Latvian Radio Choir/ Kaspars Putnins, James Wood
Hyperion CDA 67835 ****

T he Angels, written for the King's College, Cambridge's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in 1994, is at once traditional and modern, apparently effortlessly so. Ashes Dance Back(1997), which features rather than sets texts by the 13th-century Persian mystic Rumi, combines choir with live electronics and pre-recorded sound with boundary-blurring freedom, often Babel-like (the choir sing mostly sounds rather than words) yet also sharing a sensuality, sometimes ecstatic, with the earlier work. The unaccompanied Marahi(1999)

is a polycultural and polystylistic "hymn of adoration to the Divine Feminine". The collection's longest work, the 31-minute Summer Cloud's Awakening(2001) for choir, flute, cello and electronics, is another fascinating, often thoroughly blended melting pot, drawing on Wagner and Buddhism. The performances are exemplary.

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