Weekend, Feb 24-25, 2024 – Kevin Keller & Phaedra’s 50th

21st Century Mediaeval Hymns; Kevin Keller-The Echoes Interview

We go to the monastery on Echoes when Kevin Keller talks about his album, Evensong. It is partly based on the chants and hymns of 12^th century Abbess Hildegard von Bingen.

You might recall the chant craze of the 1990s when The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo singing gothic hymns were topping the charts, and artists like Enigma were adapting chants into their music. But rising above them all were the 12th century compositions of Abbess Hildegard von Bingen. Her music was recreated by artists like Gothic Voices, Sequentia and Anonymous 4 and adapted for 20th century ears by Richard Souther, Vox, and David Lynch with Jocelyn Montgomery. Now composer Kevin Keller has created his own beautiful renderings of her music on the album Evensong, a CD of the Month in November.

Today we might call Hildegard a polymath. She was a writer, philosopher, mystic, and medical practitioner. But she is best known for her music: heavenly plainchant hymns that call to the heavens in the most sensual way. Many of these came to her in visions, and that’s how Kevin Keller’s album, Evensong arrived.

Kevin Keller: At the risk of sounding a little too mystical, this album did sort of come to me in a vision. It arrived fully formed in my brain two years ago in October of 21. And just in like the space of a couple of hours, I had the album title, the concept, and I knew right from the beginning that it was going to involve songs by Hildegard of Bingen and that there would be eight songs.

We talk to Kevin Keller about bringing these gothic sounds into the 21^st century. .

Hear it tonight or Right Now at Echoes Online.
Read John Diliberto’s CD of the Month Review of Evensong

PLAYLIST FOR KEVIN KELLER FEATURE

Sequentia – O Virdissima Virga, Ave – Canticles of Ecstasy
Sequentia – O Vis Aeternitatis – Canticles of Ecstasy
Richard Souther – Vision – Vision: The Music of Abbess Hildegard von Bingen
Kevin Keller – Evensong 7 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 4 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 3 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 1 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 7 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 8 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 4 – Evensong
Kevin Keller – Evensong 5 – Evensong

Head into psychedelic space on the 50^th anniversary of Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra. This is a seminal album of electronic music that essentially launched the whole sequencer school of electronics. We’ll hear a meditation on Phaedra with Moby, Mark Shreeve, Ian Boddy, Steve Roach, and Ulrich Schnauss.  We’ll hear most of the Phaedra album and musicians influenced by the release. John Diliberto takes us on a trip to Phaedra on Echoes from PRX.

Read John Diliberto’s Meditation on Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra.
Hear our documentary on Tangerine Dream in the Echoes Podcast here..
Hear our complete 1982 interview with Edgar Froese here.
See our list of Ten Tangerine Dream Albums to Blow Your Mind.
Hear our interview with the current edition of Tangerine Dream here.