, he wanders through philosophical realms that make perfect sense. Ultimately, however, the emptiness described there has to do above all with the fact that every musical work only becomes such through performance. Music is thus constantly recreated; the basis for performance remains non-binding. Schmelzer and his small but exceptionally fine ensemble prove time and again that this is the driving force behind very intense and creative performances. As is so often the case, this recording also thrives on the abysmal bass voices, which not only provide the foundation but also convey the emotions. However, the two female voices, which are sometimes required, are also perfectly integrated in terms of sound. There are no gaps, although the ensemble sound relies on very individually timbred voices anyway. This repeatedly creates an unbelievable pull that is hard to resist. And the harmonies that emerge and are savoured - as in “Salve Regina” - are almost unbelievable, but logical. This is old and new at the same time and always exciting. The last track, which develops its very own addictive potential, is particularly captivating in this respect.” Reinmar Emans (deepl translated)
Björn Schmelzer’s recent article “Performing by the Book (Next to the Book You Were Looking For) or: Aby Warburg’s “Good Neighbour” “ is released in a new book edited by Bruno Forment and the Orpheus Institute.
From “Warburg and finding the book next to the book you were looking for”, over artistic procrastination and the unfinished, to “squeezing out the score”:
this is obliged reading for all who like to understand more about Graindelavoix’s aesthetics and Schmelzer’s conceptual ideas and choices in particular!
The book and Björn’s article can be consulted and downloaded for free here:
OAPEN Library: https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/93650
JSTOR: https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.11955034
or the article in pdf directly here.
Sometimes the nicest, most coveted and most universalist-minded awards come from small places: we received one this Sunday after our concert in Roeselare: The International Willaert Award…!
Very happy and proud with it, and in the nice company of the other laureate Katelijne Schiltz, who wrote that fantastic book on polyphony and riddle culture (see the image below).
There was a very touching laudatio by Xavier Vandamme (we are going to post it too very soon) and we couldn’t dream of a nicer finissage of our Ex Nihilo CD tour!
Thanks to Hilde Cuyt of Cultural Center De Spil and her technical crew, to the cultural councillor Mieke Vanbrussel, to Tine Eeckhout of the Cultural administration, and all the locals involved in receiving us with so much hospitality.
Especially thanks to our singers (here all on the picture) who are the true plastic force of our artistic project!
