Adiemus

Album: Songs of Sanctuary (1995)
Charted: 48
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Songfacts®:

  • Jenkins is a British composer who created this unusual orchestral piece. The vocals are not real words, but sounds that Jenkins created to go with the music, essentially using the voice as an instrument. On his website, Jenkins tells the story of the song. He made up the word "Adiemus," and later learned that it roughly translates in Latin to "We will draw near." >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Joss - Melbourne, Australia
  • Jenkins was working on this piece when he was commissioned to write music for a Delta Airlines television commercial. He submitted "Adiemus," and it was used in the spots, which got a great response. Jenkins then expanded the piece, eventually releasing several albums of Adiemus material. Jenkins also composed the orchestral music for the iconic DeBeers diamonds campaign featuring couples shown in silhouette and the tagline, "A diamond is forever."
  • Jenkins was a member of the progressive rock group Soft Machine between 1972 and 1984. He played keyboards, saxophone and oboe during his time with the band.
  • This was used as the theme music to the mid 1990s BBC TV program Testament: The Bible in Animation.
  • The song's vocalist, Miriam Stockley, was also a member of Praise who had an UK Top 10 hit in 1991 with "Only You." In 1997 Stockley was a backing vocalist on Katrina & the Waves' Eurovision Song Contest winning song "Love Shine a Light."

Comments: 1

  • Nik from UkOMG I am so glad I’m not going mad! I always thought it was the King of Egypt that had an amazing soundtrack and was so disappointed to not hear this song, but it was the BBC Bible series!
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