Organ by Maria Faust Sacrum Facere

MFSF’s new album, entitled ORGAN, focuses on the sound and story of cathedral organs. Originally invented as a communicative medium between humans and God, the instrument has also been called a “God Praising Machine.”
Faust has often used “memory analysis” as a tool and source of inspira- tion in creating her music. In composing the material for the first MFSF album in 2014 (Barefoot Records), she focused on collective memory, including traditions and folklore. On 2018’s IN THE BEGINNING on Stunt Records (a collaboration with Danish vocalist Kira Skov) she studied collective memory and collective trauma. On MARIA FAUST MACHINA in 2019, (Stunt Records) she dove into physical memory through surroundings, including island life and nature.
ORGAN is inspired by the composer’s own personal body memory. It is a celebration of the human body (and life) as a mystical cathedral with soaring ceilings, holy altars, statues, memorials, scripts... and organs, around which everything is centered. Depending on the activity, the room and body can celebrate, dance, sing, mourn, weep, and shake.

Liner notes by Jan Sneum:
A new album by the Estonian-born composer, conductor, and musician Maria Faust (b. 1979) is never just "new." As an artist, she seems to have an infinite and unstoppable drive to challenge herself in creative work, a thirst to set up new frameworks and explore with new sets of elements and parameters. Even though Maria Faust has been labeled a “jazz musician,” her impressive and celebrated body of work shows that she cannot be categorized by narrow and prohibitive genre labels. She is a true musical explorer with solid foundations in both classical and improvised music, one of the rare artists that listeners must follow with open eyes and ears to see and hear "what's next."
On this new release, entitled ORGAN, Maria Faust presents several new compositions for church organ and winds. According to the composer and saxophonist, she started writing music for pipe organ in 2017. In the spring of 2018 she toured around Denmark, performing pieces arranged for saxophone and organ - two very different instruments in terms of musical and cultural connotations (and portability!), but also two instruments connected through their use of "wind-driven tubes."
In 2018, the young and already highly respected Estonian organist Ulla Krigul (b. 1979) asked Maria Faust to compose a piece for organ and electronics to be performed at concerts in Estonia during December of the same year. Krigul was on a mission to find new music by composers that were, at that point, unknown in the classical world. The resulting piece, entitled "Stroma," has been included on this album, re-arranged by Faust and re-recorded in January of 2020, again with Ulla Krigul as the organist and again using the organ in St. Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn. Originally a Catholic church built in the 13th Century as an architectural monument demonstrating the compelling victory of Christianity over the area's original paganism, it was later bombed and nearly completely destroyed by the Soviet Army at the end of World War II. Today, it’s been rebuilt and repurposed as an arts center, museum, and concert hall. It houses a "Baroque" organ made in 1981 by Rieger-Kloss (a Czech company which remains world famous for making handcrafted organs of the highest quality) during the Soviet occupation. The organ in St. Nicholas’ Church has garnered praise from musicians and critics for its bright timbre, and has been specifically sought-out and used for recordings by the legendary Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (b. 1935). And now also by Maria Faust.
Emanuele Maniscalco (b. 1983) is the organist on all non-”Stroma” material on this album. An Italian multi-instrumentalist and composer with roots in jazz and improvised music, he was also the pianist on Maria Faust's original SACRUM FACERE album from 2014, a universally acclaimed release that also features some of the other members of the wind sextet heard here on ORGAN. Both albums ride all under the MARIA FAUST SACRUM FACERE banner.
In an interview some years ago, Faust used the term "memory analysis" to describe one of the methods she uses as a creative tool and force in her work, as she searches for inspiration in both her own personal memory and in our more collective historical reflection. On the first SACRUM FACERE album, she had her creative antennae turned (and tuned) toward the history of Estonian Female Culture, and included quotes and samples from the outstanding Setu folk singer Anne Varbarna (1877-1964). In 2017, Faust went into a more expansive project, harnessing her "memory analysis" tool in a more collective creative process by heading to the sparsely populated Southeastern region of Estonia for inspiration, together with Danish singer-songwriter Kira Skov. The result was the hugely successful IN THE BEGINNING, an album the co-creators described as a collection of "lost songs of a forgotten land."
With ORGAN, Maria Faust once again lets Estonia vibrate and resonate in her music, quite literally, by recording in St. Nicholas’ Church. The reverb in the venue vaults high above the floor and the echo from the stone walls adds an extra layer of sensitivity to the music - a perfect invitation for listeners’ own "memory analyses." And if listeners use their eyes, ears, and brains - their senses, their organs - they can immerse themselves in the sights, sounds, and memories of Faust’s home island of Saaremaa.
Jan Sneum
March, 2020

Maria Faust (born on April 18, 1979 in Kuressaare, Estonia) is an Estonian alto saxophonist and composer currently living in Copenhagen.
She is one of the most successful Estonian jazz musicians of all-time and the recipient of numerous prestigious awards and honors including multiple Danish and Estonian Music Awards.

mariafaust.com