Godard, Michel - Trace of Grace (A)
From 13 May to 5 June 2011 six musicians joined at a very particular place in order to live altogether a musical experience of adventure: this particular place is an ancient Cistercian monastery, the beautiful and impressive Abbaye de Noirlac, Abbey of the Black Lake, which dates from the 12th century and is situated some kilometres south of Bourges, in the very middle of France. The six musicians are Michel Godard, a virtuoso of the serpent, Guillemette Laurens, the beautiful mezzo-soprano widely known in the world of ancient music, Fanny Paccoud, a violinist who moves with delight between the two worlds of ancient and contemporary music, the famous composer and bass player Steve Swallow, whom I call the "smooth rock of jazz", Gavino Murgia, an incredible improviser at the saxophone and a singer with an amazing voice, and, last but not least, Bruno Helstroffer, a theorbo player with astonishing capacities of very inventive improvisations.
These six musicians-and we, from the Carpe Diem Team with them-meet up between cloister and refectory, between bats and swallows, eagle owls and nightingales, between lime trees too which are 300 years old and an uncountable number of short-lived insects, between, at last, night and day to create an original music around and starting from...Monteverdi. Because this is the project that Michel Godard has initiated and for which he has invited his five musician friends.