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Each summer, the Louth Contemporary Music Society hosts a festival devoted to new music. Based in Dundalk, population 43,000, just south of the border with Northern Ireland, it may have a homespun look about it, but visiting composers have included big names such as Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt and John Tavener.
Following on from earlier LCMS recordings, this latest collection includes three premieres from the 2023 festival. The composers — Cassandra Miller, Laurence Crane and Linda Catlin Smith — make a complementary trio. Each of their pieces might be described as minimal, if not minimalist, simple and sparing with their material.
The slow-moving choral harmonies of Miller’s The City, Full of People set the tone. In an encounter that stretches back nearly 500 years, Miller reimagines Thomas Tallis’s Lamentations of Jeremiah in a modern context, shifting serenely between discord and harmony as if time is dissolving.
Catlin Smith’s choral work Folio sets fragments of poetry that Emily Dickinson wrote on to envelopes, each scrap of text given unhurried, thoughtful expression, in which less means more. Both get expert performances from Chamber Choir Ireland conducted by Paul Hillier.
In between comes Crane’s String Quartet No 2, which moves gradually from the rocking chords of its opening movement, through a central radiance to a mysterious, questioning close. Played with calm poise by the Esposito Quartet, it fades into silence, reaching its own timeless zone.
★★★★☆
‘Folks’ Music’ is released by Louth Contemporary Music Society
