From its inception, John Potter’s Dowland Project has drawn upon different musical traditions including those of ‘early music’ and improvisation. These “Night Sessions” emphasize the Project’s improvisational flexibility and resourcefulness, as the musicians create new music in the moment, sometimes with medieval poetry as inspirational reference and guide. There are also a number of ‘daytime’ pieces worked up, Potter notes, from small amounts of notation: ‘Menino Jesus à Lapa’ is based on Portuguese pilgrim song fragments and ‘Theoleptus 22’ built around a Byzantine chant. Lute fantasias are taken from Dalza’s Intabolatura de Lauto (Venice, 1508) and Attaignant’s Tres breve et familiere introduction…a jouer toutes chansons (Paris, 1529). The oldest compositions are ‘Can vei la lauzeta mover’ – a love song by the 12th century troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn, and ‘Fumeux fume’ by the 14thcentury avant-gardist Solage. Two incarnations of the Dowland Project are heard here, the original band with Potter, Stephen Stubbs and John Surman joined by Barry Guy and Maya Homburger, and the revised line-up with Milos Valent on violin and viola.
Night Sessions
The Dowland Project, John Potter
Von Beginn an hat John Potters Dowland Projekt aus unterschiedlichsten musikalischen Traditionen geschöpft, darunter auch denen der 'Alten Musik' und der Improvisation. Die hier vorliegenden "Night Sessions" verdeutlichen die improvisatorische Flexibilität und den Einfallsreichtum der Musiker, die hier neue Musik aus dem Moment heraus erschaffen - zum Teil mit mittelalterlicher Poesie als Inspirationsquelle und Orientierungspunkt. Es gibt hier allerdings auch einige "Tages"-Stücke, die, wie Potter anmerkt, auf rudimentärer Notation beruhen: "Menino Jesus à Lappa" basiert auf Fragmenten portugiesischer Pilgerlieder, und "Theoleptus 22" ist um einen byzantinischen Cantus herum arrangiert, die Lautenfantasien beziehen ihre Anregungen aus Dalzas "Intabolatura de Lauto" (Venedig, 1508) und "Attaignant's Tres breve et familiere introduction…a jouer toutes chansons" (Paris, 1529). Die ältesten Kompositionen auf diesem Album sind "Can vei la lauzeta mover", ein Liebeslied des Troubadours Bernart de Ventadorn aus dem 12. Jahrhundert, und "Fumeux fume" von Solage, einem Avantgardisten des 14. Jahrhunderts. Im Übrigen sind hier zwei verschiedene Inkarnationen des Dowland Projects zu hören: die Originalbesetzung mit Potter, Stephen Stubbs und John Surman erweitert um Barry Guy und Maya Homburger, sowie das neuere Line-Up mit Miloš Valent an Violine und Bratsche.
- 1First descent
01:17 - 2Menino Jesus à Lapa
07:07 - 3Recercar
01:13 - 4Can vei la lauzeta mover
06:51 - 5First triage
06:58 - 6Man in the moon
07:30 - 7Corpus Christi
02:54 - 8Whistling in the dark
05:24 - 9Swart mekerd smethes
05:03 - 10Fumeux fume (Solage)
03:23 - 11Hortus ignotus
04:11 - 12Mystery play
03:40 - 13I sing of a maiden
03:57 - 14Theoleptus 22
05:53 - 15Second descent
00:30 - 16Second triage
05:23 - 17Prelude (Attaignant)
01:06
Dem Sänger John Potter gelang es 1999, Dowlands Lieder zur Laute neu zu vergegenwärtigen, als er für ein Album Jazzmusiker wie den Holzbläser John Surman und den Bassisten Barry Guy einlud. Plötzlich erlebte man Dowland so lebendig, als säße er mitten unter uns. The Dowland Project, eine reine Studioformation, legt jetzt ihr viertes Album ‚Night Sessions’ vor – ein erstaunliches Dokument experimentellen Musizierens. Von Dowland ausgehend hat die Gruppe ihr Repertoire stark erweitert, schürft noch tiefer – und schert sich immer weniger um Begriffe wie Alte oder Neue Musik, Klassik oder Jazz. Achtung: Minnesänger funken vom Mars.
