The musicians of the "Altland" ensemble have a strong interest in ancient music, and consider that ancient music and traditional music are closely related. Music has always been with the Jewish people: It is an integral part of its spiritual and cultural life. Its primary source lays in liturgical song, with musical structures that trace back to biblical times. Evolving among geographically distinct communities, through contacts with the surrounding cultures, or isolated within the ghetto walls,diverse musical forms have emerged:
Judeo-Spanish romance, synagogal choir, instrumental music (klezmer), Yiddish song... Our long term goal is to collect a repertoire representing all the aspects of Jewish music, and in the meantime we propose arrangements that, while not meant to be musicological reconstitutions, try to render the specific characteristics of each genre.
The musicians
Benoît Goovaerts, Daniel Rabinovitsj, Enrique Castillo, Gilles Sadowski