Gurdjieff: Sacred Hymns

George Ivanovich Gurdjieff has been a touchstone of ECM’s classical aesthetic since this album made his music known to a wider audience. Like Keith Jarrett, who interprets at the piano, he traveled in search of harmony, expressing his love of melody through an improvisational spirit. Inspired by the many folk traditions he encountered along the way, Gurdjieff (with the assistance of Russian composer Thomas de Hartmann) produced these ecumenical hymns for an increasingly combative world. Shades of Russian Orthodoxy share breathing room with Debussian recollections, creating a pastiche devoid of cultural ties with which anyone can connect.