|
News ~ Discography ~ Lyrics ~ Links ~ Guestbook
|
|
|
The combination of Gregorian chorals and modern music wasn't a new idea (it was successfully used by Michael Cretu in 1990, then by Vangelis (1992, "Conquest Of Paradise", OST-1994) and by Mike Oldfield, (1994, "The Songs Of Distant Earth") but Lesiem rose it to higher levels. It can't be denied that authors of Lesiem were "inspired" by Eric Levi's project called "Era" which song "Ameno" took in 1998 first places in charts.
Lesiem consists of: Alex Wende – composer, producer, Hennig Westland, Jäcki Reznicek – musicians, Thomas Pflanz – author of the Latin lyrics; session soloists: Diana Lasch, Kira Primke (Germany), Lawrence Sihlabeni (South African Republic), Maggie Reilly (Scotland), Tom Cunningham (England); and choirs: "Carl Maria von Weber" ("Mystic. Spirit. Voices.", "Chapter 2"); "Chor Der Deutschen Oper Berlin" ("Times"). Choral parts, used by Lesiem, were performed like traditional Gregorian chants. The fact is that the professional choir sung all the Latin lyrics with deliberate German accent.
The work on the first album was started in October 1998. It was released in 2000 by "Monopol Records", which is part of Meisel Publishing Group. This album was very successful in Germany. The songs "Fundamentum" and "Indalo" (recorded with Lawrence Sihlabeni) were taken in rotation of German radio stations and were later released as singles in January and June of 2000. Soon after this, the album was re-released in more than 50 countries all around the world. For example, "IntentCity" (USA) released 12-track re-arranged version of "Mystic. Spirit. Voices" in April 2002.
The success of the debut album made musicians and producers start thinking about creating the second album of Lesiem, which was titled "Chapter 2". The recording started in September 2000. The pre-edition of "Chapter 2" was released in March of 2001. A month later, this album was released officially with all the tracks re-arranged. The fact is that in some countries, e.g. in Russia, the first limited edition was released as official. Ethnic theme (that first appeared in "Indalo" from "Mystic. Spirit. Voices") was continued by "Africa" (released as single in March 2001). L.Sihlabeni sang it. During creation of "Chapter 2" musicians used ethnic musical instruments, e.g. doudouk ("Aureus") and great highland bagpipe ("Britannia") and operatic parts (e.g. Susanne Kirchbaum's soprano part in "Aureus"). However, there were no hits like "Fundamentum" in this album. "Chapter 2" was also re-released in other countries. "IntentCity" re-released this album as "Illumination" - re-mastered and with new design of the cover. In 2001, Lesiem presented a huge show with lasers and pyrotechnics. They called it "Leipziger Feuerzauber" It took place at the Völkerschlachtdenkmal near Leipzig. More than 200.000 people had visited it; a few millions of Germans had watched it on the TV.
The first two albums were some sort of prelude for the pompous pop-opera "Times", which was Lesiem's 3rd album. The musicians started their work in March of 2002 and finished it in the end of July. The single "Caritas" (feat. Maggie Reilly and "Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin") was presented in December 2002 on the philanthropic TV-show of Jose Carreras "Carreras Gala". Sony Music Deutschland released album "Times" in Europe on 7.IV.2003. It was planned to present the pop opera "Times" on stage on 10.X.2003 but that show was, unfortunately, put off. New date is 21.V.2005.
|
|
|
News ~ Discography ~ Lyrics ~ Links ~ Guestbook |
All artworks are copyrighted by their owners |
|
|
|
f
you really like Enigma MCMXC a. D., Era or Gregorian and you try to find
something similar, Lesiem is what you need. This German project is almost
unknown for wide audience in spite of the fact that all its albums were
officially released in Russia not to mention bootlegs (pirates usually pass
Lesiem off as new album of Gregorian).