Karl Lippegaus, Süddeutsche Zeitung
The main body of the album dates to a post-midnight session recorded after the music for [the album] ‘Care-charming Sleep’ had been completed. Potter quotes producer Manfred Eicher: ‘Let’s go back into the church and record some more’, and that’s what they did. Whether notated or improvised the sound of the ensemble meets somewhere mysteriously in the middle on ‘Night Sessions’, an album that conjures up a very distinctive medieval atmosphere with an internal logic of its own. Yet on a track such as ‘Swart mekerd smethes’ where the interplay resembles free improv, the link between past and present is strikingly obvious.
Stephen Graham, Marlbank
The skilful troupe take their inspiration from often miniscule amounts of medieval or slightly later notation and weave fresh ideas resourcefully around their often slender and highly diverse resources: for instance ‘Theoleptus 22’ is constructed out of Byzantine chant while ‘Can vei la lauzeta mover’ is a 12th-century love song. Improvisation is at the core of the project, so the presence of a first-rate jazzer like John Surman alongside an early-music expert like Stephen Stubbs shouldn’t surprise: ‘Man in the Moon’ is an engagingly out-there mixture of moodily skittering instrumental invention and declamatory vocal which demonstrates what the different traditions can can cook up together. Even if the music isn’t – and doesn’t aim to be – ‘authentic’, there’s plenty of evocative, acoustical period feel courtesy of the St. Gerold monastery in the Austrian Alps, which hosted the sessions.
Robert Shore, Jazzwise
These recordings, left-overs from the Project’s previous albums (the dates given, 2001 and 2006, tie in with the sessions that produced ‘Care Charming Sleep’ and ‘Romaria’) are no mere off-cuts. After the final ‘Sleep’ session, label-owner Manfred Eicher wanted to go record some more immediately. Potter says the ensemble was happy to do this, but had run out of music. However, ‘as it happened, I had some medieval poems with me, so we decided to see what we could do with those.’ These night pieces were done at one attempt. There are also ‘day-time’ pieces, worked up from fragments of late-Medieval/early-Renaissance manuscripts. [...] This album has all the virtues and delights of the previous ones. If anything, it’s more challenging and experimental. These immaculate, lithe performances, replete with passion, adventurousness, exemplary phrasing and riming and tonal beauty, will make your scalp prickle.
Barry Witherden, BBC Music Magazine
From its inception, John Potter’s Dowland Project has drawn upon different musical traditions, including those of ‘early music’ and improvisation. The Night Sessions album emphasizes the Project’s improvisational flexibility, as the players create new music, sometimes with poetry as inspirational reference and guide. There are also a number of ‘daytime’ pieces worked up, Potter says, from small amounts of notation: ‘Menino Jesus à Lappa’ is based on Portuguese pilgrim song fragments and ‘Theoleptus 22’ built around a Byzantine chant. Lute fantasias are taken from Dalza’s Intabolatura de Lauto (Venice, 1508) and Attaignant’s Tres breve et familiere introduction…a jouer toutes chansons (Paris, 1529). The oldest compositions are ‘Can vei la lauzeta mover’ – a love song by the 12th century troubadour Bernart de Ventadorn, and Fumeux fume by the 14th century avant-gardist Solage. Two incarnations of the Dowland Project are heard here, the original band with Potter, Stephen Stubbs and John Surman joined by Barry Guy and Maya Homburger, and the revised line-up with Miloš Valent on violin and viola. Yet the music, recorded at St. Gerold sessions in 2001 and 2008, reflects a unified sense of purpose.
“The day music is how the Dowland Project usually works” John Potter explains in a liner note. “The night music came about through rather special circumstances. We’d finished recording and were celebrating a very creative couple of days working on the album that became Care-charming sleep. Sometime after midnight, after a very convivial evening, Manfred Eicher suddenly said, ‘let’s go back into the church and record some more...’. Manfred has been the group’s moving spirit since first getting us all together and has been an inspirational participant in all our musical dialogues, so we could hardly say no... but we had run out of music, having already recorded more than would fit onto one album. The moment provided the music: as it happened, I had some medieval poems with me, so we decided to see what we could do with those.”
Potter told some more of the story in his essay in Horizons Touched (Granta, 2007): “What followed was, for me, the most remarkable hour’s music-making I have every experienced. With all inhibitions gone, and the sense that we were creating something absolutely in the moment, we set about realizing some of the poems. I read them out first, to give the players something to go on, then we set off... We did each poem once only, and they ranged from a lullaby improvised over a lilting bass clarinet riff to a loud and violent number with the full band summoning up a fourteenth-century blacksmith at his forge.” Throughout, the resourcefulness of the musicians is extraordinary.
