Label: Die Neue Runde / Pierre Marteau
Genre: Neoclassical
Eight years after its last full-length release, the German, or rather European, music ensemble Sagittarius will publish its fourth album “Songs Of Dream And Death” on November 25th, 2020.
Having been active for more than two decades, Sagittarius looks back upon a musical œuvre that may be regarded as impressive. Though never having fully cast aside an insiders’ tip reputation, three full-length albums (“Die Große Marina” in 2003, “Songs From The Ivory Tower” in 2008, “The Kingdom Come” in 2012) and several limited edition releases, including the “Fragmente” series and the well-acclaimed mini album “Aithiopis” in 2017, established the project as one of the main protagonists of the neoclassic genre.
Sagittarius is the brainchild of composer and pianist Cornelius Waldner, who founded the project in the end of 1998, and which since then has served as his artistic main outlet through which he transfered his obsessions, emotions and interests to music, above all the poetical work of the German symbolist Stefan George and his circle, Ernst Jünger’s novel “On The Marble Cliff”, and the lost Ancient Greek verse epos “Aithiopis”.
Over the years Sagittarius has worked with a number of highly sophisticated musicians, including Phil Jonas (Secrets of the Moon), Michael DE Victor (While Angels Watch) and V.P. Sorcerer (Acherontas), whilst Waldner’s participations since the 1990s aside Sagittarius, often as a session musician, includes names like Secrets Of The Moon, Warloghe, H.E.R.R., The Days Of The Trumpet Call, and Die Weisse Rose.
Sagittarius’ new opus “Songs Of Dream And Death” will see the light of day on November 25th, 2020, containing 14 dark and sullen neoclassical compositions. Once again offering an epic joyride through the poetical worlds of Symbolism, Expressionism and Romanticism, with poems by among others Stefan George, Karl Wolfskehl, Pär Lagerkvist and Count Eric Stenbock set to music, the album underlines the project’s role as a sophisticated musical interpreter of traditional German and European word art. For this release, Waldner was once again joined by vocalist Herr Twiggs, a regular contributor of vocals to Sagittarius since 2008.
It is a split release between Pierre Marteau, a Cologne based publishing house whose long tradition stems back to the 1660s, and Waldner’s own artist label imprint Die Neue Runde. The album will be available on CD and in digital format.
Tracklist:
En gång blir allting stilla
Kunft-Tag I
Im Morgen-taun
Preisgedicht I
Kahl reckt der baum
Des Menschen Wort vergeht
The Black Hound
Invictus
Crossing The Tide Of Time
Until The Daylight Breaketh
Seelied
Spiel
Du auch bist verloren
Antithesis
Line.up:
Cornelius Waldner: Piano, orchestral arrangements, vocals
Herr Twiggs: Vocals
Credits:
Recorded and mixed by Cornelius Waldner at The Archer’s Sanctum, Leipzig, between 2014 and 2020.
Links:
www.sagittarius.de
www.sagittarius.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/sagittariusofficial
