''Requiem for a Dying Planet'' (subtitled ''Sounds for Two Films by Werner Herzog'') is an album by cellist

Ernst Reijseger Ernst Reijseger (born 13 November 1954) is a Dutch cellist and composer. He specializes in avant-garde jazz, free jazz, improvised music, and contemporary classical music and often gives solo concerts. He has worked with Louis Sclavis, Dere ...

featuring music for

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with un ...

's 2004 documentary ''

The White Diamond ''The White Diamond'' is a 2004 documentary film by Werner Herzog. It illustrates the history of aviation and depicts the struggles and triumphs of Graham Dorrington, an aeronautical engineer, who has designed and built a teardrop-shaped airshi ...

'' and 2005 film ''

The Wild Blue Yonder ''The Wild Blue Yonder'' is a 2005 science fiction fantasy film by German director Werner Herzog. It was presented at the 62nd Venice Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Award. It was screened in competition at the Mar del Plata Internati ...

'' performed with vocalist/poet/performer

Mola Sylla Mola Sylla (born Dakar, Senegal, 1956) is a Senegalese musician. He moved to Europe in 1987 and lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He is a singer and plays such traditional African instruments as the ''mbira'', ''kongoma'' (Senegalese lamellophone), ...

and the Voches de Sardinna. The original tracks were recorded in 2004 in France and Germany and additional recording undertaken in Germany in 2006 before the album was released on the

Winter & Winter Winter & Winter is a record label in Munich, Germany that specializes in jazz, classical and improvised music. It was founded by Stefan Winter following the demise of his JMT Records label. Since 1997 Winter & Winter has released records by Da ...

label.Ernst Reijseger discography
accessed December 1, 2014

Reception

In his review for

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, Dave Shim said "Combining Reijseger’s formidable skills in the grey regions between jazz, improvised, and chamber music, with the mesmerizing vocal talents of Senegalese singer Mola Sylla and Sardinian vocal choir Voches de Sardinna, the album covers an extraordinarily wide range of moods and textures, from vaguely liturgical atmospheres to threatening drones to delicate percussive vignettes—eliciting a mysterious aura contemplative of planet Earth’s hereafter". On AllAboutJazz C. Michael Bailey rated the album five stars and observed "''Requiem for a Dying Planet'' is hypnotic in its beauty and stunning in its scope. Ernst Reijseger meets Herzog as an equal on the creative field, and together they produce a super-composition. This moody music is perfect as a film soundtrack. It stimulates consideration and transcends the art of music into another realm".Bailey, C. M.
AllAboutJazz Review
December 24, 2006 On the same site Glenn Astarita gave the album 3 stars stating "If you're in need of a spiritual or life-lifting boost, you might want to rethink or perhaps defer spinning this disc. A haunting beauty shines forth from the music, but the music occasionally casts a dark shadow via the cellist's stark pizzicato choruses and the vocalists' ritualized chanting... Regardless of taste, preference or attitude, this is a curiously interesting progression of musical frameworks, setting forth notions of divine contemplation prior to a doomsday-like event."Astarita, G.
All About Jazz Review
November 12, 2006

Track listing

''All compositions by Ernst Reijseger except as indicated'' # "Intro Dank sei dir Gott" – 0:47 # "Dank sei dir Gott" (

Georg Friedrich Händel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training ...

) – 4:19 # "Longing for a Frozen Sky" – 2:08 # "A Una Rosa" (Traditional) – 8:37 # " Libera Me, Domine" (Traditional) – 7:14 # "In Search of a Hospitable Place" – 5:26 # "

Sanctus The Sanctus ( la, Sanctus, "Holy") is a hymn in Christian liturgy. It may also be called the ''epinikios hymnos'' ( el, ἐπινίκιος ὕμνος, "Hymn of Victory") when referring to the Greek rendition. In Western Christianity, the ...

" (Traditional) – 6:37 # "Bad News from Outer Space" – 6:10 # "Su Bolu 'e s'Astore" (Tonino Puddu) – 4:52 # "Mura/Ballu Turturinu" (Traditional) – 6:01 # "Song of the Desert" – 7:31 # "

Kyrie Kyrie, a transliteration of Greek , vocative case of (''Kyrios''), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the Kyrie eleison ( ; ). In the Bible The prayer, "Kyrie, eleison," "Lord, have mercy" derives fr ...

" (Traditional) – 5:45

Personnel

– cello, voice *

– vocals,

mbira Mbira ( ) are a family of musical instruments, traditional to the Shona people of Zimbabwe. They consist of a wooden board (often fitted with a resonator) with attached staggered metal tines, played by holding the instrument in the hands and p ...

xalam Xalam (in Serer, or khalam in Wolof) is a traditional stringed musical instrument from West Africa with 1-5 strings. The xalam is commonly played in Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Niger, Northern Nigeria, Northern Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and ...

, lyrics in Wolof (tracks 4, 6, 7 & 9–12) and Manding (track 5) *Emmi Leisner – vocals (contralto) *Patrizio Mura – vocals (voche) *Massimo Roych, Piero Pala – vocals (voche, mesuvoche) *Gianluca Frau – vocals (cronta) *Mario Siotto – vocals (bassu)

References

{{Authority control Winter & Winter Records soundtracks Ernst Reijseger albums 2006 soundtrack albums World music albums by Dutch artists