Jeff Bird just recorded his latest project ORDO VIRTUTUM which explores the music of 12th century mystic Hildegard von Bingen through his love of the harmonica. With breath as a rhythmic guide, each piece unfolds like deep sonic ocean swells creating a profoundly meditative experience.
Jeff is touring from Ontario and regularly records, tours and play with the Cowboy Junkies.
ORDO VIRTUTUM – Jeff Bird plays Hildegard von Bingen: volume two
Jeff Bird’s new release ORDO VIRTUTUM celebrates his love of the transcendent music of 12th century mystic HILDEGARD von BINGEN. The melodies of his new arrangements for harmonica draw upon Hildegards’s morality play, ORDO VIRTUTUM, considered to be one of the earliest recorded musical dramas in western music. Quietly stirring, Jeff’s luminous arrangements imbue each track with its own unique sonic environment ranging from string orchestra to a 19th century pump organ to a remarkable newly invented instrument; the fron. With breath as a rhythmic guide, each piece unfolds like deep sonic ocean swells creating a profoundly meditative experience.
What the critics say about FELIX ANIMA Jeff Bird plays Hildegard von Bingen: volume one
“This is such a rewarding magical listening experience. Bird’s perfect breath control on harmonica emulates the original vocal lines throughout all his contemplative arrangements…Bird’s decades-long passion for von Bingen’s music has enabled him to create a new brilliant sound mix of medieval and modern arrangements for instrumentations that all just work perfectly to the final harmonica closing fade.”
Tiina Kiik – The Whole Note
“The album is meditative and spiritual in ways one would certainly not expect from a harmonica record—but Jeff Bird has always been about subverting expectations and blowing your musical mind. This is no different.”
Michael Barclay – radio free canuckistan
“Hildegard von Bingen on harmonica? Absolutely! Jeff Bird’s new album, Felix Anima, is a stunner.”
CBC Music
Bio
Jeff Bird is a gifted multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer. He has realized 18 recordings of his own as a soloist and collaborator, and has scored music for film, television and dance. He is an experimental filmmaker and performance artist whose work has been showcased at festivals around the world from Dawson City, Yukon to Vladivostok, Russia. With Cowboy Junkies he was part of the legendary The Trinity Session and continues to record and tour the world with them. In 2019 Jeff was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame with Cowboy Junkies.
www.jeffbird.com
Bookings
This event is fully booked.