Lux Illuxit is based on the music and texts related to the feast honouring St. Olav, Norway’s most significant Catholic celebration in the Middle Ages. These include the canticles Lux Illicit letabunda and Postquam Calix Babilonis and other music performed around the ecclesiastical worship of St. Olav.
The concert is partly built around newly written estampies over the Lux Illuxit sequence, partly traditional Norwegian and Scandinavian tunes. We also work and recreate the material freely through improvisations and arrangement, acting as the musicians we are.
The concert will be recorded on a CD in 2015.
The performers Elisabeth Holmertz, Elisabeth Vatn and Anders Røine have previously collaborated on the project Stave Church Songs – Martyred Saints and sister Bells, commissioned by The Norwegian Concerts for Unesco’s Cultural Heritage 2009. The concert was performed in Norwegian Stave Churches and released on CD in 2011.
For this project they have invited the Danish pipe- and tabour player Poul Høxbro.
All of the performers have distinguished themselves as innovative on their respective instruments. With their highly personal musical approach and their many projects and collaborations, they have created bridges between early music, classical music, folk music and electronica.
Lux Illuxit – St.Olavs Officium premiered in Østre Aker church in Oslo, spring 2014. We’re currently planning a series of concerts in Norway, along the pilgrim’s walk to Nidaros (Trondheim) and in St. Olav’s churches and festivals in Europe.