VOCES8  
Infinity
(Decca)
 

THE demand for spiritual music and rise in healing composition has heightened over the past 18 months.

One of the finest vocal ensembles in Britain leading trends is VOCES8.

Founded in 2003 by brothers Paul and Barnaby Smith, it currently comprises eight members, two each of sopranos, altos, tenors and basses.

The new album leads listeners on an introspective journey full of contemplative and calming music. The blended voices are intermingled with ethereal strings, harp, bowed vibraphones and, in one of the new compositions, a sample of the Sputnik satellite.

Recorded at VOCES8 Centre, their own high-tech London studio set-up, as well as at All Hallows’ Gospel Oak, the production and engineering is crystal clear and rich in detail across the frequency spectrum.  

The album opens with a work by Australian composer Sophie Hutchings, By Night, setting the tone for the album.

Dramatic vocal dynamics, backed by viola, cello and harp. The first single from the album, Scene Suspended, is a powerful reworking of celebrated classically trained electronic artist and producer Jon Hopkins’ 2020 composition, arranged for wordless voices and harp by composer and orchestrator Geoff Lawson.

Kelly Lee Owens and Sebastian Plano’s Find Our Way, a modest understated work, inspired, as good as Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard’s Gladiator score.

Ola Gjeilo’s Still, based on a soaring simple two-note theme backed by simple harp, a masterstroke of serenity and deep thought.

Other highlights including a spine-tingling recording of Porkell Sigurbjornsson’s composition Heyr himna smiour, a contemporary setting of a popular 13th-century Icelandic hymn.

An emotive performance of Johann Johannsson’s A Pile of Dust, which features in the original soundtrack for the 2017 biopic The Mercy, arranged here for acappella voices by composer Benjamin Rimmer.

Also a striking new version of multiaward-winning composer, producer and cellist Hildur Guonadottir’s Ascent from her 2009 album Without Sinking, arranged by conductor, producer and co-founder of the London Contemporary Orchestra, Robert Ames.

The piece begins slowly, winding round low alto bass drama. Tavener-inspired, it grows around ascending dramatic sopranos into new territory before a calm bass end.

Ambient music duo A Winged Victory For The Sullen’s  Atomos XI, likewise builds slowly, based on cello, pulsing harp refrains and bowed vibraphone before the hypnotic power of the ensemble takes over.  

Six new compositions include The Universe Within You, an uplifting cinematic work from celebrated composer Stephen Barton, and My Mind Is Still, by award-winning composer Nainita Desai.

There is a Solitude, a spellbinding acappella creation by composer and pianist Luke Howard with words by Emily Dickinson closes.

An album of grace, beauty, power and immense emotional depth.