Chant: Music for the Soul

It’s a now well-known story: earlier this year Universal UK placed ads in various religious publications encouraging monks and sacred singers to submit demos for consideration of a major recording contract. Word reached the monks of the Cistercian Abbey Stift Heiligenkreuz in Vienna, who applied via a clip they had posted on YouTube. With their rich and evocative sound The Monks were the easy favorites. It helped that Pope Benedict XVI has declared this to be one of his favorite monasteries. Suddenly these very modern Monks were poised to become an overnight sensation, seized on by widespread international media.

The monastery, located in the idyllic Vienna woods, was founded in 875 and is the longest, continuously operating Cistercian Abbey in the world. The music on this album is the music of their daily lives, sung without alteration. Full of contemplation and inner quiet, the music provides instant relaxation and stress relief. (read less)

It’s a now well-known story: earlier this year Universal UK placed ads in various religious publications encouraging monks and sacred singers to submit demos for consideration of a major recording contract. Word reached the monks of the Cistercian Abbey Stift Heiligenkreuz in Vienna, who applied via a clip they had posted on YouTube. With their rich and evocative sound The Monks were the easy favorites. It helped that Pope Benedict XVI has declared this to be one of his favorite monasteries.... (read more)