David Hykes & The Harmonic Choir

Here's a beautiful double LP from the Celestial Harmonies label, a glorious soundbath in lossless APE format. I even cleaned out a good deal of the scratches: HARMONIC MEETINGS

Harmonic chant with pure overtones, and sacred words from the Abrahamic religions, recorded 1986 in the abbey of Le Thoronet, France.

from the liner notes by David Hykes:

In my previous work with the Harmonic Choir, the pure vibrations of the harmonic voices always said what I wanted to say, without words.

All the same, for some years, I sought words that could be sung with this harmonic music. This interest came into the foreground when I was asked to compose music for a traveling art exhibition concerned with the sacred art of Christianity, Judasism and Islam...

As I began to research the musical histories of these religions, it became apparent that musical differentiations between them appeared in time as liturgies gradually diverged. (...) I became fascinated by accounts of the so-called jubilus singing in which the congregation would improvise using sacred words and syllables such as HALLELUYAH (Glory to God), sometimes even leaving out the consonants and chanting open vowels. In my own work, I tried to experiment with words common to at least two of these three religions.

It is the harmonic content of the words which interests me; singing pure vibrations and singing words is the same work. The harmonic content in a word can be brought to life; it comes from the same place as a pure vibration. Sacred words are vibrations and can be experienced as such; content can be found that is free from the ordinary mental and emotional associations which prevent words from having a resonant meaning in the present moment.Dive deep: (1) (2) (3)  [maybe reposted soon]