‘Lux’ – the opening word of the opening track on ‘Sudden Light’, Lux orta est iusto – bursts into the ear, a glittering explosion of sound that scatters its bright shards in all directions with wonderful abandon. It’s a brilliant moment of music-drama, one of many on a disc that reinforces composer David Bednall’s real gift for word-setting.

Bednall has been quietly building up an impressive discography over the past few years, mostly thanks to the British label Regent, which most recently released his poignant Stabat mater (A/16). This new collection of choral works is interesting on two counts: as a chance to hear Bednall’s secular part-songs (less well represented on disc than his sacred works) and as the debut recording from the award-winning UK choir Epiphoni and their director Tim Reader.

Andrew Stewart’s elegant booklet notes stress Bednall’s Englishness, placing him in a long line of Romantic moderns like Edward Bawden and John Piper. But it’s the French influences that strike most forcefully in the composer’s sacred music, where a love of chant and some hazy, highly perfumed harmonies take us into the Catholic world of Duruflé, even Messiaen at times.

The exquisite miniature Tota pulchra es and the deft hymn-harmonisation of Te lucis ante terminum are representative of music that isn’t afraid of simplicity, its lovely melodies needing the apology of no harmonic modesty-cover. Best though is the giddy ecstasy of the Song of Solomon setting Rise up, my love, with its swelling, priapic organ accompaniment, and the Three Songs of Love – beautifully crafted settings of verses by Clare and Yeats that serve their texts faithfully.

Meeting the demands of music that often occupies the extremes of the range, Epiphoni offer consistently efficient performances. However, a little upper-voice strain, both in tenors and sopranos, and a tendency to grip rather than release chords keeps them from fully realising this music’s distinctively fluid grace.