If this arouses the expectation (or dread) that we're in for another incautiously blended World Music buffet, then prepare to be agreeably surprised...Swayne is expert in his handling of unaccompanied choral resources...everything is held together by a sense of sustained, muscular line rare among modern British composers. A very worthwhile disc

As a self-confessed outsider to the "English choral tradition", Swayne nevertheless draws on a trio of stylistic influences: Latin plainchant, Tudor polyphony and traditional African music.

Throughout, the four soloists and the Dmitri Ensemble under Graham Ross give passionate, committed performances. The stabbing staccatos and syncopated rhythms of Magnificat I bounce off the original Senegalese material with tremendous vigour...[Stabat Mater] rings with solo and choral singing of raw, magnificent power and sympathetic eloquence. Indeed, it would be hard to imagine a better performance.