****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This is one of the most unusual - and pleasantly surprising - recordings of any ancient music I've heard that seeming only French ancient-music ensembles like Musica Nova can recreate unlike any other. This is a true collector's item, especially given the unique, thick booklets that accompany the artistic presentation. Very niche. Upon playing the disc, the sound surreally seems to leap out of the speakers with a hyper-realism that draws one in. And, in a regrettable sea of Amazon reviews that aren't reviews at all, comes along, once in the rare occassion, the truly exceptional review like the first one of "Sator."This is a unique, specialist-professional attempt to recreate music of the earliest (13th century) music from the hand of Machaiut that was inspired by the love poetry of the era. Think you know love and romance? Sure you do, but take a journey into 13th-c France mystical courtships in the unfamiliar, even strange, poetric images (lyrics) of what true love embodies back amplified by the bewitching sounds of ancient instruments. Out of hundreds of such recordings, this is one that has an amazing and tangible feel of antiquity (Sequentia's Eddy/Reingold Iceland recordings even moreso). Not exactly music you put on when guests arrive - especially an entire CD of similar music that eventually wears - unless perhaps they are dressed for a Medieval or Renaissance festival.
