The title of this fascinating project from Paul Hillier refers to the
southern French region of Provence, where the lyric poets of the
troubadour tradition from which the album culls its music once
flourished. Utilizing extant fragments of Provençal texts and melodies,
Hillier and his musicians reconstruct a visceral program of songs.
If any single word could be applied to this album, it would be
“haunting.” This is not to imply that it is a particularly “dark” album,
but one that seems to occupy a space uninhabitable by the living. This music breathes at the very edges of our consciousness, which is perhaps
why it is so vocally driven, for only through the frailty of the voice
can its strengths be expressed. The language is similarly peripheral,
with its shades of cognates and other etymological minutae. The
arrangements get under the listener’s skin, evoking an atmosphere at
once so antiquated as to be unrecoverable while also so modern that it
could exist at no other time but the (recorded) present. The spirit of
the music is easy to see, if difficult to place, for it is something
felt on a physiological level, residing in our sense of collective
history. The music unfolds in a way that is always aware of its origins,
leaving us to question our own.
Fascinating. Many thanks.
ResponderEliminar