Chœur des moines de l'abbaye de Bricquebec/De Cîteaux/Sept-Fons/de Timadeuc - Salve Regina (Deathspell Omega fans take notice)

For the obligatory festive album courtesy of your beloved half-Christian/half-Shia Lebanese jackass, a gift for the church-goers who love Deathspell Omega. Since I first heard Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice, I've been haunted by the Gregorian choir chanting throughout but more prominently at the hair-raising outro of track 1, the unforgettable "First Prayer." I'd done some research over the years, without any success at all, and only very recently did I manage to find where that sample came from. Discussions in the Metal Archives forum talked about a Jewish chant, while others mentioned it was a Russian Orthodox hymn, but none was the case. It is a French monastic choir going by the name Chœur des Moines de l'abbaye De Cîteaux, which is run by Trappist monks in Saint-Nicolas-lès-Cîteaux near Dijon, and the hymn is "Magnificat Verbum caro factum est (Antiennes)." Now all of you children of Satan can rejoice at hearing this impeccable hymn in its full glory. As a fan of Catholic aesthetics, Gothic architecture, and all the blood, fire, and sin committed in the name of sweet little Jesus, I can't help but love the recordings in this cd (the hymn "Salve Regina" which has given the cd its name is not Arvo Pärt's composition), as they have a very devotional quality, given that they are sung by monk pros and not just choirs of good calliphone artists, and the recording has a quite lo-fi aspect that makes it even more mystical. Since these chants were recorded inside the churches, bells are occasionally heard to ring, thereby ascribing an even more cult feeling. Features recordings by four choirs of monks in France: Chœur des moines de l'abbaye de Bricquebec, Chœur des Moines de l'abbaye De Cîteaux, Chœur des moines de l'abbaye de Sept-Fons, and Chœur des moines de l'abbaye de Timadeuc. 2004 cd on Studio SM on the Eternel Gregorien series. Everyone have fun during these days; fuck consumerism, fuck shop owners, and fuck the festive opening of shops on Sundays that is done at the expense of the rest of workers.

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Schnittke & Pärt - Choral Works (Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir conducted by Kaspars Putniņš)

Latvian conductor Kaspars Putniņš in charge of Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir for a rendition of Alfred Schnittke's Psalms of Repentance. I know that Schnittke converted quite late in his life to Christianity and his music was often repressed in the Soviet Union, but I can't help feeling that his choral work that was written in 1988 possesses a Soviet spirit. There is a busy, dramatic, hellish, and agonizing tone in this material that might just as well have been included in the soundtrack of Soviet films or Tarkovsky's masterpieces; it also reminds me of the sublime music of Ligetti on 2001: A Space Odyssey. Check out the third psalm ("That Is Why I Live In Poverty") with a sustained note kept for many seconds by the choir for a completely unconventional approach to religious chanting. Coupling Schnittke's psalms we get Arvo Pärt's "Magnificat" (I think that its best version is on Te Deum but this one is good too, with a more ambient sound) and one of his very best psalms, "Nunc Dimittis," that is unbelievably heart-baring and humbling, even for someone who is a hardline communist coming from an Arab/Shia background like me. It's up to par with "Salve Regina," possibly the best piece of music ever written after Miles Davis's "He Loved Him Madly." I think that on this track Putniņš outdoes both Paul Hillier's version on Da Pacem (sung there by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir as well eleven years before) and Stephen Layton's more quiet one on 2003's Triodion. Check this cd out both for this amazing take on "Nunc Dimittis" and Schnittke's unconventional approach to religious music. 2017 SACD on BIS.

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