For those unaware Cantus - the “engaging” (New Yorker) men’s vocal ensemble - will release their fifth album on Signum Classics, presenting a collection of songs cycles by contemporary and living composers, exploring different kinds of journeys through song.

“These contrasting song cycles share an embrace of change, growth, acceptance and renewal, and through the collective experience of their journeys – great and small, painful and magical – we gain a clearer picture of life and of ourselves” – Cantus.

Now in its 30th anniversary season, the low-voice ensemble Cantus is widely known for its trademark warmth and blend, innovative programming and riveting performances of music ranging from the Renaissance to the 21st century.

The Washington Post has hailed the Cantus sound as having both “exalting finesse” and “expressive power” and refers to the “spontaneous grace” of its music making. The Philadelphia Inquirer called the group nothing short of “exquisite.”

1. Dans La Montagne: No. I. L’appel De La Cloche
2. Dans La Montagne: No. Ii. La Route
3. Dans La Montagne: No. Iii. Un Jeaune Sapin Se Balance
4. Dans La Montagne: No. Iv. Soir
5. Dans La Montagne: No. V. Nuit
6. Edwin Morgan Sonnets, Vol. 02: Post-glacial
7. Edwin Morgan Sonnets, Vol. 02: a Golden Age
8. Edwin Morgan Sonnets, Vol. 02: the Mirror
9. N-400 Erasure Songs: 1. Form N-400 Erasures
10. N-400 Erasure Songs: 2. N-400 (An Erasure)
11. N-400 Erasure Songs: 3. Change [y]our Country
12. Protocol: 1. Self-made
13. Protocol: 2. the men Who Wore Lions
14. Protocol: 3. Prayer for the Uncertain Animal
15. Fields of Wonder: 1. Heaven
16. Fields of Wonder: 2. Snail
17. Fields of Wonder: 3. Big Sur
18. Fields of Wonder: 4. Moonlight Night: Carmel
19. Fields of Wonder: 5. Snake
20. Fields of Wonder: 6. New Moon
21. Fields of Wonder: 7. Birth

This magnificently ambient, wholly impassioned, and completely awesome new recording begins with the Jean Cras work Dans La Montagne, which opens on the humbling L’appel De La Cloche and the ataractic La Route and then brings us the stoic Un Jeaune Sapin Se Balance, the sombre toned Soir, ending with a languishing beauty within Nuit.

Up next is the Gavin Bryars work Edwin Morgan Sonnets, Vol. 02, which opens on the crystalline Post-glacial and then we get brought forth a lucidly heartfelt a Golden Age, ending on the dulcet the Mirror; and that is backed by the work of Melissa Dunphy on N-400 Erasure Songs, which open on the quietly reverbetive N-400 Erasure and then we get the harmonic N-400 (An Erasure), the set rounding out on a veritably translucent Change [y]our Country.

The last third is begun with a work from Griffen Candey entitled Protocol and with begins with the stillness of Self-made and then eases into the dutifully layered the men Who Wore Lions, culminating on the emboldened Prayer for the Uncertain Animal; the last work being the titular work Margaret Bonds on Fields of Wonder, which opens on the harmonious Heaven, the cultured Snail and the refined Big Sur and then we get an erudite Moonlight Night: Carmel, the joyously free flowing, magnificently detailed Snake, the lucid New Moon, the set coming to a close on a rather learned Birth.

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