Julia Sinclair (soprano) and Marjin Cinjee (electronics)
Release 4 July 2025 through Nimbus Alliance CD (NI 6457) Vinyl LP (NI 6459)
This album arose from a chance encounter when Richard heard Julia singing unaccompanied Hildegard of Bingen in a church in Hampstead, London in 2023. He introduced her to to Marjin Cinjee, an Amsterdam-based 4DSOUND spatial sound engineer and electronic composer, and asked them to explore making music together. The album’s press release sets out some more background to their vision.
The resulting album is a Richard Thomas Foundation commission, and an ethereal reinterpretation of Hildegard’s music. The compositions premièred at Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on 15th December 2024 as part of a 4DSOUND festival, many in the audience subsequently describing it as one of the most beautiful pieces of music they had ever heard.
Various singles are released prior to the album launch. The first, o viridissima virga, was played on BBC Radio 3 on the day of its release, and was streamed 12,000 times in the first week. Listen to it here: