Exaudi: Pocket Universe album review – virtuoso vocals with a joyfully bonkers bent

Exaudi/Weeks
(NMC)
Four substantial, eclectic works written for James Weeks’ ensemble are brought together here, encompassing swooping folk phrasing, delicate harmonising and exuberant stylistic skill

There is a lot of joy in this release from Exaudi and their conductor, James Weeks, bringing together four substantial, eclectic works written for the vocal group during the 2010s. The first is Guide by Cassandra Miller. Based on a devotional song as recorded in 1968 by the folk singer Maria Muldaur, phrases of which are repeated freely by the singers in imitation of Muldaur’s swooping, full-voiced style, it builds quickly into a kind of controlled cacophony.

Andrew Hamilton’s Proclamation of the Republic imagines Patrick Pearse outside the Dublin General Post Office at Easter 1916, reading the historic text to a largely confused or oblivious public; little by little, pairing syllables on a quietly but insistently repeating two-note figure, the music blooms into something that seems to unite the crowd as they walk away, humming.