collectif9's new film-concert Rituaels was reviewed by PANM 360!
Here are some excerpts:
The very cool ensemble Collectif9 proposes Rituaels, a musical-video journey with almost mystical echoes and hints of… a beneficial ritual in these troubled times. The naturally amplified and reverberant music of Arvo Pärt, Michael Tippett, Nicole Lizée, Bryce Dessner (yes, from The National), Jocelyn Morlock, and even Hildegarde de Bingen resonates with rare emotional and even spiritual significance.
[...] The result, which I had the chance to watch before the first broadcast, is very beautiful. It alternates simple but beautifully staged shots of the musicians in Montreal’s Saint-Pierre-Apôtre church with the stylized movements of Désilier, soberly clad in white.
[...] But no matter how neatly shot, the visuals serve primarily to support one thing: the music. And what music! Mostly modern and contemporary, in the tradition of mystical contemplative minimalism, or, if not, one that “fades” perfectly with it.
[...] Bigger, yes, I would say so. Arvo Pärt could only sound good in this, as one would expect, but the neo-ancient colours of Tippett’s homage to Purcell succeed just as well. I also note the delicate and poetic extravagances of Nicole Lizée, and the furious and uplifting energy of Bryce Dessner’s Aheym (a rare non-contemplative piece in the programme). There is even the medieval mystic Hildegarde de Bingen, who launches the show in a bewitching way with O vis æternitatis.
[...] The rich, warm, long-lasting harmonies, the long sustained notes and the early musical resonances of most of the works on the programme create a sensory landscape that evokes timelessness, duration, the non ephemeral, the signifier and, finally, the real, the important. It’s a horizontal music, which forces us to get out of the verticality of the instant and immediacy – anti-commercialism at its best.
Click here to read the full review