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Gregorian „Masters Of Chant Chapter VI“

Finally Gregorian not only continue the successful Masters Of Chant series with their 6th album, but release their exceptional earBOOK „Chants & Mysteries“at the same time – a journey for your eyes and ears.

Masters of Chant Chapter VI again convinces with a goose-bump inducing track list. The listener is carried away on another fascinating journey through decades and through very different music genres by the 10-men choir. It includes "Fix You" from Coldplay next to "Believe In Me" from Lenny Kravitz, the 80s hit "Mad World" (Tears For Fears) next to the 70s classic "Dreams" (Fleetwood Mac) and "Joga" (Björk) as well as the 60s ballad "Crying In The Rain" from the Everly Brothers. There are also songs from Peter Gabriel, Eurythmics, Joan Osbourne and Sinead O'Connor. Not to forget two special highlights: the inclusion of two new Gregorian compositions which equal the rest of the repertoire in their beauty.

(From the Official Site: gregorian.de)

EarBOOK „Chants & Mysteries“

In an exclusive version, the CDs "Gregorian Masters Of Chant Chapter I-IV“ and the DVD "Live In Prague" are now released in a magnificent earBOOK package entitled Gregorian "Chants & Mysteries“. The high-class series of audio-visual coffee-table books with their unusual aesthetics and well-chosen themes have been noticed by fans of music and photography for some time now and the earBOOK "Chants & Mysteries" is another unique combination of sound and vision. Around 80 exclusive photos in highest print quality underline the mystic and contemplative character of Gregorian and invite on a journey through the centuries - a journey for your eyes and ears.
 

(From the Official Site: gregorian.de)

GREGORIAN INTERVIEW [December 23rd 2001] IN 30 TON LISTA LISTA PRZEBOJÓW (Top 30 Hit Songs – a popular music program)


“Hi, I’m Frank Peterson… I’m the producer of the Masters Of Chant albums by Gregorian”.

“Hello, I’m David Tilley, one of the 12 singers that make up the Gregorian Choir. I’m afraid I can’t say the name of this program…30 Ton…oh well, you know the name of this show!”

Gregorian means teamwork
Everyone here in Gregorian is part of a team. The whole project is based on the combined creativity of a devoted group of people. Working together, you can feel lots of positive vibrations in the air. That is really wonderful and I think everybody should experience it… The production of our albums is a multi-level task. It all begins with synthesizers and the concept for an arrangement, afterwards some sounds are replaced by real instruments – we record the percussion, bass, guitar, and even the whole orchestra! But the most wonderous moment is when twelve, fifty or even a hundred singers walk into the studio and start singing at the same time. I think the human voice is the most powerfull instrument and the sound of so many voices singing simultaneously is truly amazing.

Tradition and present-day
When the Gregorian choral was invented, people didn’t know how to record music, so we don’t exactly know how the chants were orchestrated. However, the tradition of singing in churches survived through the ages… We thought that, since our singing style is similar, we would use the technology we have today and sing different songs. Even in other languages! So, if you have a good pop song with Latin lyrics, tell us and we’ll gladly record it!

Rules and innovations
The rules of the Gregorian choral are clearly stated and the original choral remains strictly fatefull to them. Fitting the music that we are currently playing to those rules would be really hard. But we do try to at least come close to the spirit of the choral – to sing in the right style and mood. Sometimes we change the style a bit, when we add a second voice, for example. I doubt that by doing this we’re breaking the rules, because as long as the voices are singing the same song, everything’s fine. The organum style of singing (in which there were two additional voices, one below and one above the main melody scale) was very popular in the Middle Ages. So double-voice singing is not breaking the rules…

A studio like a church
Today’s technology allows for wonderful things. The people who during our shows take care of the arrangements and sound do a fantastic job with the artificial echo on stage. Thanks to that, the sound is so great that you begin to wonder if you’re in a real church. Of course, we also sing in churches and the accoustics of those places definitely help the overall performance, but thanks to modern technology we don’t need that. On the other hand, we try to record in places in which the accoustics are similar to those in a church. Two of our recording studios were once churches… I remember our first recording session – we put candles all over the place to help recreate that specific atmosphere that one feels in a church.
A recording studio is, after all, a very bare place so while recording, we try to change its interior, so that it less resembles a cold and high-tech place. The songs which we can’t record in churches, we record in the studio. With the help of special equipment, we are now able to recreate church accoustics. Thanks to special proccessors, we can recreate not only the sound of a guitar or percussion, but also the sound of a specific place. Thanks to this we can have the accoustics of the Westminster Cathedral in every studio.

This has been sung before
For our project we pick songs from the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. In choosing the most appropriate song, we concentrate not on the arrangement or production, but on the melody and quality of a song… Listening to the music of the last fourty years, you realise that the greatest songs were released in the sixtees and seventees. In the 1980’s there aren’t as many good songs as in the previous two decades, and in the 1990’s you just have covers of old recordings. Earlier, the Beatles and ABBA made hits each week, right now things are different… Adapting good songs is a lot easier, simply because those songs are GOOD – you can play them on a guitar, an organ or a piano. Songs like that are also easier to sing. You were watching us – me and David – here in 30 Ton. We learned to talk with each other and we hope that you also managed to learn something…

(Extracted from a post of the Gregorian-music.com forum by Piotr K.)

© 2010 The World of Gregorian | Alexander Vladimir Tzimisce

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