"Sansara's debut album really is sensational. I confidently say that they are already one of the finest, most exciting choirs in the UK today. Their approach to new and established repertoire is so refreshing, and their programmes are delivered with intelligence, musicality, and precision. They have an enormously bright future, and I am very excited to be part of this as an Associate Composer."

- Oliver Tarney

Cloths of Heaven

Oliver Tarney | A prayer of St Richard of Chichester (sample)

"When approaching the Tantum Ergo Sacramentum text, I decided to study the Gregorian Chant of the Pange Lingua. For me, one of the most interesting characteristics of this melody is its irregular note groupings. The first portion of the chant is a group of five notes, so I decided to set this numerical value as the compositional basis for my work. This chant melody is represented on a number of levels, creating a large-scale harmonic trajectory, as well as informing the small-scale motif shapes.

Therefore, when I was determining the mood of this piece, the melodic rise in the chant figure naturally gave me the basis for a piece that represents an outpouring of joy. The second verse of this glorious text strikes a resonance with me, as it is almost overwhelming in its positivity. The lines that roughly translate as ‘To the Father and the Son be praise and joy, health, honour and virtue and blessing’, create an atmosphere of elation.

The recording process for this piece was fascinating. From my perspective as a singer, I am interested in the horizontal contours of melodic lines. Therefore, the texture of this piece, which frequently explores tight canons and imitations, provided an expressive springboard for the singers to lock into the small scale rhythmic detail. I found that during the process, the uneven pulse of five beats in a bar became very natural, creating a framework in which the singers could really sing out the final section of music, which is the climax of the piece."

Marco Galvani

Marco Galvani | Tantum ergo (sample)

“I am delighted that Sansara have included on their debut CD the first recording of ‘Our flags are wafting in hope and grief’. The words, by the Estonian Doris Kareva, tell of the triumph of freedom over oppression and it’s important that the choir have given us the opportunity to reflect on that struggle when freedom in the Baltic states is still fragile.”

Gabriel Jackson

Gabriel Jackson | Our flags are wafting in hope and grief (sample)

Nicolas Gombert | Lugebat David Absalon (sample)

This is a live recording of Joe Bates' piece Ceasing which we performed at the Barbican Centre's Sound Unbound festival on Sunday 19 May at St Bartholomew-the-Great in London. 

Ceasing is a piece for choir and live electronics commissioned specially for our Vox Machina project which is supported by Arts Council England. 

Text: 
In the cab, I can hardly bear to face the driver.
Do I cry, so he knows, or lock my eyes upon the road ahead?
As we creep through traffic, I track the time as though she’s waiting on a given hour,
As if she’s going to meet me there, as if she’s going to wait for me.

When I arrived, she was already dead.
There isn’t much else that I remember.
The priest took too long,
I didn’t know how to pray,
She seemed so small, such a small thing.

What did I miss?
Was there some last coherence?
Some glimpse of pain, a grimace?
Random tremors, monitors chiming,
Rattling breath, gasping, sagging, a clouding,
A ceasing, not a parting.
Perhaps a fading, too? 
Unconscious for hours, or confused.

It was when we heard / When they called / When I saw a foreign number come up / when the machines turned off
We knew / I knew for the first time / had known for years / for the first time since the stroke / for hours / for a while 
We were no longer needed / we couldn’t help at all
But when she was sick / because when she was in hospital / in the home she hated 
There was somewhere to congregate
Now we have to find new markers
Her grave / his ashes /best to forget him / his favourite joke / the anniversary match / that time over Easter when we almost died laughing

---
Joe Bates is a composer and curator, and artistic director Filthy Lucre. His work has been internationally-recognised by major competitions such as MATA Festival and the London Symphony Orchestra Panufnik Scheme. His work is programmed in venues across London, from established festivals like Occupy the Pianos at St. John’s Smith Square and the Barbican’s Sound Unbound programme, to independent music nights and theatre. It has been described as a work ‘made with brilliant material,’ whose ‘result was utterly uncanny.’ (New York Classical Review) He also performs his own music as an electronic artist. His recent electronic EP, Flim Flam, was described by composer Dominic Murcott as “quirky and floating somewhere between classical music and electronica.”

Joe Bates | Ceasing (LIVE)

'a golden string' is an interactive sonic environment based on the William Blake setting by Chris Williams. 

Play each track on a different device to create your own immersive rendition of the piece. 

