Robert Hugill’s name may be familiar as the author of the classical music blog Planet Hugill, but he is also a composer. Recordings have appeared previously from Divine Art and Nimbus, there are some items available on YouTube and now Navona has taken up his cause. His output focuses on vocal and church music and the 18 songs on the present disc take us to the heart of his secular production.

The song-cycle Quickening is the earliest work here, though its dates of composition are unclear: ‘dating from the 1990s’ says the slip-case, ‘2001’ – the date of the premiere – says the insert. (Neither Navona’s online notes nor the composer’s website resolve the discrepancy.) Given here in its original scoring for mezzo-soprano (or alto), viola and piano – an alternative exists with soprano and violin – these six songs on texts by Christina Rossetti are nicely sung by a slightly tremulous-sounding Anna Huntley, though it is Rosalind Ventris’s viola, weaving its way around and between the voice and William Vann’s piano, that is most beguiling.

The remainder of the programme is for baritone Johnny Herford and piano only. The strongest item is the four delicate, sensitive settings of Ivor Gurney (2007), drawing performances of like quality. I was less taken with the Housman songs (2008, 2016) and Winter Journey (2009, texts by Rowan Williams), rather middle-of-the-road art songs in which Hugill is content to stay put expressively. The result is a not unattractive, slightly anonymous lyricism that left me yearning for the brilliance of Britten, Maconchy or Lefanu. With reasonable sound, this is a pleasant, unchallenging way to spend an hour.