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THE REVIEW
It is not at all easy to describe the sense of "asceticism" and sacredness that emanates from this album. It is not at all easy to talk about music that demands religious silence. Music that caresses you in a violently delicate way... projecting you into dark and desolate landscapes, dotted with flashes of stars that are born and die in moments.
"Novus Magnificat" is one of the greatest masterpieces of electronic music. Created by the little-known American musician Constance Demby, it represents the fusion of gothic, new age, filtered through the grandiosity of Gregorian chants. This wonderful combination gives rise to a sound that soars superbly up to the heavenly vaults, liturgical, imposing.
The album is divided into two suites of about twenty-five minutes each, where violins chase each other over carpets of electric piano and harp, where sacred and profane meet, lights and shadows, ascents and descents. The musician's ability to paint "otherworldly" and incredibly "light" atmospheres is astonishing; the sound is always evocative, it seems to come from distant and inaccessible worlds.
Rarely, or perhaps never, has electronic music drawn such boundless landscapes. Here we are not facing the Teutonic titanism of Schulze, who aimed at a "cosmic" space that, after all, was still space; here we are in the presence of the inner space, perhaps even more desolate. From this point of view, Constance Demby is closer to the mantra of Popol Vuh, although achieved with profoundly different means.
Anyone who thinks that the '80s only offered musical trash (the year was 1986) is invited to listen to this masterpiece. Their ears will blame them.
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Summary by Bot
Novus Magnificat by Constance Demby is hailed as a majestic and sacred electronic music masterpiece. The album combines gothic, new age, and Gregorian chant influences to create vast, otherworldly soundscapes that evoke inner spiritual journeys. Its two long suites blend violins, electric piano, and harp to produce a powerful yet delicate listening experience. Listeners challenging the '80s music stereotype will find a deeply evocative and ascetic sonic work here.Tracklist
Constance Demby
Constance Demby was an American new-age and ambient composer and multi-instrumentalist, widely recognized for the landmark album Novus Magnificat (1986).03 Reviews
Other reviews
By Onirico
Since discovering this work, my life has changed: I wander at night under the relentless gaze of the stars, and this is the only music that gives me relief.
This is almost metaphysical music, some even say platonic... a metaphysical ode to physics, an otherworldly tribute to earthly life.
