Spiritual Combination

This disk is a curious combination, typical Late Junction territory and it was in fact that Radio 3 programme that alerted me to it. The disk is called Meeting Of Angels and features the Gregorian chant of the Ensemble Gilles Binchois directed by Dominique Vellard with the sitar and tambura playing of Ustad Nishat Khan. There is one solo raag for morning played in the middle of the recital but otherwise the material consists of sacred chants by the ensemble; alleluias, introits and an offertorium. The playing unfolds as a kind of call and response with the refrain of the chant being answered and interpreted by the sitar. The justification for the idea as extrapolated by the booklet notes is that they are two musical cultures of the highest spirituality with secret affinities and the hypothesis of a common origin. There are undeniable similarities in modality, atemporality and suspension in sound but whether the entire theory holds up is more doubtful. The respect and mutual regard of the performances makes it a most satisying disk though, even if there probably isn't much of a shelf life in the collaboration beyond this example.