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Wind Takes Flight
£14.99
In stock
Catalogue Number
NI6457
Wind Takes Flight began with a simple yet powerful idea: to reimagine the music of Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century mystic and composer, through the lens of modern electronic soundscapes. The title, drawn from one of Hildegard’s sacred poems featured on the album, also reflects her love of birds and the natural world. These have been enduring sources of inspiration for us throughout this creative journey. As collaborators, we, - Julia Sinclair, an English soprano soloist, and Marijn Cinjee, a Dutch electronic musician - were drawn to the timeless spirituality and beauty of Hildegard’s work. The idea of bringing together our two musical worlds to create something new and transformative felt both exciting and inevitable. In April 2023, we debuted an experimental live improvisation inspired by Hildegard’s hymn O ignis Spiritus paracliti at Stone Nest in London, in an immersive listening experience using more than 40 loudspeakers driven by the 4DSOUND spatial sound system. The audience’s response to the soaring vocal lines and immersive electronic textures confirmed that we were onto something special, and that performance became the foundation for Wind Takes Flight, the album’s title track. Over the next eighteen months, we poured ourselves into this project, crafting what would become Wind Takes Flight. The album is a conversation across time - beginning with Hildegard’s chants and evolving into a love letter to her music, merging her sacred compositions with contemporary sound design while remaining true to the deep spirituality and reverence of her music. Premièring the album live in spatial sound at Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam was an unforgettable experience, captured in the drama and beauty of Ekstasis, a piece created for that performance. Now, we’re thrilled to share Wind Takes Flight with you. This album is more than music; it’s a bridge between past and present, an invitation to step into a space where ancient echoes meet modern innovation, and where the spirit of Hildegard of Bingen - artist, composer, and pioneer - soars anew.
1. O viridissima virga 4:55
2. O rubor sanguinis 3:48
3. Ave generosa 7:49
4. Ave Maria 3:58
5. First voice 3:12
6. Spring 5:51
7. Eleison 3:11
8. Ekstasis 5:22
9. Wind takes flight (live) 9:34
10. Nolsca (bird song) 3:07
11. Constellation 6:14
12. XILIX 4:11
13. Era 6:30
Bonus track on digital release
14. Scarpinx 5:57
Manufacturer: Wyastone Estate Limited, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth, NP25 3SR
Email: sales@wyastone.co.uk
Reviews:
"Wind Takes Flight: Hildegard x Electronics is a special record. Hildegard of Bingen was a twelfth century German mystic and composer, a totem, also, of feminine power in the centuries of male dominance over “classical” composition. The Richard Thomas Foundation, a body able to raise money and interest for high level arts projects, commissioned a rendering of her works by London soprano Julia Sinclair accompanied by the spacing electronica of Dutch synth whizz Marjin Cinjee. The result is a set for listening to in a darkened room, contemplating. It is ethereal cosmic-classical ambience. Comes in lyric info inner sleeve with cover arts designed by Factory Records’ Peter Saville and Brett Wickens." Thomas H. Green, The Arts Desk review of vinyl version
"Electronic artist Marijn Cinjee creates sounds around the voice, moving listeners through the 13 tracks of the program towards progressively electronic-only compositions with imagination, sensitivity, and nuance. At the end, I wondered how track 1 would sound after track 13 because I thought it might be useful to include in this review my opinion about whether or not the electronics had gone “too far” from Hildegard, whether or not the difference would be “jarring”. It is not jarring at all; this pair of artistic creators has created a unified whole. To describe the electronic sounds, I found myself at first drawing comparisons to familiar compositional elements (drones, pedal points, melody instruments), then soon I was writing down sounds (light crackling, rumbling like an earth tremor beneath the singer), then I realized that visual words were coming readily to me (shimmering, spotlight)." C MOORE. American Record Guide
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O viridissima virga
O rubor sanguinis
Spring
Constellation
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0.135 kg