ADIEMUSADIEMUS
"ADIEMUS II. CANTATA MUNDI"
Venture / Virgin Records
If the first album by project Adiemus already left us open-mouthed because of the amount of innovations that Karl Jenkins (yes, the ex- member of the band Soft Machine) started, the second work with this name is every bit as good as the first one. Part of the material in the magnificient Songs of Sanctuary, popular due to its appearing on several TV ads, uncovered a new way to make instrumental music in our times. In this occasion, although already without percussionist Mike Ratledge, yet still with the extraordinary vocal wealth of Miriam Stockley, Karl Jenkins once again does his best, though somewhat on a more symphonic line, providing us with a collection of pieces of an impressive make. Adiemus-II, Cantata Mundi, is distributed into 14 pieces, 7 cantatas and 7 chorales. All of them transpire a wondrous amount of imagination, in which nonsense lyrics, in an invented language, of Stockley's make, stand out from the rest. This woman, whose voice has been multiplied ad infinitum so as to adjust it to what Jenkins really wanted to do, has unveiled for us a radically different way to perform a song. Pay attention because in the next months many imitators will no doubt appear, both of Stockley's vocal style and of Jenkins's composing style. The latter, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra as his main ally and an extremely hard work in composition and production, says of his work that this is a musical piece for one and more voices with an orchestral accompaniment. Aware that his album breaks with styles, Jenkins reccomends that his music should be labelled as contemporary classical music... for lack of any other possible label. In all, if you wish to stay updated with respect to the new things being done nowadays, Adiemus-II is a must in your collections.
V.A.
