Adiemus V: Live

Adiemus V: Live Adiemus

Fusing the ancient, the classical, and the contemporary, musical mastermind Karl Jenkins has created a unique universal sound which has sold over three million albums in 50 countries, inspiring the creation of whole new classical genres and charts in the process. The Adiemus story began in 1995, when Jenkins was asked to submit ideas for a new Delta Air Lines advertising campaign. As luck would have it, an idea he was already working on seemed exactly right for the spot - a piece of music that used a classical orchestra as its foundation but combined it with ethnic multi-percussion and world music vocals employing Jenkins' own invented phonetic language. Delta and their advertising agency both loved the soaring, joyous music that would become Adiemus and when the final film was transmitted, record shops and TV stations became inundated with people asking where they could buy it. Adiemus V: Live - featuring tracks from the four previous recordings - was recorded live on March 16, 2001, St. David's Hall, Cardiff. The performance was commissioned by Opus Television. The opening track, "Adiemus," combines sweeping atmospheres with a female choral sweep of this unique language; the choir grows to include children as the orchestra swells. "In Caelum Fero" rolls with heavy percussion over brooding orchestral intensity before the choir chimes in. Most of the tracks have this upbeat worldbeat/classical nature, but "Hymn" is a beautiful acoustic guitar solo which functions as a reflection in the midst of a flurry activity.