G.I. Gurdjieff - Sacred Hymns, performed by Keith Jarrett (1980)

Not had any solo piano from my favourite master of the art for a while, so here's something with a bit of a twist: none of the 15 pieces on this album were actually composed by Keith Jarrett.  Sacred Hymns is instead Jarrett's first emergence as an interpreter of written music by other composers, a sideline that would gather pace as the 80s progressed.

The composer in this case was Armenian mystic George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (b. circa 1870, d. 1949), to whose philosophies Jarrett was sometime devoted.  The music here dates from the 1920s, when Gurdjieff wrote with the assistance of Russian composer Thomas de Hartmann.  All of the pieces bear devotional titles, and are influenced by Russian Orthodox liturgical music as well as other Central Asian religious & folk themes.  Aside from that, fellow fans of Ravel/Satie will find much to love here as well.  Beautiful stuff.

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pw: sgtg