Renaissance meets Jazz 

What happens when the soaring voices of Renaissance music meet the spontaneity of jazz? Welcome to „Light Works“ – a unique project where the vocal ensemble Company of Music and the jazz trio Owls merge the timeless art of vocal polyphony with the freedom and creativity of improvised music. The program was released as an album by Col Legno in December 2024 and can also be performed live, optionally accompanied by a visual performance by Dutch light and shadow artist Roos van Haaften.

About the project

Shining lights among composers, such as Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin de Prez and Gilles Binchois, throw long shadows up to the present day. New perspectives, connections and experiences are created by the meeting of their groundbreaking vocal works with improvised music composed in our time. Contemporary composer Simon Oberleitner has brought this together in a dialogue with the grand masters of the Renaissance, thus spanning centuries. The jazz trio Owls and the vocal ensemble Company of Music combine old and new music that resounds with memories, transformations and responses.

Music by Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin de Prez, Gilles Binchois, Guillaume de Machaut and Simon Oberleitner.

6 singers from the Company of music

(Musical director: Johannes Hiemetsberger)

Simon Oberleitner, composition & piano

Andreas Waelti, double bass

Konstantin Kräutler-Horvath, drums 

Roos van Haaften, light performance