Jóhann Jóhannsson: Drone Mass American Contemporary Music Ensemble, Theatre of Voices & Paul Hillier

• Jóhann Jóhannsson (1969 - 2018):
• 1 Jóhannsson: One is True 03:24
• 2 Jóhannsson: Two is Apocryphal 04:09
• 3 Jóhannsson: Triptych in Mass 05:46
• 4 Jóhannsson: To Fold & Remain Dormant 04:27
• 5 Jóhannsson: The Last Foul Wind I Ever Knew 04:44
• 6 Jóhannsson: Divine Objects (Pt. 1) 02:47
• 7 Jóhannsson: Divine Objects (Pt. 2) 04:16
• 8 Jóhannsson: The Low Drone of Circulating Blood, Diminishes with Time 03:53
• 9 Jóhannsson: Moral Vacuums 05:07
• 10 Jóhannsson: Take the Night Air 04:09
• 11 Jóhannsson: The Mountain View, the Majesty of the Snow-Clad Peaks, from a Place of Contemplation and Reflection 08:49
• Total Runtime 51:31

Info zu Jóhann Jóhannsson: Drone Mass

Drone Mass sei ein »zeitgenössisches Oratorium«, sagte Jóhann Jóhannsson einst. Die Messe für Stimmen, Streichquartett und Elektronik – nie zuvor aufgenommen – schrieb er für das American Contemporary Music Ensemble, alias ACME, mit dem er fast zehn Jahre lang Konzerte spielte und Aufnahmen machte. Nun legen ACME und das Grammy-prämierte Vokalensemble Theatre of Voices unter der Leitung des gleichfalls mehrfach Grammy-prämierten Paul Hillier die Weltersteinspielung von Drone Mass vor. Beide Ensembles kannten Jóhannsson gut; im Studio, auf der Bühne und auf Tourneen arbeiteten sie eng mit ihm zusammen.

Drone Mass ist ein außergewöhnliches und zugleich geheimnisvolles Opus, es beginnt mit Streichern und Gesang, sukzessive werden elektronische Klänge in die Komposition verwoben. Es wurde mit dem meditativen Minimalismus eines Arvo Pärt oder Henryk Górecki verglichen, während Jóhannsson selbst es »ein Destillat vieler Einflüsse und Obsessionen« nannte.

Zu diesen Obsessionen zählt auch Jóhannssons Faszination für den Bordun – die titelgebende Drone –, eine »grundlegende Vibration«, wie er erklärte, »die die Musik verankert und ihr ein Fundament gibt«. Er setzte sie sowohl akustisch als auch elektronisch ein, mal die Musik nur untermalend, mal alles übertönend. Durch die Bedeutung des Wortes – zu Deutsch Drohne – entstand eine zusätzliche Resonanzschicht; in der Musik aber sind die Vibrationen wie ein Motiv: Sie verschieben sich, scheinen zu flirren, zu hypnotisieren, schaffen im Verlauf des Werks verschiedene Stimmungen, beunruhigend, aber auch erhebend. Zu solch hypnotischer Wirkung tragen ebenso die Gesangslinien bei, die zuweilen an die Polyfonie der Renaissance erinnern, besonders in den beiden Sätzen »Two is Apocryphal« und »Moral Vacuums«. Schon lange war Jóhannsson daran interessiert, ein groß angelegtes Vokalwerk zu schreiben.

Eine Quelle fand er schließlich im koptischen Ägypterevangelium, das in den 1945 entdeckten Schriften von Nag Hammadi überliefert ist. Neben weiteren Texten verwendete Jóhannsson einen Hymnus, der aus einer »scheinbar bedeutungslosen Reihe von Vokalen« besteht. Sowohl die enigmatische Natur dieser gnostischen Schriften als auch die schiere Schönheit der vokalisierten Schrift geben dem Werk eine spirituelle Qualität. Passend scheint es da, dass Drone Mass 2015 im New Yorker Metropolitan Museum of Art in der spektakulären Kulisse des ägyptischen Dendur-Tempels uraufgeführt wurde.

