There is a lot of joy in this release from Exaudi and their conductor, James Weeks, bringing together four substantial, eclectic works written for the vocal group during the 2010s. The first is Guide by Cassandra Miller. Based on a devotional song as recorded in 1968 by the folk singer Maria Muldaur, phrases of which are repeated freely by the singers in imitation of Muldaur’s swooping, full-voiced style, it builds quickly into a kind of controlled cacophony.
Andrew Hamilton’s Proclamation of the Republic imagines Patrick Pearse outside the Dublin General Post Office at Easter 1916, reading the historic text to a largely confused or oblivious public; little by little, pairing syllables on a quietly but insistently repeating two-note figure, the music blooms into something that seems to unite the crowd as they walk away, humming. The slow movement of this vocal symphony, if you like, is Leo Chadburn’s Affix Stamp Here, the most immediately accessible of the pieces. Placenames and years are spoken, before solo voices sing lines written on old postcards; the rest pick out and harmonise single words as if illuminating them.
The yearning harmonic palette and deadpan wit of the piece belies a bigger impact: these tiny windows into the lives of others conjure a feeling of being a small speck in a big universe. Finally, there is the title track, by Geoff Hannan, in which Latin passages of astrophysical discourse by Galileo and Newton tap-dance their way past the ear in irrepressible style: an exuberant end to a virtuosic, slightly bonkers recording. Listen on Apple Music (above) or Spotify
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