Five years after the recording of "Officium", the Hilliard Ensemble and Jan Garbarek returned to the monastery of St Gerold to renew, in the words of singer John Potter, their "encounter with the unknown." The resultant, very beautiful, double-album, "Mnemosyne", is wider in scope than its predecessor, and the improvised component of the music is expanded. Repertoire now spans 22 centuries, from the "Delphic Paean" of Athenaeus to the "Estonian Lullaby" of Veljo Tormis, via folk song fragments from North and South America and Spain, freely developed, as well as pieces by Tallis, Dufay, Brumel, Hildegard von Bingen, Jan Garbarek, a Russian psalm, a Scottish ballad of the 16th century, and much more. "We did it for each other in the absence of an audience, and these are complete one-off performances which will never sound the same again."  
Iin Praise of Dreams   Mnemosyne   Rites  
Star   I Took Up The Runes      
     
     
 

Jan Garbarek
 

Mnemosyne

Jan Garbarek tenor or soprano saxophones
David James countertenor
Rogers Covey-Crump tenor
John Potter tenor
Gordon Jones baritone

CD 1
01. Quechua Sing

02. O Lords in Thee is all My Trust
03. Estonian Lullaby
04. Remember Me My Dear
05. Gloria
06. Fayrfax Africanus
07. Agnus Dei
08. Novus novus
09. Se je fayz dueil
10. O ignis spiritus

CD 2
01. Alleluia nativitatis
02. Delphic Paean
03. Strophe and Counter-Strophe
04. Mascardaes
05. Loiterando
06. Estonian Lullaby
07. Russian Psalm
08. Eagle Dance
09. When Jesus Wept
10. Hymn To The Sun

Recorded April 1998
ECM
New Series 1700

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