Neben den ACME-Spielern trat damals das Grammy-prämierte Vokalensemble Roomful of Teeth auf, während der Komponist selbst die elektronischen Klangwellen steuerte. Erst vier Jahre später wurde die Musik aufgenommen, im Mai 2019 in der Garnisonskirken in Kopenhagen. Francesco Donadello, ein weiterer Freund und regelmäßiger Mitarbeiter Jóhannssons, produzierte das Album. Diesmal wurde ACME von der international renommierten dänischen Vokalgruppe Theatre of Voices und ihrem künstlerischen Leiter Paul Hillier begleitet. Auch Theatre of Voices hat eine enge Verbindung zu Drone Mass.

Bereits zweimal hat das Ensemble das Stück in den USA aufgeführt, außerdem in Krakau mit Jóhannsson selbst und mit ACME. Zuletzt brachten ACME und Theatre of Voices Drone Mass in Athen auf die Bühne, nur wenige Monate nach dem Tod des Komponisten. Theatre of Voices war darüber hinaus in anderen Aufnahmen von Jóhannssons Musik zu hören, darunter Orphée, Englabörn & Variations, Arrival und Last and First Men. Die integrative Art des Arbeitens, die dem Komponisten eigen war, begünstigte solche kontinuierlichen Kooperationen – ein kollaborativer Geist, der auch im Mittelpunkt dieser Aufnahme steht.

Als Drone Mass zum ersten Mal vorgestellt wurde, war Jóhannsson bereits international bekannt, unter anderem dank seiner Musik für Denis Villeneuves Filme Sicario (2015) und Prisoners (2013). Für seine Filmmusik zu James Marshs The Theory of Everything gewann er 2015 einen Golden Globe, ein Jahr später brachte ihm sein Beitrag zu Villeneuves gefeiertem Arrival eine Oscar-Nominierung ein. 2016 erschien sein hochgelobtes Debütalbum Orphée bei Deutsche Grammophon. Jóhannsson starb nur zwei Jahre später, am 9. Februar 2018 im Alter von 48 Jahren in Berlin. Obwohl die Veröffentlichung auf sich warten ließ, zählt Drone Mass zu den wichtigsten Werken des Komponisten. Dass das Oratorium nun erscheint, ist auch eine bewegende und persönliche Hommage von Menschen, die Jóhannsson sehr gut kannten.

"Drone Mass hat die glaziale Dramatik des Minimalismus, die vertrauten Harmonien der Kirchenmusik, das Sehnen des Pop, den tiefen digitalen Unterton des modernen Kinos – und das alles in Sätzen von der Länge eines Rocksongs.​" (Rolling Stone)

"Einfach in dieser überwältigenden Schönheit schwelgen … es könnte Ihre beste Stunde seit Jahren sein.​" (CVNC.​org)

Clarice Jensen, Musikalische Leitung, Cello
Ben Russell, Violine
Laura Lutzke, Violine
Caleb Burhans, Viola
Theatre of Voices:
Else Torp, Sopran
Kate Macoboy, Sopran
Signe Asmussen, Mezzosopran
Iris Oja, Alt
Paul Bentley-Angell, Tenor
Jakob Skjoldborg, Tenor
Jakob Bloch Jespersen, >Bassbariton
Steffen Bruun, Bass
Paul Hillier, Dirigent

Paul Hillier
specialises in vocal groups. In 1973 he founded and directed the the Hilliard Ensemble, taking this male-voice quartet to the peak of international recognition. In 1990 he moved to California and created the Theatre of Voices, to explore a greater range of musical styles using a more flexible cast of singers and instrumentalists. While teaching at the University of California, Davis, he presented an annual Festival of Voices and began to tour the USA with his new ensemble. At the same time he began a long and fruitful association with Harmonia Mundi USA, often recording among the vinyards of George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch. He remains grateful to U.C. Davis for the opportunities it gave him including, among many other things, the time to write a book about Arvo Pärt (for Oxford University Press).

