Nightfall

October 7, 2024, 6:00 am

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Portrait of VOCES8 in formal attire; three women in metallic-palette gowns; five gentlemen in black tie tuxedos; textured navy backdrop.
VOCES8 (Photo: Andy Staples)

The new album from Voces8 gathers night-inspired repertoire. includes two world premiere works from British composer and 2024 Classic FM Rising Star Lucy Walker, as well as US composer and regular collaborator, Taylor Scott Davis. Selections by contemporary choral composers Caroline Shaw, Kerensa Briggs, Dan Forrest, and Frank Ticheli share Voces8’s formidable platform with arrangements of songs by Ludovico Einaudi, Sigur Rós, Korean composer Jung Jae-il (of Parasite and Squid Game fame), and the composer of the music for The Legend of Zelda games Koji Kondo. Remarkably, the collection also includes a selection by Hugo Alfvén that is new to WFMT. Overall, the collection finds Voces8 skillfully threading the needle between their label’s apparent demand for blissful/zen/atmospheric albums and the ensemble’s mission to expand the choral canon and welcome new audiences.

Playlist

Hugo Alfvén: “Aftonen”
Max Reger: “Nachtlied,” Op. 138, No. 3
Caroline Shaw: “and the swallow”
Kim André Arnesen: “Even when he is silent”
Frank Ticheli: “There Will Be Rest”
Dan Forrest: “Good Night, Dear Heart”
Taylor Scott Davis: “Stardust”
Lucy Walker: “O Nata Lux”
Kerensa Briggs: “Media Vita”
Max Richter: “On the Nature of Daylight”
Jung Jae-il: Psalms (two mvmts)
Sigur Rós: “Fljótavik”
Ludovico Einaudi: “Experience”
Koji Kondo: “The Legend of Zelda – The Wind Waker”