Dr Joe Bates's Ceasing released on Platoon Records

That piece sits alongside an intriguing arrangement of Palestrina’s Stabat Mater by the late Jonathan Harvey. This work’s electronics had become obsolete; Dr Bates worked closely with Gilbert Nouno at IRCAM in Paris to bring the piece back to life.

The album explores acts of commemoration and loss. The project began with Harvey’s arrangement; its moving thirteen-century text, Stabat Mater, depicts Mary mourning at the foot of the cross. Harvey’s kaleidoscopic electronic reworking of Palestrina’s polyphony inspired an extended choir-and-electronics collaboration between Dr Bates and Sansara.

Like the Stabat Mater, Ceasing explores grief. It starts in media res, in a close third person, but the perspective gradually shifts as the piece progresses, taking on the memories and thoughts of others. The text was in part created through a series of interviews with the singers, whose stories of loss are woven together into a dense texture at the work’s climax.

This experience prompted a new project from Sansara, Voice Loss, which uses ensemble singing and breathwork to support people living with loss. Works from this project accompany the Bates and Harvey on the disc, which spans the centuries, from Raphaella Aleotti to the present.

You can stream the album at this link.