From 1996-2003 Hillier was Director of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University, a distinguished school of music with vast opportunities, but after seven years he felt himself too far removed from performance life. So in 2001, when he was offered the position of Principal Conductor of the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, he accepted it - and this initiated his return to Europe. In 2003 he moved to Denmark and became, and remains, Chief Conductor of Ars Nova Copenhagen. Busy with both orchestra and choral conducting around the world, he still found time to edit the collected writings of Steve Reich (again for OUP).

In 2006 he was awarded an OBE for services to choral music. In 2007 he received the Order of the White Star of Estonia, and was awarded a Grammy for Best Choral Recording (”Da Pacem” – Arvo Pärt). He received another Grammy Award for the David Lang CD ’The Little Match Girl Passion’. In 2008 he became Chief Conductor of the National Chamber Choir of Ireland and was appointed artistic director of the Coro Casa da Música in Porto. That same year he created his own music publishing company - Theatre of Voices Edition (TOVE: distributed by Edition-S and by Peters Edition in the USA).

During 2009/10 he was artist in residence at Yale University’s Institute for Sacred Music, and performed in New York at the Bang-on-a-Can Marathon and at Lincoln Centre, also at the Royal Opera in Copenhagen, the Barbican Centre in London, and the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia. In the 2012 Grammy Awards show Paul Hiller was competing for the seventh time in nine years – nominated with Ars Nova Copenhagen and music by Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen. In 2013 he was awarded the Order of Dannebrog - the Danish knighthood - by Her Majesty, Queen Margaret of Denmark.

Theatre of Voices
is an internationally recognized Danish vocal group which has close to 40 releases and several awards, including a Grammy and P2 awards. Theatre of Voices’ repertoire covers a wide range of genres and stretches from the earliest notated music to modern sound art installations and contemporary opera. The ensemble’s distinct, clear sound and undivided devotion to the musical material has led to many collaborations with composers such as Arvo Pärt, Steve Reich, Stockhausen, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Liu Sola, Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Helena Tulve, Sunleif Rasmussen, Galina Grigorjeva, Michael Gordon, David Lang, John Luther Adams, Line Tjørnhøj, Nigel Osborne, Arnannguaq Gerstrøm, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hildur Gu∂nadóttir and many more. Theatre of Vocies has added voices to film music such as as Oscar-winning La Grande Bellezza (Paolo Sorrentino), Arrival (Denis Villeneuve) and most recently with ‘horror sound’ in the Danish film The Suicide Tourist (Jonas Alexander Arnby) with Nikolaj Coster Waldau in the lead role.

The group was founded in London in 1990 by the british conductor, singer and writer Paul Hillier and is considered one of the world's leading vocal ensembles. After some years in the USA, Hillier moved back to Europe in 2004 to settle in Denmark, where the ensemble is now based. In 2013, the group was nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize. This inspired commissioning of even more Nordic repertoire and resulted in a North Atlantic Tour in 2019 that included works from Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Denmark and Estonia featured on both concerts and local workshops.

Theatre of Voices performs at prominent international festivals, concert halls and opera houses such as the Teatro Real (Madrid), Palais Garnier (Paris), Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall (NY), Barbican Center (London), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), and Sydney Opera House. Season 2020 - where the Theatre of Voices celebrated its 30th anniversary - started with a huge celebration at Kings Place in London and in spite of Covid-19 restrictions continued with virtual and live activities in Germany, England, Italy, Greenland, recordings as holograms for 16 performances in Hong Kong, and ended with an online Christmas concert in collaboration with the National Bank of Colombia. The year had a special focus on environmental issues and sustainability.

