Harmonic Divergence is the perfect companion piece to Steven Wilson’s highly acclaimed 2023 album The Harmony Codex. On this very limited nine track release, music from the original album has been remixed and reimagined by Wilson, alongside longtime bandmates/collaborators and like-minded bands and producers. The result is a warped mirror image of the original, where oblique electronics are replaced by spidery gothic guitar riffs and cyclical piano tracks are mutated and transformed for the dance floor.
Harmonic Divergence is the perfect companion piece to Steven Wilson’s highly acclaimed 2023 album The Harmony Codex. On this very limited nine track release, music from the original album has been remixed and reimagined by Wilson, alongside longtime bandmates/collaborators and like-minded bands and producers. The result is a warped mirror image of the original, where oblique electronics are replaced by spidery gothic guitar riffs and cyclical piano tracks are mutated and transformed for the dance floor.
Harmonic Divergence is the perfect companion piece to Steven Wilson’s highly acclaimed 2023 album The Harmony Codex. On this very limited nine track release, music from the original album has been remixed and reimagined by Wilson, alongside longtime bandmates/collaborators and like-minded bands and producers. The result is a warped mirror image of the original, where oblique electronics are replaced by spidery gothic guitar riffs and cyclical piano tracks are mutated and transformed for the dance floor.
The program is taken from the Squarcialupi Codex, a lavish manuscript of 14th-century Italian music, named after a 15th-century organist at the cathedral of Florence who came into possession of it. It is located in a Florence library but is now available in a very expensive facsimile. The music, all secular works originating in Florence, is grouped by composer (a portrait illuminates each group) and arranged in chronological order of their age. The first five composers have only six selections here, with the rest of the disc devoted to Bartolino and Andreas. The disc takes its title from Giovanni’s madrigal in praise of music, the first piece on the disc.
The Ensemble Codex Sanctissima was founded in November 2011 with the purpose of spreading the Medieval and Renaissance music to the most varied audiences, with repertoires primarily selected among the most venerable sources of Christian sacred music, from the liturgical traditions of pre-Gregorian chant dating back to the sixth century, through the earliest forms of polyphony recorded in manuscripts of the ninth and tenth centuries, the works of the School of Notre-Dame and its correlates, the works of the troubadours and trouvères, the periods known as Ars Antiqua and Ars Nova, until the Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In this project we aim to also include some Oriental music, as is the case of an Armenian prayer in this first album.
A French manuscript from the 14th-Century said to be compiled in Avignon, the seat of the papacy during the time, the Ivrea Codex contains several styles of music from the time making it one of the most important surviving documents from the Medieval era. This recording features harmonious vocals backed by light instrumentation. The first-rate performance of Cantica Symphonia brings an element of the sublime and divine making this one of the best releases from the Early Music genre.