# The new 2CD Gombert album by Beauty Farm



## Chordalrock (Jan 21, 2014)

I'm pretty hyped about this new album. It's 19 motets by, IMO, the greatest composer of Renaissance motets since Josquin, finally performed & recorded closely miked with the kind of sound, blend, attention to intonation, and balance between the voices that make this music approachable and reveal its depths. No hissing sibilants, no top voice drowning out everything else, and a bass that actually sounds good.

There's a sample track they've put up on youtube (be aware that the low quality of the sound file means that some of the bass frequencies are missing, so the bass voice may not come out in all its glory):






There are two reviews of the album on Early Music Review and two more at Amazon UK if someone is interested.

http://earlymusicreview.com/gombert-motets/

These are reportedly dark and straightforward readings of Gombert, with new editions used, meaning that some notes are actually different from what some other groups have done.

I seemed to notice the group also had some samples up on soundcloud, though I want to wait for my copy of the CDs before indulging in the rest of their motets. But I can say it already seems clear, based on the sample and the reviews, that there is no Gombert album available that can compete with this one - I have listened to pretty much everything there is, including two albums by Sound and the Fury, and there's just not been anything really solid available until now (the quasi-live S&F albums I'd rate as the second best there is, if only for the few tracks where they really nail the music and don't stumble over intonation; their bass singer is epic awesome, I mean on his own level, so I'll probably never stop listening to a few of their tracks).


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