JAN GARBAREK / THE HILLIARD ENSEMBLE - Officium (1994) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Fearlessly searching for new conceptions of sound and not caring where he found them, Garbarek joined hands with the classical early-music movement, improvising around the four male voices of the Hilliard Ensemble. Now here was a radical idea guaranteed to infuriate both hardcore jazz buffs and the even more pristine more-authentic-than-thou folk in early music circles. Yet this unlikely fusion works stunningly well -- and even more hearteningly, went over the heads of the purists and became a hit album at a time (1994) when Gregorian chants were a hot item. Chants, early polyphonic music, and Renaissance motets by composers like Morales and Dufay form the basic material, bringing forth a cool yet moving spirituality in Garbarek's work. Recorded in a heavily reverberant Austrian monastery, the voices sometimes develop in overwhelming waves, and Garbarek rides their crest, his soprano sax soaring in the monastery acoustic, or he underscores the voices almost unobtrusively, echoing the voices, finding ample room to move around the modal harmonies yet applying his sound sparingly. Those with nervous metabolisms may become impatient with this undefinable music, but if you give it a chance, it will seduce you, too. by Richard S. Ginell 
Tracklist:
1    Parce mihi domine 6:42
Cristóbal de Morales
2    Primo tempore 8:03   
Anonymous / Anonymous, Czech
3    Sanctus 4:44
Anonymous / Anonymous, Czech    
4    Regnanten Sempiterna 5:36
Gregorian Chant
5    O Salutaris Hostia 4:34
Pierre de la Rue
6    Procedentem sponsum 2:50
Anonymous / Anonymous, Hungarian
7    Pulcherrima rosa 6:55
Anonymous / Anonymous, Czech
8    Parce mihi domine 5:35
Cristóbal de Morales
9    Beata viscera, conductus for solo voice 6:34
Pérotin
10    De spineto nata rosa 2:30
Anonymous / Anonymous, English
11    Credo 2:06   
Anonymous / Anonymous, Czech
12    Ave maris stella, hymn for 3 voices (2 versions) 4:14   
Guillaume Dufay
13    Virgo flagellatur (School of Perotinus) 5:19   
Anonymous
14    Oratio Ieremiae 5:00   
Gregorian Chant
15    Parce mihi domine 6:52   
Cristóbal de Morales
Credits:
Baritone Vocals – Gordon Jones
Countertenor Vocals – David James
Ensemble – The Hilliard Ensemble
Producer [Produced By] – Manfred Eicher
Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Jan Garbarek
Tenor Vocals – John Potter, Rogers Covey-Crump