"While scoring The Testament of Ann Lee a biopic starring Seyfried as the founder of the Shaker religious movement Blumberg was struck by parallels between Shaker worship and free improvisation: a shared ascetic intensity, a cult-like devotion, and moments of wild, euphoric release. The speaking-in-tongues qualities of Shaker devotional singing, he realised, had uncanny echoes in the work of vocal improvisers such as Phil Minton and Maggie Nicols, both of whom feature in the film and in this performance."
"Seyfried, a fine musician (as anyone who caught her playing dulcimer on Jimmy Fallon's show will know), sings the Shaker-style hymns that Blumberg wrote for the film. Her voice pure, hymnal, lightly inflected with Appalachian bends acts as a melodic anchor while the rest of Blumberg's eight-piece ensemble mutilate these songs. Violinist Billy Steiger and bassist Tom Wheatley (on what appears to be a six-string bass viol) smear the tunes with woozy drones; drummer Steve Noble teases out abrasive textures from a kettledrum;"
"Tonight, the star of Mean Girls, Les Miserables and Mamma Mia is seated among a rather different set of luminaries: key figures from London's avant garde jazz scene. The link here is composer Daniel Blumberg. When he accepted an Oscar last year for his extraordinary score to The Brutalist, Blumberg namechecked Cafe Oto, the leftfield Dalston venue whose improvising musicians have long formed the bedrock of his work."
Daniel Blumberg connected London's avant-garde jazz scene and the Shaker spiritual tradition while scoring The Testament of Ann Lee. Blumberg credited Cafe Oto and its improvising musicians as foundational to his work and drew parallels between Shaker worship and free improvisation, noting ascetic intensity, cult-like devotion, and euphoric release. Amanda Seyfried sings Blumberg's Shaker-style hymns with a pure, hymnal voice lightly inflected by Appalachian bends. The eight-piece ensemble distorts those hymns with woozy violin and bass drones, abrasive kettledrum textures, and clangorous, discordant handbells. Vocal improvisers Phil Minton and Maggie Nicols contribute speaking-in-tongues vocal qualities that echo Shaker devotional singing.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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