How can an orchestration based on the verse of Kurt Marti can be so majestic and powerful, especially when the lyrics are sung in German by the St Johns Choir, Hamburg? For someone who doesn't understand the language, there's something more universal here with voice and orchestration with Chris Walden and his arrangements. Walden draws upon his resources and a big band arranger, writer and leader to create this, the musical voice of Kurt Marti. Marti was a priest, born in 1921 known in Europe as a poet, linking concrete poetry to political statements, incorporating Swiss dialect poetry into the universal language of poetry, freeing religiosity from convention to more romanticism of a high original beauty. It's quite a profound statement and from Chris Walden's immense faculty as a band leader and writer in Hollywood, this rather obscure piece has become reality. It therefore should be understood and acclaimed. This is the kind of music that a prominent band leader would and could record. We have a more expanded scope of Chris Walden as a leader and innovator.
The Kurt Marti suite has twelve movements with the St Johns Choir appearing in various limited engagements with the band in Southern California.