Texts sung on Night Sessions can be found at www.ecmrecords.com
*
Each of the musicians of the Dowland Project has recorded in other contexts for ECM. John Potter was for 17 years a member of the Hilliard Ensemble and appeared on many of its discs, including the Officium and Mnemosyne collaborations with Jan Garbarek, Morimur with Christoph Poppen, albums with Arvo Pärt and much more. He was heard with composer/electronic musician Ambrose Field on Being Dufay, and produced the first albums of Trio Mediaeval. Potter initiated the Dowland Project in 1998, and its debut album In Darkness Let Me Dwell was recorded in January 1999. Further recordings with John Potter are in preparation.
Stephen Stubbs first appeared on ECM with Paul Hillier on the album of troubadour songs Proensa in 1988. His own Teatro Lirico included violinist Miloš Valent, the latter also featured alongside singer Iva Bittova on Vladimír Godár’s cantata Mater.
Barry Guy and Maya Homburger share a New Series album of their own, Ceremony, and Homburger is a principal soloist on Guy’s Folio. Furthermore Guy contributed music to A Hilliard Songbook, and is heard on a series of albums with Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble and the Transatlantic Art Ensemble co-led by Parker and Roscoe Mitchell.
John Surman has been an ECM recording artist since the 1970s, heard in contexts from solo performance to large ensembles (including The Brass Project, Free and Equal with London Brass, Proverbs and Songs with the Salisbury Festival Chorus). His newest solo release Saltash Bells was recently voted Album of the Year by both Jazz FM and the jury of the Parliamentary Jazz Awards in Britain.
“The day music is how the Dowland Project usually works” John Potter explains in a liner note. “The night music came about through rather special circumstances. We’d finished recording and were celebrating a very creative couple of days working on the album that became Care-charming sleep. Sometime after midnight, after a very convivial evening, Manfred Eicher suddenly said, ‘let’s go back into the church and record some more...’. Manfred has been the group’s moving spirit since first getting us all together and has been an inspirational participant in all our musical dialogues, so we could hardly say no... but we had run out of music, having already recorded more than would fit onto one album. The moment provided the music: as it happened, I had some medieval poems with me, so we decided to see what we could do with those.”
Potter told some more of the story in his essay in Horizons Touched (Granta, 2007): “What followed was, for me, the most remarkable hour’s music-making I have every experienced. With all inhibitions gone, and the sense that we were creating something absolutely in the moment, we set about realizing some of the poems. I read them out first, to give the players something to go on, then we set off... We did each poem once only, and they ranged from a lullaby improvised over a lilting bass clarinet riff to a loud and violent number with the full band summoning up a fourteenth-century blacksmith at his forge.” Throughout, the resourcefulness of the musicians is extraordinary.
Texts sung on Night Sessions can be found at www.ecmrecords.com
*
Each of the musicians of the Dowland Project has recorded in other contexts for ECM. John Potter was for 17 years a member of the Hilliard Ensemble and appeared on many of its discs, including the Officium and Mnemosyne collaborations with Jan Garbarek, Morimur with Christoph Poppen, albums with Arvo Pärt and much more. He was heard with composer/electronic musician Ambrose Field on Being Dufay, and produced the first albums of Trio Mediaeval. Potter initiated the Dowland Project in 1998, and its debut album In Darkness Let Me Dwell was recorded in January 1999. Further recordings with John Potter are in preparation.
Stephen Stubbs first appeared on ECM with Paul Hillier on the album of troubadour songs Proensa in 1988. His own Teatro Lirico included violinist Miloš Valent, the latter also featured alongside singer Iva Bittova on Vladimír Godár’s cantata Mater.
Barry Guy and Maya Homburger share a New Series album of their own, Ceremony, and Homburger is a principal soloist on Guy’s Folio. Furthermore Guy contributed music to A Hilliard Songbook, and is heard on a series of albums with Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble and the Transatlantic Art Ensemble co-led by Parker and Roscoe Mitchell.
John Surman has been an ECM recording artist since the 1970s, heard in contexts from solo performance to large ensembles (including The Brass Project, Free and Equal with London Brass, Proverbs and Songs with the Salisbury Festival Chorus). His newest solo release Saltash Bells was recently voted Album of the Year by both Jazz FM and the jury of the Parliamentary Jazz Awards in Britain.
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