"Mercy of Peace" is the first CD of liturgical music by a group of young Orthodox musicians from Holy Dormition Church in Santa Rosa, California, known in their folk music-making efforts as the Living H20 Band. Fans of folk and bluegrass with a spiritual twist will enjoy their pervious CD entitled "Well That's Never Dry." In turning to liturgical music, four members of the band dip into their wealth of experience singing in tight and tuneful harmony to present lovely renditions of a variety of hymns, ranging from psalms and festal troparia to hymns from Vespers and Divine Liturgy, drawn from arrangements in both the choral and the chant style. From their singing, it is evident that these young people, in contrast to many of their generation, have grasped and understood the Orthodox virtues of spiritual serenity and peacefulness. The repertoire they sing, drawn from Bulgaria, Russia, Greece, Georgia (and America), reflects the exciting and all-embracing (universal) stylistic synthesis that is already occurring in the liturgical singing of the Orthodox Church in North America.--V.M.
less
