Credits:

Sigvards Klava

Description:

The Latvian Radio Choir, acclaimed as one of the world’s finest, performed the unaccompanied choral works by Martinait, a Lithuanian composer born in Russia but now based in New York. The album’s opener, “ALETHEIA TRUTH,” is a somber, prayerful work that Martinait began composing just as the Russian army began its invasion of Ukraine. In “Urlations,” the men of the family who have gone to war and the women who have lost loved ones are represented as grieving with their voices raised in a way that mimics the call of an owl hooting through the night in the forest. There are no lyrics to any of the pieces, and the gently undulating and shifting patterns of the vocalises are aptly described as mystical, fantastic, and meditative. According to the photo in the manual, there are 23 members in the choir, but the superb control of the chorus makes the harmonies perfect when they are aligned and preci