Julia Sinclair (soprano) and Marijn Cinjee (electronics)
Release 4 July 2025 through Nimbus Alliance CD (NI 6457) Vinyl LP (NI 6459)
CD and LP available now to buy on Bandcamp (includes high definition download); on Amazon; and in most on line and real world record shops.
”..for listening to in a darkened room, contemplating. It is ethereal cosmic-classical ambience” (Thomas H Green, Arts Desk, June 2025)
“Sinclair’s voice carries just the right balance of richness and ethereality, and she sings with sensitivity to the conventions of medieval practice (to the degree that we really know them). Cinjee responds with both creativity and restraint, sometimes producing barely audible accompaniment and sometimes taking what sound like the resonant frequencies of Sinclair’s voice and letting them blossom with overtones. The result is both eerie and simply gorgeous.“ (Rick Anderson, CD Hotlist, September 2025)
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 Marijn 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.
You can listen to the album here: