Remember me, my dear

"Made shortly before the dissolution of the Hilliard Ensemble in 2014, this live recording first appeared in the fall of 2019. It thus has the quality of a swan song for the unique collaboration of the Hilliard Ensemble and saxophonist Jan Garbarek, which still sounds fresh many years after it was first developed. The way the cool textures of the Hilliard's singing and Garbarek's saxophone bring together the disparate worlds of medieval music, contemporary music including Baltic minimalism, and jazz remains fascinating".

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"Remember Me reprises compositions from the three preceding albums, plus a new piece, Procurans Odium, a medieval song found at a Bavarian monastery ... I'm reminded of Edward Lee's comment about the jazz singer: "... confronted with the problem of reconciling straight versions of sentimental songs and intractable words with the vastly different jazz ethos, [that] any succeeded at all is remarkable". Confronted with the problem of improvising against medieval vocal music, that this ensemble succeeded at all is remarkable".

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"Albummet er et overraskende slapt og trist punktum for et projekt, der blev undfanget tilbage i 1990'erne, og som dengang vakte enorm opsigt og førte til rekordstore salgstal ... Men på det nye album (...) virker konceptet grundigt træt. Sangerne har ikke længere fordums blærede overskud i stemmerne, og få måneder efter indspilningen i 2014 opløste Hilliard-herrerne da også definitivt deres kvartet ... Noget andet er den konstante baggrundslarm, der lyder som den, man oplever, når man er turist i store domkirker. Folk snakker og hoster. Kommer og går. Det torpederer fuldstændig den normalt ellers netop så rene og toptjekkede ECM-lyd ... Som om alting har rottet sig sammen for at sige, at nu har dette eksperiment, der for et kvart århundrede siden blev et uventet kæmpehit, varet længe nok".

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"Jan Garbarek and the Hilliards' aptly named farewell disc includes many of the pieces on 2010's Officium Novum and brings to an end one of music's most iconic collaborations".

"This album is their last together, as The Hilliard Ensemble has since disbanded. And because it was recorded in a church, the sound is echoey and diffuse, qualities that help Garbarek, playing soprano, harmonize with the ensemble on a textural, as well as a harmonic level ... The album - mostly including selections from the previous collaborations - moves along in slow, careful motion, like a creeping fog, except for "Alleluia Nativitas," which feels a bit like a jig and on which Garbarek gets bluesy. Still, for the most part, things stay stylistically the same, and Remember Me, My Dear in many ways feels like one unending melody that will continue on, despite the group having played its last song".