“a nocte temporis”: Latin translation of the French expression “depuis la nuit des temps”, which means “from time immemorial”. A nod towards the past, towards what is changing, and especially also towards what remains unchanged.

After several years of activity as a soloist with conductors such as William Christie, Philippe Herreweghe, Hervé Niquet, Christophe Rousset, and many others, Reinoud Van Mechelen founds his own ensemble in 2016. His goal is to present historically informed music as well as to emotionally touch an as large audience as possible.

Surrounded with musicians who share this passion he formed a nocte temporis. The first two CDs the ensemble has recorded (‘Erbarme dich’ – airs of JS Bach for tenor and flute (2016) and ‘Clérambault, cantates françaises’ (2018) Alpha Classics) were reviewed with praise and received several prizes (a.o. CHOC de l’Année of Classica, five Diapasons, a Diapason d’Or and a  Caecilia prize for best recording). In February 2019 a nocte temporis and Alpha Classics already released their third album: The Dubhlinn Gardens.

After a tour with the Bach program in 2017 (visiting a.o. Warsaw, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, and Pavia), the ensemble continued its promising journey in 2018 and was invited by prestigious venues such as Opéra de Lille, Festival Radio France (Montpellier), MA festival (Brugge), Bozar (Brussels), the Chapelle Royale du Château de Versailles and AMUZ (Antwerp), where a nocte temporis presented itself for the first time as a baroque orchestra in the programme Dumesny – haute contre de Lully.

In February 2019 the ensemble presented The Dubhlinn Gardens, with Irish eighteenth century music on the crossroads of folk and baroque music.

Dumesny, haute-contre de Lully, released in November 2019, is already the fourth collaboration of a nocte temporis and Alpha Classics.