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Innocence
Innocence in Bloomington, MN
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The world might not need another young a cappella vocal group, but the
Echo Vocal Ensemble
and director
Sarah Latto
compel attention with
Innocence
, the group's debut release. The album turned up on year-end best-of lists in 2024, and it's no wonder: the conception is entirely fresh, and the execution terrific.
is an unusual idea for an album theme, but it proves to have the right kind of flexibility for what
Latto
has in mind, namely the coalescing of a great variety of compositions around the given idea. The program is anchored by four chants from the medieval composer and abbess
Hildegard von Bingen
, which might seem odd inasmuch as there are no other chants or medieval works, and only two Renaissance pieces, a Palestrina madrigal, and
Jean Mouton
's lovely
Nesciens Mater
(the music shifts confidently between secular and sacred, and this seems to be one of its points). But the
Hildegard
pieces are distributed throughout the program and serve effectively as invocations (and a post-lude). In between there is a good deal of folk material, including Indian, Polish, Scottish, and Greek songs, a few 20th century compositions including
Ravel
's rarely heard
Trois Chansons
, science fiction and environmentalist pieces from, respectively,
Meredith Monk
and the single-named
Anohni
, and, most unusually, pop songs by
The Beatles
("
I'm Only Sleeping
") and
The Smiths
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
"); the latter are heavily but quite effectively arranged to fit the format. It never gets dull, and it never goes off the rails, although
pushes at the boundaries of the idea (it's closer to loss of innocence). The choir has a well-honed warm sound that fits several of these pieces exceptionally well, and it's served nicely by the acoustic of St. Augustine's Church, Kilbourn, London, in the hands of
Resonus Classics
' engineering staff. An extremely impressive debut. ~ James Manheim
Echo Vocal Ensemble
and director
Sarah Latto
compel attention with
Innocence
, the group's debut release. The album turned up on year-end best-of lists in 2024, and it's no wonder: the conception is entirely fresh, and the execution terrific.
is an unusual idea for an album theme, but it proves to have the right kind of flexibility for what
Latto
has in mind, namely the coalescing of a great variety of compositions around the given idea. The program is anchored by four chants from the medieval composer and abbess
Hildegard von Bingen
, which might seem odd inasmuch as there are no other chants or medieval works, and only two Renaissance pieces, a Palestrina madrigal, and
Jean Mouton
's lovely
Nesciens Mater
(the music shifts confidently between secular and sacred, and this seems to be one of its points). But the
Hildegard
pieces are distributed throughout the program and serve effectively as invocations (and a post-lude). In between there is a good deal of folk material, including Indian, Polish, Scottish, and Greek songs, a few 20th century compositions including
Ravel
's rarely heard
Trois Chansons
, science fiction and environmentalist pieces from, respectively,
Meredith Monk
and the single-named
Anohni
, and, most unusually, pop songs by
The Beatles
("
I'm Only Sleeping
") and
The Smiths
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
"); the latter are heavily but quite effectively arranged to fit the format. It never gets dull, and it never goes off the rails, although
pushes at the boundaries of the idea (it's closer to loss of innocence). The choir has a well-honed warm sound that fits several of these pieces exceptionally well, and it's served nicely by the acoustic of St. Augustine's Church, Kilbourn, London, in the hands of
Resonus Classics
' engineering staff. An extremely impressive debut. ~ James Manheim
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