Various Artists - Origins [CD]

Sjaella is the vocal ensemble of the moment to discover! Six talented and effervescent female singers who are not afraid of anything and demonstrate as much in a program entitled Origins, ranging from seventieth-century repertory to contemporary pieces. Out of the ether, into existence. The initial point. The beginning. The ever-recurring origin. Between minimalism and picturesque arias arise light, time, and all life. In Origins, the female vocal ensemble Sjaella focuses on natural cycles that have surrounded us since the dawn of time. In every era, people have experienced the changes in the seasons, the gentle rhythm of day and night, the individual flow of the body, and the transience of rebirth. All of these themes are presented as a unit, which forms a cycle of key concepts from the origin of life to a post-apocalyptic vacuum. The music contrasts and combines new arrangements of English songs of the seventeenth century, some of them from Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen, with contemporary pieces, including those in the American Minimalist style, such as David Lang's Evening, Morning, Day. By including mainly commissioned works, the album shows Sjaella's close collaboration with renowned international composers such as Paola Prestini, singer-songwriter Shara Nova and former King's Singers member Philip Lawson.