I’ll admit, when Hosana: The Messe de Nostre Dame, the debut album from Los Angeles-based musician Jesse Quebbeman-Turley, was pitched to me as “West Coast Medieval Ambient”, I was intrigued and mildly amused. It almost sounds like something that a Genre Name Generator would spit out for fun. However, listening to Quebbeman-Turley’s debut EP, the label makes sense, and the result is what you would expect it to sound like: otherworldly, meditative, and unique—certainly a style all its own.
Hosana is directly inspired by the French 14th-century composer Guillaume de Machaut’s “Messe de Nostre Dame”. Taking that sacred music, soaking in its inspiration, and essentially retrofitting it for a sort of West Coast ambient sound, is exactly what happened here. Joining Quebbeman-Turley to bring this project to life are West Coast ambient and jazz artists Patrick Shiroishi, Gregory Uhlmann, Logan Hone, Luke Williams, and Davy Sumner. Collectively, they bring this concept to life with harpsichord, guitar, synthesizer, saxophone, bass clarinet, voice, and the tuning fork organ (the latter instrument played by Sumner, who invented it).
De Machaut created the Ferrell-Vogüé Codex, a unique self-archival project that included his music, poetry, and a collection of illustrations and calligraphy. In this codex is the site of the Messe de Nostre Dame, the earliest surviving Mass with a single author. Quebbeman-Turley was drawn “to the clarity of Machaut’s gesture”, he explains in the press notes, and was also influenced by his Mormon upbringing, as the belief system, both spiritually and intellectually, “places poetic significance on concepts of temporality and eternity”. That’s certainly evident in the intensity of the performances, which seem to reflect a fierce dedication to the project and its source of inspiration.
The lengthy opening track, “Go Now You Are Dismissed”, immerses itself in long, sustained atonality, unmoored in its execution and possessing an unwavering commitment to minimalism, reveling in the solemnity of the piece and De Machaut’s work. “I Believe” continues along these lines, but eventually makes room for subtle guitar work that brings a welcome new element to the piece.
Minimalism as a concept is fully idealized on the brief but incisive “Binding/Illumination”, a little more than one minute of what sounds like low brass notes playing a series of simple notes in unison, the title of which may be a reference to the actual binding that De Machaut created for his codex.
The title track, meanwhile, is filled with complexity and features multiple passages, ranging from the simple plucking of harpsichord strings to ethereal brass and woodwind interplay, lo-fi guitar bursts, and haunting synthesizer noise. Despite the occasionally jarring execution of the different passages, the complete track is a brilliant extended piece of ambient sound.
Quebbeman-Turley’s extensive work as a session drummer led to the professional connections he formed with the musicians on Hosana. While roughly 600 years separate the two composers, De Machaut’s inspiration has had a genre-defying effect on the present-day artist. Jesse Quebbeman-Turley’s Hosana: Le Messe de Nostre Dame is a project that may initially seem challenging to realize, but the results are absolutely exquisite.