Light Works

Col Legno 2024

Renaissance meets Jazz

Shining lights among composers, such as Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin de Prez and Gilles Binchois, throw long shadows up to the present day. New perspectives, connections and experiences are created by the meeting of their groundbreaking vocal works with improvised music composed in our time. Contemporary composer Simon Oberleitner has brought this together in a dialogue with the grand masters of the Renaissance, thus spanning centuries. The jazz trio Owls and the vocal ensemble Company of Music combine old and new music that resounds with memories, transformations and responses.

Music by Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin de Prez, Gilles Binchois, Guillaume de Machaut and Simon Oberleitner.  

„ 75 minutes and 18 seconds have flown by...“ - Albert Hosp (Radio Ö1/ORF)

"Light Works – sometimes a gothic cathedral, sometimes an intimate jazz club; sometimes crystal-clear vocal lines, sometimes a sonic rush – but always a captivating flow of genuine emotion and musical brilliance." - Rudolf Aigmüller in der ORF Ö1 Intrada (AUT)

“An intriguing experiment in fusion and encounter” - Der Standard

"I think the gap between Renaissance music and jazz isn’t actually that big." mica-Interview mit dem Komponisten Simon Oberleitner

“A brilliant album that offers an incredible amount to listen to, but also exciting intellectual work if you download an excellently compiled bundle of information using a QR code - which is highly recommended in this case! (…) “Light Works” is (...) far from those crossover projects in which familiar elements from two musical worlds are cobbled together in an audience-friendly way. Rather, it is always noticeable with what great background knowledge and with how much intuition and subtlety Oberleitner and Hiemetsberger sought and brought to bear connecting lines and overlaps between Renaissance music and jazz.” - Zeitschrift für Kultur und Gesellschaft (AUT)

01 Kyrie (L'homme armé) - J. Ockeghem

02 The wood nymph - S. Oberleitner

03 Nymphes des boys - J. Desprez

04 Quant de vous seul je pers la veue - J. Ockeghem/S. Oberleitner

05 Mort tu as navré #1 - J. Ockeghem

06 For Josquin - S. Oberleitner

07 Mort tu as navré #2 - J. Ockeghem

08 For Johannes - S. Oberleitner

09 Seikilos Song - Anonymus/S. Oberleitner

10 Triste plaisir - G. Binchois/S. Oberleitner

11 Tu lumen, tu splendor patris - J. Desprez/S. Oberleitner

12 Douce Dame jolie - G. de Machaut/S. Oberleitner

13 Where living begins - S. Oberleitner

14 The storm - S. Oberleitner

LINE-UP

Owls 

Simon Oberleitner, piano & composition

Andreas Waelti, double bass

Konstantin Kräutler-Horváth, drums

Company of Music 

Johannes Hiemetsberger, conductor

Hannah Fheodoroff, soprano

Martina Hübner, contralto

Sebastian Taschner & Florian Ehrlinger, tenor 

Maximilian Schnabel & Lukas Haselböck, bass

(The programme will also take place live with a performance by the Dutch light and shadow artist Roos van Haaften)