This recording presents an intriguing programme of particular interest to musicians and musicologists working in the field of early sacred music. It contains all the items of a traditional Mass, most of them coming from two early sources, which take the listener on a journey covering a wide area of time and space, with the emphasis firstly on the passage from ars antiqua to ars nova and secondly on the first half of the 15th century. Two manuscripts have caught their eye (or should I say ear?): the Codices from Gaillac in France and from Las Huelgas in Spain.

The ensemble Kantika have focused the attention of the singers more particularly on one important manuscript, the Codex Las Huelgas, dating from 1300. Its original home was in the region of Burgos, Santa Maria La Real de Las Huelgas. The recording presents more than one striking feature, the first being its ambitus. It can reach the octave and is characterised by cadencing on the seventh resolving into the octave. Another characteristic is its low pitch – nothing higher than C an octave above middle C and in general revolving around the F or G below. But its most characteristic feature is its feminine tone quality. It slides gracefully from one pitch to another with a gentle legato, rarely heard today. The group’s guest singer, Kadri Hunt from Estonia, displays to perfection the female vocal quality I would have associated with Spanish singers – low and somewhat growly with glowing upper partials. Just occasionally the ensemble have their little struggle to maintain the pitch, but apart from that we have here a recording of considerable historic interest.