Customer Reviews

Laude: Medieval Italian Spiritual Songs

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Only recently manage to get a hold of this recording and what a superb one it is. It bears the unmistakeable direction and arrangement of the late Thomas Binkley and is a fitting swan song for him to hear terrific musicians realising the Binkley vision of early music that was so outstanding in the 1970s Reflexe recordings of the Early Music Quartet. Whatever the purists may think, this is real music making, convincing, enthralling, never dull, joyous, brilliantly played and above all so musical. What a shame all the wonderful Reflexe recordings are so difficult to come by on CD! Highly recommended. By the way, does anyone know if the Todd Field who plays lute on the recording is the same person as the actor/director/musician? If so, the film world's gain is certainly the early music world's loss.

If you are a medieval purist, you will love this recording made by some star students of Thomas Binkley's IU music program back in the 80's. The sparseness of the instrumentation (fiddle, lute, recorder) is deceiving... these guys "sing" with their instruments in a very intuitive, folksy, authentic, and unique way, creating a the lush sound of a larger ensemble. The live recording lets a few technical mistakes slip in from time to time, but this only adds to the realistic feel. Maria Goncalves and Matt Pass sing extremely impressively. A must for all medieval enthusiasts.