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I Fagiolini collaboration with Dr Jez Wells

Posted on 8 June 2016

Department of Music Associate Ensemble I Fagiolini, fresh from their release of 'Amuse-Bouche' on Decca Classics, visited York last week to work with Dr Jez Wells and Dutch director Henk Schut.

Working in the Trevor Jones Studio, they recorded William Byrd's seminal (but still rarely performed) masterpiece, Deus venerunt gentes, inspired by the death of Catholic martyr Edmund Campion in 1581. The recording is a continuation of I Fagiolini's Tallis in Wonderland project which aims to break down and reconstruct Renaissance polyphony to allow the listener inside the lines of the music itself.

Director Henk Schut (http://www.artery.nl/) is currently making a new installation about political repression and wanted a recording which would allow each line to be heard individually as well as together. This coincided with Dr Wells' research into new techniques and technologies for precise capture and separation of individual sound sources from a simultaneous ensemble performance, which enables more flexibility in post-production.

I Fagiolini and Jez Wells recording in the Trevor Jones Studio in June 2016

(from left to right) Henk Schut, Eamonn Dougan, Anna Crookes, Clare Wilkinson, Nicholas Hurndall Smith, Robert Hollingworth and Dr Jez Wells, with the MH Acoustics Eigenmike (centre).