Sylvia Nopper, Kai Wessel, Olivier Darbellay, Matthias Würsch, Swiss Chamber Soloists/Heinz Holliger ECM 476 3977****

Heinz Holliger's song-cycles Peuneigä(2000-02) and Induuchlen(2004) set poemsin Swiss-German dialects by Anna Maria Bacher and Albert Streich, whose own readings are also included here. The songs sound about as remote from song-cycle conventions as the dialects do from high German. Induuchlen, for counter tenor (who also sings in baritone register) and horn (who also sings), consistently blurs identities and inverts almost any norms you care to mention. The flighty Peuneigä,with its own world of unorthodox sounds, is almost hyperactive by comparison. If you've ever wondered where the theatricality of Ligeti's 1960s Aventuresmight have gone, here it is. The two ensemble pieces that top and tail the collection, Toronto- Exercises(2005) and Ma'mounia(written as a competition test piece in 2002), are in the same mould. See url.ie/7ebo