Byzantine chant

Cappella Romana has carved out a distinctive niche with its ethereal performances of Byzantine chant and Greek and Russian Orthodox sacred music.

The new monarch requested Greek Orthodox music, which will be performed by the Byzantine Chant Ensemble.

Thus the members of Cappella Romana, a vocal ensemble based in Portland, Ore., specializing in Byzantine chant, recorded “The Lost Voices” in a space that persuasively mimicked the acoustics of Hagia Sophia — with its luscious reverberation, cross echoes and amplification of particular frequencies.

Fronted by singer-bassist Al Cisneros, Om has brought Tibetan and Byzantine chant structures and religious iconography to doom and drone metal.

Last year Unesco removed the Aalst carnival from a list of “intangible cultural heritage”, an inventory of protected practices that includes Irish hurling and Cypriot-Greek Byzantine chant.