#agoldenstring
www.sansarachoir.com/a-golden-string/about

STORY
On Sunday 12 August 2018, we performed at the unveiling of a new tombstone for the poet and mystic William Blake at Bunhill Fields in central London. We performed a stunning piece by the Australian composer Chris Williams which sets the following text:

I give you the end of a golden string;
   Only wind it into a ball,
It will lead you in at Heaven’s gate,
   Built in Jerusalem’s wall.

- from Jerusalem, Plate 77 (1815)

Two years later and we have returned to this beautiful music, with its overlapping textures and hypnotic phrases, and joined forces with artist Charlie Barton and videographer Alex McEwan to produce an interactive digital performance. 

Using audio recorded by our singers during lockdown, we have made four separate audio tracks, each with their own accompanying video. We invite you to create your own rendition of the piece by combining these four layers and exploring the possibilities of their infinite variation.

Jerusalem (upper voices)

It will lead you in at Heaven's gate (lower voices)

#recreate

"During this project I became really interested with the idea of 'copying'. A recorded voice gives you a sound file - a sample - that is an identical copy of a voice, but not a voice in itself. When you copy that copy, it gradually evolves into something else. This led me to the idea of 'simulacra'.

Simulacra are copies, but ‘copies’ implies an original that simulacra need not have - they can be copies of copies (of copies) ad infinitum. They are also a presence that simultaneously hides and reveals an absence. In recorded sound, a sample is much the same. If played back directly, a sample can stand in place of its original sound, though it is a copy, but if we copy that copy, and then copy that, we drift from the reality of ‘the original’ and into the hyperreality of the simulacra." - CW

'Simulacra' is Chris Williams' response to our re:create vocal sound library. 

Find out more about the project at: www.sansarachoir.com/recreate
Explore the library at: www.sansarachoir.com/recreate-library

Simulacra I - Chris Williams

#recreate

'petrichor' - part one of 'puraibētogāden', Jasmin Kent Rodgman's response to our re:create vocal sound library.

Find out more about the project at: www.sansarachoir.com/recreate

puraibētogāden, I: petrichor - Jasmin Kent Rodgman

#recreate

'katatsumuri' - part two of 'puraibētogāden', Jasmin Kent Rodgman's response to our re:create vocal sound library.

puraibētogāden, II: katatsumuri - Jasmin Kent Rodgman

#recreate

'warm-blooded vertebrates' - part three of 'puraibētogāden', Jasmin Kent Rodgman's response to our re:create vocal sound library.

Find out more about the project at: www.sansarachoir.com/recreate

puraibētogāden, III: warm-blooded vertebrates - Jasmin Kent Rodgman

#recreate 

We love this response to our re:create project by our Associate Composer Marco Galvani (www.marcogalvani.co.uk). Here's his description of the piece:

"This short track only uses two samples - Fiona's 'melody variations' which is reimagined as a wurlitzer arpeggiated keyboard figure and bass notes, and Rosie's harmonics (in F over A major) which are transformed into a glockenspiel effect at the top of the texture." - MG

Find out more about the project at: www.sansarachoir.com/recreate
Explore the library at: www.sansarachoir.com/recreate-library

Neon Sky - Marco Galvani

#recreate

Another short track from Marco Galvani using percussive sounds combined with breath noises from our re:create library to create this rhythmic miniature.

Find out more about the project at: www.sansarachoir.com/recreate
Explore the library at: www.sansarachoir.com/recreate-library

Perennial - Marco Galvani

#recreate

This third miniature from Marco Galvani uses just one vocal sample from our re:create library, this time a crowdsourced contribution from Clare Sutherland.

Add your voice to the library here: www.sansarachoir.com/recreate-submissions
Find out more about the project at: www.sansarachoir.com/recreate
Explore the library at: www.sansarachoir.com/recreate-library

Marigold - Marco Galvani

'the a cappella sound of the future' - Peter Phillips, director of The Tallis Scholars

Described as ‘one of the most dynamic new choral groups in the UK’ (Choir and Organ, 2016), Sansara is a passionate and innovative chamber choir uniting many of the UK’s finest young professional singers. Founded in 2013, the choir has rapidly gained a reputation for captivating performances of a broad range of repertoire, juxtaposing choral music old and new in ambitious and imaginative narrative programmes. In September 2015, Sansara won First Prize and Audience Prize in the London International A Cappella Choir Competition, hosted by St John’s Smith Square in association with The Tallis Scholars. 

Sansara is unique in that it has no single conductor. Instead, several conductors – who also sing in the group – direct the choir according to their particular musical specialisms. This makes the choir highly versatile and provides an increased sense of collaboration.

For more information about the choir, our upcoming concerts and projects, visit our website at www.sansarachoir.com, find us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram @SansaraChoir.

SANSARA

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