YULE
Trio Mediæval
Sinikka Langeland (kantele), Vegar Vårdal (hardanger fiddle, violin), Arve Henriksen (trumpet, organ), Anders Jormin (double bass), Helge Norbakken (percussion)
rec. 2024, Sofienberg Church, Norway
2L 2L-180-SABD SACD/BD-A [65]
Trio Mediæval has brought out some stunning recordings in recent years, including on the 2L label with the Old Hall Ladymass (review). Their aesthetic is one that brings together old and new music with a powerful blend of tradition combined with improvisation in performance, and this is very much the case here in Yule; an all-embracing title that takes in celebratory winter seasonal music going back to medieval times alongside new compositions and arrangements very much of the present.
The songs on this recording sees the immaculate a-cappella voices of Trio Mediæval in a confluence with improvising instruments in a nicely contrasting balance of the secular and the sacred. We are brought in gently with the voices in a simple and elegant version of the famous Det hev ei rosa sprunge, followed by Josefines julesalme, one of a number of tracks that are drawn from the Norwegian folk tradition, here including some subtle percussion and the slow air of Arve Henriksen’s trumpet.
Nowell, nowell is not ‘The First Nowell’ but is a delightful piece with open medieval harmonies in a sprightly tempo, followed by another Norwegian based song Lussinatti lange, here opening with dark organ tones, sliding notes from the double bass and some troubled, deep percussion, all beautifully captured in this stunning recording. None of the improvisations here are too scarily avant-garde, but have their connections to the jazz and voice combinations of the Hilliard Ensemble and others – in other words, this is not really a ‘sing-along’ Christmas album, and none the worse for that. Familiar songs such as the Coventry Carol are given some original treatment while respecting the original, in this case in an arrangement by Linn Andrea Fuglseth that manages to sound both new and enhanced-ancient at the same time.
Highlights include a piece written for Trio Mediæval, the wide-ranging Lux by Andrew Smith, and amongst the less well-known Swedish-speaking community hymns there is a substantial instrumental/vocal bringing together of Veni redemptor and Världens frälsare kom här, which is one of a number of such melodies rescued from oblivion in the early 20th century by composer and folksong collector Cyrillus Kreek and his Swedish contemporary Olof Andersson. The programme is brought to a pensive close with a version of Hodie Christus natus est that fades into an incense infused darkness.
Trio Mediæval is “faithful to the manuscripts of the ancient clerics, but in letting the [instrumental] improvisers cast their magic spells they remind us that Christmas in the 21st century is suffused with the spirit of Yule.” This is the key to a programme that fills us with Christmas atmosphere while avoiding cliché or commercialism, all presented with 2L’s usual superlatively immersive SACD and Blu-ray sound.
Dominy Clements
Availability: 2L Records
Contents
Det hev ei rosa sprunge
Josefines julesalme
Nowell, nowell
Lussinatti lange
I denne søte juletid
Bereden väg för Herran
Coventry Carol
En stjärna gick på himlen fram
Lux
Lullay, lullay
In dulci jubilo
Det kimer nu til julefest
Veni redemptor/Världens frälsare kom här
Frå Betlehem eit gjetord gjeng
There is no rose
Gläns över sjö och strand
En jungfru födde ett barn idag
Hodie Christus natus est
