When Officium was first released in 1994 few could have contemplated the success of the album that Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble were to experience. The combination of the saxophone, that quintessential 20th century instrument, with the late-medieval and early Renaissance-grounded music of the four Hilliard singers, was as unlikely as it proved gripping. While the follow-up Mnemosyne seemed to have less of an inherent unity than the original album, certainly less of the surprise, nonetheless Garbarek embarked on a new phase in his career which uncannily complemented his previous work as a post-Coltrane player and as a founding father of the new European jazz aesthetic which his Nordic sound was a key part of. European, yet also in this new context, like a pancultural sound.

Last night at St Paul’s cathedral in London as part of the City of London Festival, the current Hilliards and Garbarek drew on a programme which featured songs by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt (‘Most Holy Mother of God’) and Scottish composer James McMillan (‘Here in hiding…’), and European folk songs foregrounded by the cathedral’s acoustics using these as a spectacular tool. The singers and Garbarek spent almost as much time roaming the aisles, sculpting the echoes and finding a cell of space for themselves in the cathedral, itself cool but responsive as day became night. At one point, the singers and saxophonist even parried phrases in the central aisle under the Dome with Garbarek looking quizzical but delighted as the Hilliards batted the ancient-sounding phrases to and fro. Garbarek begins a new chapter in his career in the autumn with the release of a live album featuring his new jazz quartet for the first time on record.

– Stephen Graham