Gavin Bryars: Live at Punkt

by Gavin Bryars Ensemble, Gavin Bryars

Overview

This recording of music by Gavin Bryars, featuring his Ensemble, was made live at the 2008 Punkt Festival in Kristiansand, Norway, and is testimony to his commitment to the particular vitality of live performance. The pieces, written between 2002 and 2008, are laudas, a form of non-liturgical religious song in Latin that flowered between the 13th and 16th centuries. Laudas were simple, popular songs, accessible to performers and audiences without musical training, and Bryars essentially sticks to that definition, although the listener is grateful that the singers recorded here have beautiful, obviously trained voices, because Bryars' laudas are not always so simple that just anyone could pick them up. The melodies are mostly modal and often follow the contours of medieval song; in fact, it's possible to imagine that, except for the accompaniment of the Gavin Bryars Ensemble (viola, cello, double bass, electric guitar, and on a few tracks, trumpet), these could be songs written half a millennium ago. Fans of the composer will recognize his stylistic imprint in these pieces, in their generous lyricism and piquant harmonies. Soprano Anna Maria Friman and tenor John Potter sing with exceptional purity and intensity, sometimes as soloists and sometime in duet, and several tracks feature instrumental versions of the songs. Almost every track uses a different combination of voices and instruments, so the album has an engaging diversity of timbres that offsets the melodic similarity of some of the songs. The Bryars Ensemble plays his understated accompaniments with delicacy, subtly complementing the voices and never overwhelming them. The sound is very close, but clean and ambient. This appealing CD should be of interest to fans of the composer and of contemporary vocal music, and perhaps to early music fans as well.~Stephen Eddins

Product Details

Release Date:	05/11/2010
Label:	GAVIN BRYARS
UPC:	5060154170856

Tracks

1. O divina virgo, flore (Lauda 29), for soprano & double bass
2. Stomme allegro (Lauda 13), for voices & ensemble
3. Omne homo (Lauda 19), for soprano, tenor & ensemble
4. No. 1 from Tre Laude Dolce, for solo cello, electric guitar & double bass
5. Oi me lasso (Lauda 4), for soprano & tenor
6. L'alto pren¿¿e archangelo (Lauda 35), tenor & ensemble (including trumpet)
7. Ciascun ke fede sente (Lauda 37), for soprano, tenor & ensemble plus trumpet solo
8. Lauda (con sordino), for solo viola, electric guitar & piano
9. Gloria in cielo (Lauda 36), for soprano, tenor & ensemble
10. Amor dol¿¿e sen¿¿a pare (Lauda 28), voices, viola, cello & double bass

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Gavin Bryars Ensemble   Primary Artist,Ensemble
Gavin Bryars   Primary Artist,Double Bass,Piano
John Potter   Tenor (Vocal)
Arve Henriksen   Trumpet
James Woodrow   Guitar (Electric)
Anna Maria Friman   Soprano
Nick Cooper   Cello
Morgan Goff   Viola

Technical Credits

Gavin Bryars   Liner Notes,Executive Producer,Producer
Dennis Patterson   Editing,Engineer
Don C. Tyler   Mastering
Geir Ostensjo   Engineer
Anna Tchernakova   Design,Executive Producer
Alf Solbakken   Photography
Jan Hangeland   Photography