‘First Drop’ aims to capture that special alchemy that takes place between ensemble and composer when a new work is commissioned and performed. Of course, not every synthesis guarantees success, but it’s difficult to resist the notion that everything Denmark’s leading vocal ensemble touch turns into sonorous gold. Recorded by Ars Nova Copenhagen over a period of 10 years under their inspirational director, Paul Hillier, ‘First Drop’ exudes all the freshness and vitality of a spring shower on a sunny day.

While much of what is heard falls under the rather amorphous description ‘post-minimal’, the range of styles is remarkably varied, from the giddy tonal glissandos heard in Michael Gordon’s He saw a skull to Pablo Ortiz’s twitchy neo-medieval Five Motets. In between there are contributions from first-generation minimalists, including a touchingly lyrical song by Louis Andriessen. Terry Riley’s exuberant, multilayered musical evocation of Jack Kerouac’s stream-of-consciousness poem ‘Mexico City Blues’ brilliantly rounds off the disc, while Reich’s well-known Clapping Music is also given an energetic melodic and harmonic twist in Hillier’s clever vocal arrangement.

But the main spotlight falls on two English composers. A poignant anti-war poem by Robert Palmer is woven into the famous medieval song ‘L’homme armé’ by Gabriel Jackson, while Howard Skempton’s delicately crafted setting of a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson affirms Arnold Whittall’s recent assertion in these pages that his music possesses the unerring knack of capturing one’s attention ‘with a few, often quiet sounds that manage to shrug off much of their long history while questioning their new contexts’ (Contemporary Composers, 7/17).

Each performance benefits from the resonant acoustics of Garrison Church, Copenhagen, although a few editorial pops and clicks detract a little from a recording that ripples with vibrant colour and conviction.