An incredible instrument! Its name is based on the Latin "serpens" and means "serpent". It looks accordingly. Long, winding and bright green with a flickering head, six finger holes, a mouthpiece made of ivory and a resonating chamber in the case of Michel Godard's instrument. Its origins date back to the middle of the Renaissance. According to tradition, the serpent was invented by Canon Guillaume in Auxerre in 1590. In the mindset of the 16th century, the sound of the zink resembled the human voice in a special way.

Godard, who has earned the reputation as one of Europe's most important musicians in the border area between jazz, improvisation, folk and classical music since the late 1980s thanks to a number of exceptional releases, has included the serpent repeatedly in his concerts and on his CDs for quite some time. Now, the French exceptional artist has devoted an album exclusively to the "serpent" for the first time to emphasize its magical, mysterious and ultimately very human facets. This was a labor of love for the 54-year-old. He moves on a timeline between past and present with the serpent. In the process, he tells stories that can shine in different colors and change direction at any time. The instrument actually resembles a large snake as a result. The sounds unfold in wondrous twists and turns like dreams in the mirror of time.

Michel Godard brings together renowned musicians in his ensemble "Le miroir du temps", who want to break out of customary conventions exactly as he does. "Together they manage to raise awareness of the timeliness of old music age and resonate something of the variety of sound of earlier epochs in contemporary music at the same time," Bert Noglik wrote in the liner notes for "A Serpent’s Dream". Katharina Bäuml is one of the leading Baroque oboists today and also specializes in playing the medieval shawm with her own ensemble "Capella de la Torre", the tone quality of which combines with Michel Godard's serpent in a fascinating way. The theorbo player Bruno Helstroffer also has a lot of experience in historical performance practice, but also experiments with newer ways of playing, which he develops in different contexts. Lucas Niggli, one of the most versatile European drummers in jazz as well as improvised music, knows how to create rhythmically complex and sound-sensitive contexts. Michel Godard also uses the bass guitar; a harmonious extra totally in the spirit of flexibility of Renaissance musicians and the liberties that they took.

For Bert Noglik, it "is the joy of the flow of the melodies seeped in beauty and melancholy," which link the members of the ensemble. They deal with traditions and original compositions as with standards of the jazz: varying, embellishing them freely and improvising. A melody passed down through centuries can just as much be included as Charlie Haden's sentimentally touching composition "Our Spanish Love Song", for which Michel Godard additionally invited the young jazz trumpet player Airelle Besson to give it extra brilliance.

The recordings for "A Serpent's Dream" were made during the festival in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, where the ensemble performed in the Chapelle des Pénitents noirs built in the mid-17th century. The magic of the place seems to flow into the music, as so often is the case in the concerts and productions of Michel Godard. For "Miserere", Godard used an historic manuscript preserved in the Chapel, and he plays the imaginatively decorated original serpent preserved over the centuries of the Chapelle des Pénitents noirs on two tracks ("Old Black Snake Blues" and "Le sommeil").

Visions are created not only for Bert Noglik, which are transformed as they pass by: the cheerful sinners and the black penitents, the troubled brooders and the exuberant dancers – spearheaded by Michel Godard with a snake whose temptations it would be foolish to resist.

Godard, der sich seit Ende der 1980er Jahre durch eine Reihe außergewöhnlicher Veröffentlichungen als Tubist den Ruf eines der wichtigsten europäischen Musikers im Grenzbereich zwischen Jazz, Improvisation, Folklore und Klassik erwarb, führt seit geraumer Zeit das Serpant immer wieder bei seinen Konzerten und CDs ein. Nun widmet sich der französische Ausnahmekünstler zum ersten Mal auf einem Album ausschließlich der „Schlange“, um deren zauberhafte, mysteriöse und in letzter Konsequenz doch so menschlichen Facetten besonders hervorzuheben. Für den 54-Jährigen eine Herzensangelegenheit. Mit dem Serpent bewegt er sich auf einer Zeitachse zwischen Historie und Gegenwart. Dabei erzählt Godard Geschichten, die in unterschiedlichen Farben aufleuchten und jederzeit ihre Richtung ändern können. Das Serpent gleicht dabei in der Tat einer großen Schlange: Seine Klänge entfalten sich gleichsam in wundersamen Windungen und Wendungen wie Träume im Spiegel der Zeit.

Michel Godard bringt in seinem Ensemble „Le miroir du temps“ Musikerpersönlichkeiten zusammen, die genau wie er aus gängigen Konventionen ausbrechen wollen. „Gemeinsam gelingt es ihnen, die Aktualität Alter Musik bewusst zu machen und im zeitgenössischen Musizieren zugleich etwas von der Klangvielfalt früherer Epochen nachhallen lassen“, schreibt Bert Noglik in den Linernotes zu „A Serpentʼs Dream“. Katharina Bäuml zählt zu den heute tonangebenden Barock-Oboistinnen und hat sich überdies mit dem eigenen Ensemble „Capella de la Torre“ auf das Spiel mittelalterlicher Schalmeien spezialisiert, deren Timbre sich hier auf faszinierende Weise mit dem von Michel Godards Serpent verbindet. Auch der Theorben-Spieler Bruno Helstroffer besitzt große Erfahrung in historischer Aufführungspraxis, experimentiert aber auch mit neueren Spielweisen, die er in unterschiedlichsten Kontexten entfaltet. Lucas Niggli, einer der vielseitigsten europäischen Schlagzeuger im Jazz sowie in der improvisierten Musik, weiß rhythmisch komplexe und klangsensible Zusammenhänge zu stiften. Michel Godard bedient überdies die Bassgitarre; ein stimmiges Extra, ganz im Sinne der Flexibilität von Renaissance-Musikern und der Freiheiten, die sie sich herausnahmen.