Voces8 - After Silence (2020) [Hi-Res]

After Silence is a celebration of VOCES8s fifteenth anniversary and the groups belief in the expressive power of the human voice. VOCES8 strives for versatility, and in this album they seek to showcase a selection of the choral repertoire for which we have become well known (Britten, Byrd and Harris amongst others), whilst also demonstrating the variety of genres and soundworlds the ensemble employs in order to engage with their diverse audiences. They hope you enjoy this collection of thought-provoking texts, illuminated by a wide range of choral textures, finding something of your own voice and experiences in After Silence. Both the Bach cantata (a collaboration with the groups friends in the Academy of Ancient Music), and the Monteverdi madrigals showcase the ensembles consort and solo skills, whilst the new Mahler adaptation illustrates their desire to push boundaries and extend choral repertoire. Over the years they have found it a joy to work with musicians from many spheres, and to collaborate with contemporary composers in the creation of new pieces written especially for VOCES8: Jonathan Doves commission for us, Vertue, is a treasured example.The four chapters that make up After Silence voice primal experiences that have been held sacrosanct in human culture since time immemorial: Remembrance, invoking death, loss and the return to earth; Devotion, focusing on the flames of love, sacred and secular; Redemption, seeking renewal and the breath of life; and Elemental, where the ebb and flow of nature meets the search for purity. The themes are illustrated with contemporary artworks by Debbie Loftus that place visual experience under a microscope to reveal exquisite landscapes of pure, interactive colour. Exalted, vital and freed from their original contextual restraints, the choral works showcased on this recording are distinguished by their inexhaustible capacity to express the inexpressible.