Vita Nova includes four pieces by Bryars
in which ECM appeared to be, at least partially, attempting to cash in
on the new age-y vogue of the early '90s for the sort of quasi-medieval
music made relatively popular by assorted singing monks, Arvo Pärt, and the Hilliard Ensemble with Jan Garbarek.
Indeed, that latter group is on hand here to perform "Glorious Hill,"
and the results are as blandly attractive as the listener might guess
given the following recipe: Take a mushily mystical text (in Latin), set
to vaguely medieval sounding music, and spice with a dash of
chromaticism and a pinch of minimalism. It's all handsomely produced and
sung but terribly precious and overly palatable. How far Bryars
had come from the rich reality of the tramp singing "Jesus' Blood Never
Failed Me Yet" in his masterpiece from the '70s. Unfortunately, the
remainder of the disc also fails to deliver much more than prettiness.
The longest composition, "Four Elements," falls into the same gauzily
impressionistic, rudderless rut of much of his '90s work, and the
introduction of David James,
the same countertenor used in "Incipit Vita Nova," seems tacked on just
to fit in with the ostensible "medieval" feel of the album. The same
applies to the use of a recorder on the final piece, "Sub Rosa." That
work, however, does contain glimmers of the unique beauty and clarity of
Bryars' earlier work as found on Hommages.
But those instances are far too meager to be able to recommend this
recording to anyone but listeners attempting to slowly crawl their way
out of the new age morass.Vita Nova includes four pieces by Bryars
in which ECM appeared to be, at least partially, attempting to cash in
on the new age-y vogue of the early '90s for the sort of quasi-medieval
music made relatively popular by assorted singing monks, Arvo Pärt, and the Hilliard Ensemble with Jan Garbarek.
Indeed, that latter group is on hand here to perform "Glorious Hill,"
and the results are as blandly attractive as the listener might guess
given the following recipe: Take a mushily mystical text (in Latin), set
to vaguely medieval sounding music, and spice with a dash of
chromaticism and a pinch of minimalism. It's all handsomely produced and
sung but terribly precious and overly palatable. How far Bryars
had come from the rich reality of the tramp singing "Jesus' Blood Never
Failed Me Yet" in his masterpiece from the '70s. Unfortunately, the
remainder of the disc also fails to deliver much more than prettiness.
The longest composition, "Four Elements," falls into the same gauzily
impressionistic, rudderless rut of much of his '90s work, and the
introduction of David James,
the same countertenor used in "Incipit Vita Nova," seems tacked on just
to fit in with the ostensible "medieval" feel of the album. The same
applies to the use of a recorder on the final piece, "Sub Rosa." That
work, however, does contain glimmers of the unique beauty and clarity of
Bryars' earlier work as found on Hommages.
But those instances are far too meager to be able to recommend this
recording to anyone but listeners attempting to slowly crawl their way
out of the new age morass.
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