Tarik O’Regan was born in London in 1978 but is now based in New York, serving as visiting research affiliate at Yale’s Institute of Sacred Music. His music has been performed by the London Sinfonietta, the BBC SO and the BBC Singers among others, and this recording was produced by John Rutter, who knows a thing or two about what the religious music public likes to hear.

As seems increasingly common with religious choral composers, O’Regan imports structural elements from medieval, Renaissance and Eastern music. One of the most charming instances is the echoes of Balinese gamelan music in O vera digna hostia. There are also 20th-century references: some passages in the Magnificat recall early Kevin Volans and even Stockhausen, while the climax of Deus misereatur, which O’Regan acknowledges was influenced by his move to Manhattan, owes something to Steve Reich. Ancient or modern, these allusions are all woven in with subtlety, always well integrated into a style which is individual and fresh.

O’Regan also writes imaginatively for the organ, used effectively in the Dorchester Canticles and Care Charminge Sleepe, and the programme closes with Colimaçon for solo organ, from which Gratias tibi later evolved as a setting for four-part choir. Nice writing, too, for the cello in the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. His use of instruments intensifies the mood of the music rather than simply decorating it. Whatever the future course of O’Regan’s career, he will be able to look back on this debut album with well merited satisfaction.