First Drop

There is such clever sequencing here: African rhythms into medieval rhythms (Kevin Volans’s “Walking Song” into Ortiz’s 5 Motets), color into rhythm (Skempton’s “More Sweet Than My Refrain” through to Reich’s “Clapping Music”). Traversing distinctions between musical worlds is what Hillier and Ars Nova Copenhagen do; both are known for their work in both early and contemporary music.  Hillier seems to have a particularly deep knowledge of a certain neighborhood of contemporary music: accessibly spiritual but not forbiddingly religious, consonant and tuneful but not cheap or predictable. Their recording of Andriessen’s beautiful “Un beau baiser” here, from a little-known 1983 opera, seems to have already inspired imitators in the short time since its release.