In 2021, Theatre of Voices is booked for both CD recordings and festivals in Denmark, Finland and Italy (two concerts in the opening weekend of La Biennale di Venezia), and concerts in Germany (premiere by Bernd Franke) and the UK (Cambridge Music Festival and Kings Place) - with continued focus on female composers (premiere by Arnannguaq Gerstrøm), environment/sustainability (premiere by John Luther Adams and also refugee flows (premiere by Nigel Osborne). Collaboration with Rihab Azar (oud) and Naomi Sato (sho). Theatre of Voices is supported by the Danish Arts Council, Holbæk Municipality and the Augustinus Foundation.

American Contemporary Music Ensemble
Over the past fifteen years, led by cellist and artistic director Clarice Jensen, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) has risen to the highest ranks of American new music through a mix of meticulous musicianship, artistic vision, engaging collaborations, and unwavering standards in every regard. The membership of the amorphous collective includes some of the brightest young stars in the field. NPR calls them “contemporary music dynamos,” and Strings reports, “ACME’s absorbing playing pulsed with warm energy. . . Shared glances and inhales triggered transitions in a flow so seamless it seemed learned in a Jedi temple.” ACME was honored by ASCAP during its 10th anniversary season in 2015 for the “virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which it performs and champions American composers.”

The ensemble has performed at leading international venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, BAM, The Kennedy Center, Washington Performing Arts, UCLA's Royce Hall, Stanford Live, Chicago’s Millennium Park, Duke Performances, The Satellite in Los Angeles, Triple Door in Seattle, Melbourne Recital Hall and Sydney Opera House in Australia, and at festivals including the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Poland, All Tomorrow's Parties in England,Auckland Arts Festival in New Zealand, Summer Nostos Festival in Greece, Boston Calling, and Big Ears in Knoxville, TN.

World premieres given by ACME include Ingram Marshall’s Psalmbook, Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Drone Mass (commissioned by ACME in 2015; recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in 2019), Caroline Shaw's Ritornello, Phil Kline's Out Cold, William Brittelle's Loving the Chambered Nautilus, Timo Andres’ Senior and Thrive on Routine, Caleb Burhans’ Jahrzeit, and many more. In 2016 at The Kitchen, ACME premiered Clarice Jensen’s transcription of Julius Eastman’s The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc for ten cellos, the score of which had been lost since the premiere in 1981. Jensen transcribed a recording of the work to recreate the score.

ACME’s collaborators have included The Richard Alston Dance Company, Wayne McGregor’s Random Dance, Gibney Dance, Satellite Ballet, Meredith Monk, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, actress Barbara Sukowa, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, Blonde Redhead, Grizzly Bear, Low, Matmos, Micachu & The Shapes, Jeff Mangum, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Roomful of Teeth, Lionheart, and Theo Bleckmann.

In 2017, ACME released its first portrait album on Sono Luminus, featuring music by members Caroline Shaw,Timo Andres, and Caleb Burhans, plus John Luther Adams.The release was featured as Album of the Week on Q2 Music and Gramophone praised it, reporting, “The ACME players capture the aura of tranquility to hypnotic effect[in the Adams], the repeated patterns in the keyboard instruments contrasted beautifully with the lyrical strings.” The Strad raved, “Warmth and care are fully evident in the ensemble’s immaculate, considered performances–the four composers could hardly wish for more committed, convincing accounts of their music.”

ACME's discography also includes Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Orphée and Max Richter’s eight-hour piece, Sleep (which the ensemble regularly performs live), both on Deutsche Grammophon; Fantasias with thereminist Carolina Eyck on Butterscotch Records; Joseph Byrd: NYC 1960-63, the first commercial recording of the music of rediscovered American Fluxus composer Joseph Byrd, on New World Records; William Brittelle’s electro-acoustic chamber work Loving the Chambered Nautilus, and Jefferson Friedman's On In Love with vocalist Craig Wedren, both on New Amsterdam Records.

Booklet für Jóhann Jóhannsson: Drone Mass