Corvus Corax - Cantus Buranus II (2008)

GENRE..... Folk
LABEL...... Pica Music
MODE....... VBRkbps / Joint-Stereo
REL.DATE.. Sep-07-2008

As far as medieval music is concerned, Corvus Corax are an
institution. 17 years ago these minstrels had the world of
music taken notice of them and enlightened the view on the
dark ages of European history. They showed that pestilence
and crusades werent the only things that made the 1000 years
we call Middle Ages today.
In the first years of the bands history the musicians had to
work hard for their fame. Their unconventional way of
interpreting medieval music was hard to digest for some worthy
bards, but the audience liked this new wild way of making
music. The instruments themselves had to be gotten used to,
not everybody knew that there were bagpipes in our part of the
world 500 years ago and its the bagpipes that are the
emblem of Corvus Corax.
So Corvus Corax roamed the land with bagpipes and drums and
with beguiling noise made their way through streets and
squares, into pubs and castle halls, on medieval spectacles
and fairs until they were also allowed into concert halls all
over the world. Thus they did pioneering work, and to a large
extend it was owed to them that it was possible to lead
medieval minstrel music to its present popularity.
Concert tours led them not only into almost every European
country, but also to Japan, Morocco, Mexico and to the USA.
The fans and press made them the Kings of Minstrels. Because
of their regular successful performance at one of the biggest
medieval events of the world, the Kaltenberg tournament, they
were given the honour to be appointed Musicians of the
Knights of the Round Table at Kaltenberg by His Royal
Highness, Luitpold, Prince of Bavaria.
In such a long and eventful band history it is impossible to
avoid changes in the line-up. What has started as a duo, has
now grown into a group of seven: Wim, Castus Rabensang, Ardor
and Teufel play the bagpipes and shawms, Harmann der Drescher,
Patrick der Kalauer and Hatz beat the drums. The musicians,
however, are far more versatile: Hurdy-gurdy, cornett,
cittern, trumscheit, recorder, bombard are only some of the
more than hundred instruments that are used. Also they use a
great variety of drums: From small jews harps, bells, riqq,
davul, gongs, tam tams and cassa up to the giant darabuka,
they use all these drums to create a spectacular stage design
dominated by two framed drums of 120 cm in diameter.
The musical development of Corvus Corax can be shown with the
help of three great turning points of their career. It started
with the idea of giving an authentical frame to minstrel
music. The bagpipes were constructed in the bands own
workplace following medieval designs and adapted to the bands
ways of playing. They had to be loud to get through to the
audience at open-air performances, and they had to be big as
in the way they were painted on many medieval pictures. There
they were often depicted disproportionally large to hint at
the dissipated minstrel life that didnt follow any rules. At
the same time these pictures hint at the minstrels lack of
respect which is also a characteristic of Corvus Corax and
which is the basis of the bands way of dealing with the
original medieval melodies as it still was the basis of the
bands music at this early stage of its history.
After seven years Corvus Corax changed. More and more modern
stylistic devices went into the music, especially into what
made the rhythm, so that the original style of the
band was further strengthened. What had been possible for the
medieval protagonists, i.e. using every style and influence of
the then music that crossed their way, was also possible for
Corvus Corax. The sometimes only partially preserved notes,
that were labouriously wrenched from the old manuscripts, were
worked on by Corvus Corax more and more independently,
especially by integrating grooves that you can dance to. Thus
Corvus Corax managed to give medieval minstrel music back the
value it had had 500 years ago: being music to entertain and
to dance to. In this way the minstrels gained their status of
being a cult band even beyond the medieval scene, that had
grown larger over the years.
In this phase the band also experimented with electronic
sounds and electric guitars, which led to the foundation of
the band Tanzwut, that consists of the same musicians. Here
the untiring musicians link the sound of bagpipes and shawms
with rock and pop elements to what they themselves call
Medieval Industrial Rock. So Corvus Corax were able to stay
true to their purely acoustic instruments.
Setting texts from the medieval Carmina Burana manuscript to
music anew for a symphonic orchestra with their Cantus
Buranus, Corvus Corax finally built a bridge between the
Middle Ages, classical music and modern music. They created an
opus magnum for a big symphonic orchestra, three choirs and
the medieval instruments of Corvus Corax. Recording and
producing this work in the studio took almost three years, and
from the summer of 2005 on, it has been performed live several
times. The Cantus Buranus performance in front of the Old
National Gallery in Berlin on the occasion of the
Museumsinselfestival was recorded and is available on DVD.

The second part of CANTUS BURANUS will be released at the 1th
of August 2008. The recordings are just finished. We are proud
to engage the Babelsberger Filmorchester and singers like
Ingeborg Schpf (from Staatsoperette Dresden) and Klaus Lothar
Peters (who has sang at Operas in Bruxelles and Nizza) for
this recordings. At this time the band is mastering with
Thommy Hein, who had also mixed ad mastered the first part.

Tracklist:

01-veritas simplex
02-miser
03-custodes sunt raptores
04-de mundi statu
05-ordu languet
06-vitium in opere
07-quid agam
08-causa ludi
09-ingordin et ingordan
10-magnum detrimentum
11-in orbem universum
12-o varium fortune
13-chou chou sheng - preces ad imperatorem

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