Jan Garbarek & Hilliard Ensemble
Live @ Bari, 5 Dicembre 2005

As part of the "Voices of the Soul" - West and East - festival that is taking place in Bari from December 5 to 21, 2005, in churches, for free, I heard Jan Garbarek & the Hilliard Ensemble.

We arrived quite early in this neighborhood that you wouldn't usually visit unless you live there; the concert was supposed to start at 9 PM, but we needed to hurry, otherwise, we wouldn't get in. However, at 8:40 PM, the lights of this semicircular church went off, and Jan Garbarek appeared. After a while, once he had received his share of applause, four distinguished English gentlemen, dressed in black, very serious and composed, appeared. No one was smiling. The four positioned themselves in different parts of the church, and began singing their verses, it seemed something between opera choruses and Gregorian chants, at first glance, they seemed like 2 tenors, an alto, and a bass.
The initial pieces passed by rather listlessly, the audience was cold, and so was the church. I was leaning against a wall with a friend, "do you like it?" I asked her. "Well! I don't know." Garbarek changed saxophones, the four regrouped, the atmosphere warmed up, and so did the concert. The audience became more engaged. There was an incredible silence, but suddenly the audience erupted with applause when it was unlikely, even while the alto was taking a breath before starting the next piece. They distanced themselves again, and it seemed that someone had turned on some laptops because from far away came a delicate high-tech sound, but wasn't it supposed to be just an acoustic concert? One of the four "serious yet wild" singers managed to simulate a sound with his voice that you wouldn't expect in such a setting. And Garbarek? He uses the saxophone as if it were simply the fifth voice, he doesn't dominate, he doesn't accompany, he participates.

We all left happy. I didn't know the album "Officium" very well, so once I got home, I listened to it again, sure enough, the atmosphere of the church, modern though it is, helps it a lot, in small doses, it's a masterpiece.