No doubt the title Drums 'n' Chant (or any title containing "'n'") will put some listeners off. And it's no surprise to learn that Martin Grubinger, confidently proclaimed "the world's finest percussionist" in the notes by Simon Bischoff (in German and English) encountered resistance from Father Rhabanus, a monk at the Münsterschwarzach Abbey, when he proposed this project. But the monk eventually came around, and even the skeptical listener should give this unusual project a try. As Bischoff points out, what's done here ...
Read More
No doubt the title Drums 'n' Chant (or any title containing "'n'") will put some listeners off. And it's no surprise to learn that Martin Grubinger, confidently proclaimed "the world's finest percussionist" in the notes by Simon Bischoff (in German and English) encountered resistance from Father Rhabanus, a monk at the Münsterschwarzach Abbey, when he proposed this project. But the monk eventually came around, and even the skeptical listener should give this unusual project a try. As Bischoff points out, what's done here does no more violence to Gregorian chant than do the various recordings that pick and choose among chants regardless of liturgy in search of some nebulous meditation effect. This said, what's presented here is, in contemporary lingo, a mashup. The album is based on the chant recordings made in the 1980s by the abbey's Schola Cantorum choir for the Archiv label. It's not made very clear why new chant recordings couldn't have been made; it's hard to imagine that the monks might have been...
Read Less
Portions of content provided by Rovi Corporation. © 2024 Rovi Corporation.