Kancheli, Giya – “Exil” – [ECM BMG Records]

Hemroid The Leader   5/11/2016   A Library, CD

5 song cycle from Georgian composer Giya Kancheli (JEE-uh Kahn-CHEL-ee). A Georgian Orthodox Christian, Kancheli left the Soviet Union after 1989, relocating to Belgium. Exile is the theme here.
Kancheli says, “When a person goes into a church, synagogue or mosque where there’s not service going on, there’s a special kind of silence. I want to turn that silence into music.”
Stillness. Sacramental reverb. Maacha Deubner sings a boylike soprano. Long tones, pre-classical ornaments. The strings, winds, and voice blur and smear in an agonizingly restrained klangfarbenmelodie. Denial of the flesh. A ceremonial tone pervades throughout.