Around the World (20)

Hello, Around the World continues the Medieval theme, with the second Mittelalter ( Medieval ) Special from Sonic Seducer, and was last weeks theme Tristan Und Isolde, today it's the Cantus Buranus, madefamous by Orffs clasical interpretation 100 years ago, but obviously these songs were far older and Corvus Corax were well poised to bring these songs into the here and now but with the instruments of the time. It was a big project and its available on DVD aswell.

The 20 th of december 2006 Corvus Corax gave a concert at The Melkweg, Amsterdam, you can watch it here



in case the embedding fails here's a direct link Corvus Corax Concert
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Corvus Corax - Cantus Buranus (05 ^ 99mb)

Corvus Corax was formed in 1989 by Castus Rabensang, Win (Venustus) and Meister Selbfried ("Master Selfpeace"). The band often uses bagpipes as the solo instrument, their live performances attract attention with bizarre look of the musicians being reminiscent of ancient Greek myths: half-naked, dressed in unusual clothes, wearing different ancient-like decorations, often tattooed. Today the band consists of eight members: Ardor vom Venushügel ("Ardor from the Venusmount"), Castus Rabensang, Patrick der Kalauer ("Patrick the groaner"), Harmann der Drescher ("Harmann the thrasher"), Hatz ("hunt"), Jordon Finus, Teufel and Wim (Venustus). In May 2005 Meister Selbfried, one of the Corvus Corax founders and the researcher of medieval music, decided to cease his active musicianship and to dedicate himself mostly to managing the Corvus Corax' own label Pica Records.His place in the line-up was taken by Jordon Finus in 2006.

Because medieval music theory was dominated by ecclesiastics, it is often difficult to determine from the existent manuscripts exactly how the secular (popular) music of the day sounded. Corvus Corax draws on a number of sources to try to make their music as authentic as possible: they have used documents that "condemn profane music" as an indicator as to what the music might have sounded like. The profane music of the day was often accompanied by a droning bass tone similar to that generated by the bourdon stop on an organ, which is provided in Corvus Corax's case by the drones on their bagpipes. An inkling as to the harmonies used is found in a song by Walter von der Vogelweide, in which he calls for the song to be played "the old way", meaning harmonising with thirds. At the time, the third was considered an awkward, ugly interval by the sacred musician — like the tritone, or diabolus in musica — but it was a common interval in folk music.

Between 89 and 2005 they released 11 albums, toured Europe, 11 weeks in Japan livened up every Medieval Market and socalled Knight's Tournaments, wrote film music, researched music and build instruments. I guess most of us missed all that and their old albums aren't easy to come by and Medieval Markets seem beyond the imagination of the Councils around here.

In 2005 Corvus Corax started the ambitious project "Cantus Buranus": a full-length opera set to the original Carmina Burana manuscript lyrics. The music for the opera was fully composed by the band and had no connection with the famous work by Carl Orff. It was performed with symphonic orchestra, choir and medieval ensemble, combining traditional symphonism with medieval minstrel-like melodies. The project included a CD recording, a DVD, as well as live performances. A live CD and DVD recording of Cantus Buranus was released in March 2006.

After having played all over Europe, Jordan and Japan, finally, supporting the release there of a compilation of Corvus Corax , previous 11 albums, 2005 saw their debut concerts in the USA. The band performed four sets on each of four different days in mid-October, not far from Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. By 2006 they released Venus Vina Musica on both sides of the atlantic simultanously. 2007 saw the release of a remastered greatests "Kaltenberg Anno MMVII".



01 - Fortuna (4:12)
02 - Florent Omnes (5:47)
03 - Dulcissima (5:01)
04 - Lingua Mendax (5:02)
05 - Rustica Puella (4:19)
06 - Nummus (3:34)
07 - Curritur (4:21)
08 - Sol Solo (4:25)
09 - Venus (4:52)
10 - O Langueo (4:11)
11 - Ergo Bibamus (6:00)

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VA - Middleages Special II (Sonic Seducer ) (03 ^ 99mb)

A few months later after the overwhelming positive respons they released a Medievil Special II .This came as a second freebie cd of a Goth / EBM /Iindustrial magazine, Sonic Seducer. As meantioned last week i bought it for several years, until my eyes refused all that small print (so much copy there ), well i have reading glasses now. An excellent magazine with a monthly bonusdisc and sometimes two, like this Mittelalter (medievil) special. A perfect showcase for bands you likely have never heard of.

For those that read German, i can point you to their excellent website, the subscription cost is remarkably low for what you get each month, check it out. Sonic Seducer



01 - Haggard - All'Inizio De La Morte (5:01)
02 - Schandmaul - Tyrann (3:47)
03 - Adaro - Wer Alten Weibern Traut (4:17)
04 - Estampie - Avolgente (4:52)
05 - Faun - Ne Alduj El (5:16)
06 - Saltatio Mortis - Dädalus (4:08)
07 - Varius Coloribus - Steinjung (4:26)
08 - Corvus Corax - Suam Elle Ires (3:09)
09 - Voluptatis Causa - Hexezirkel (2:38)
10 - Van Langen & Des Teufels Lockvögel - A.V.L.L. (3:34)
11 - Ohrenpeyn - Skudrinkanischer Remix (5:04)
12 - Nerthus - Battle Song (5:36)

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All downloads are in * ogg-7 (224k) or ^ ogg-9(320k), artwork is included , if in need get the nifty ogg encoder/decoder here !