Machaut’s dual status as poet and composer seems ideally suited to launch a work in which the relation of text and music is closely scrutinised. This recording combines two cycles by the French composer Philippe Leroux for digitally treated vocal consort, one with instruments and one without. The five pieces that make up Quid sit musicus? are based on both the text and music of several works by Machaut and his younger contemporary Jacob de Senlèches, all of which appear embedded within Leroux’s compositions. In most cases the new works are literally split in two by the old, though the cuts are rarely clean, tending to bleed into each other. In a further process of interleaving, Leroux adds the five elements of the second cycle: towards the end of the work, the three elements (including Machaut, that is) are thoroughly interpenetrated while remaining perfectly recognisable. This is very skilfully done and repays close listening, helped along by the always subtle interaction of acoustic and digital elements. The text-setting is essentially phonetic, and Rachid Safir’s soloists mine its dramatic potential most invigoratingly; vowels give rise to held chords whose digital extension, which can extend over several minutes, are remarkably moving.

Leroux’s idiom is such that pastiche would be quite inappropriate, and this is one of the most refreshing aspects of this cycle: Machaut is neither exoticised nor reduced to a few clichés, as all too often happens when composers engage with early music. Anyone interested in contemporary music and early polyphony and their intersections will find this stimulating at the very least; I would say it’s compelling. My only criticism is that the earlier music is not quite so convincingly rendered as the later: in one or two cases a voice is given in the wrong octave, which skews Machaut’s counterpoint in a way that I suspect isn’t intended. Finally, the sound recording is as detailed as one would expect, given the close integration of digital and acoustic means.