Mark Hagerty’s united sounds of america is a vivid, compelling collaboration between music and poetry that, while not intended for the stage, would make for gripping theatre. Energised by a score that’s got jazz rhythms and idioms in its genes, and employing an ensemble of piano, drums and soprano, it functions perfectly as a purely audio experience, offering variety, substance and relevance. Many of the sections stand well and powerfully on their own.

Working with the Twin Poets duo of brothers Al Mills and Nnamdi O Chukwuocha, the occasionally out-of-sync dialogue, like looking into mirrors, resonates with contemporary issues: prison life and illegal dreams, home and war, teenage crushes and football losses (with a bit of the Philadelphia Eagles’ fight song interpolated). The poetic interplay between the brothers against Hagerty’s evocative score creates a haunting commentary on American urban reality woven together in both harmony and discord.

The music is in the background for long stretches but jumps into life when needed to underscore the emotional weight of the narrative; beautifully orchestrated and played, the results – as in ‘how ironic’, which in exploring veterans’ PTSD floats a trumpet line somewhere beyond Copland and Ives – are effective and authentic.

The booklet includes a detailed analysis by University of Delaware musicologist Philip Gentry, which together with an appreciation by Traci Evadne Currie contextualises what is a quintessential American story, exposing the darker realities beneath the white picket fences of Wilmington, Delaware, where the brothers are from, where ‘the ones you murder today will torment you tomorrow’.