Ensemble Organum (FR)

About

Also known as: Ensemble Organum - Marcel Peres, Ensemble Organum - Marcel Pérès

Founded in 1982 by Marcel Pérès, Ensemble Organum has spent decades digging deep into the oldest layers of Western and Mediterranean sacred music. Their focus lands squarely on medieval chant traditions that most ensembles never touch: Beneventan, Mozarabic, Gallican, Old Roman, and Carolingian repertoires, the kind of material that requires serious musicological detective work just to perform. The group has collaborated with Byzantine chant specialist Lycourgos Angelopoulos, and Orthodox music is a clear influence on how they approach this material. Based since 2001 at Moissac Abbey alongside a dedicated centre for early music research, Ensemble Organum treats performance and scholarship as inseparable. Their extensive discography on Harmonia Mundi spans Corsican polyphony, Hildegard von Bingen, Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame, Templar chant, and much more. Past members have included singers Josep Cabré, Gérard Lesne, and Malcolm Bothwell, though the lineup has shifted over the years.