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QUAM TRISTIS
Le Rituel Sacré
2002
CD
po13w2
A French group playing folk-rock in Latin with ambient washes?
This just had to be fun, and for discovering this and some other
neo-mediaeval artists I'm indebted to The Soil Bleeds Black
for their page
of weblinks to kindred projects. But although O Quam
Tristis can legitimately be described as folk rock or electro-mediaeval,
the modern dance beats render it closer to gothic/ethereal/darkwave
than Fairport Convention.
O Quam Tristis takes its name from a quotation (“Oh, how
sad…”) from the mediaeval Latin hymn 'Stabat Mater',
a poem about the Virgin Mary and her profound sorrow at witnessing
the death of her son. The group comprises Tomek Ashkenazy
Isaac, Hugues Dammarie (who also sings
in Bleeding Like Mine),
Katrina Koslowska, Emeric Lenotz
and Anna Virsky.
The lyrics are Latin chants taken from The Holy Mass and various
anonymous liturgical texts. Organic and electronic instruments accompany
but never drown the core vocal element. This ensures coherence,
indeed purity of concept, whilst balancing this with attention-holding
variation.
'Gratias Agimus Tibi' typifies the approach with a daring but highly
successful combination of vocals, gurgly electronics, modern percussion,
typical synth sounds and the sound of pipes and hurdy-gurdy or some
electronic approximation.
OQT can at times sound like Dead Can Dance or
Enigma, but Carl Orff is just
as likely to have been an inspiration. Le Rituel Sacré
follows OQT's debut album, Funérailles des Petits Enfants.
Highly original and great fun.
Rik – 6 March 2003
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