Alpha And Omega

There are few better examples of a composer’s style developing concurrently with the emergence of an a cappella group than in the liturgical music of Antony Pitts (b. 1969). The Tonus Peregrinus octet exists to perform ancient and modern repertoire interspersed with works written by its director. The two-way influence between vocal consort and composer is palpable. The resulting compositions are as much theological statements as stand-alone pieces of music and as such they can bear comparison with some of the acknowledged monuments of the past. Musical techniques such as Pitts' use of false relations and carefully controlled dissonances to create suspensions provide some aural links with the group's sixteenth-century repertoire. But there are other musical devices -- medieval hocket, psalmodic chanting, jazz-infused rhythmic cells, and close-harmony effects -- which together add up to Pitts' seemingly archaic yet surprisingly modern voice. Building on the success of Seven Letters, -- their Hyperion début release -- this follow-up disc contains further dazzling, ecstatic, arresting, thought-provoking works, sung with limpid beauty by Tonus Peregrinus.