Much of this music dates from the years during which Richard Lloyd was organist at Durham Cathedral. But unlike so many other cathedral organists who need (or choose) to write occasional anthems, motets or service settings, Lloyd has developed a thoroughly accomplished technique. This music is neither adventurous nor particularly original but in its purity of expression, warm-hearted musical language and absolute mastery of the genre, it stands out as some of the most rewarding church music of our time.

Various pieces of Lloyd’s have, from time to time, cropped up on disc, but this is the first commercially available disc wholly devoted to his music. And very attractive listening it makes too, creating a deep sense of optimism and life-affirming tranquillity. There’s a gentle arrangement of the Spiritual “Were you there?” for unaccompanied choir, originally written for a Good Friday service in Durham Cathedral; a majestic anthem (“Great Lord of Lords”) with a generous organ part played with total integrity by Ian Shaw, who was, for several years, Lloyd’s assistant at Durham; a profoundly calm setting of “God be in my head”, written, as with so many of the shorter pieces here, for a wedding; and an eminently practical setting of the Evening Canticles written in 2001 for Peterborough Cathedral.

If you have never previously heard of the Bede Singers, there’s no need to feel embarrassed; they were formed specially for this recording from past members of Durham Cathedral choir and choral scholars from Cambridge University. For an ad hoc choir, they produce an impressively blended and cohesive sound, and for that, praise must go to David Hill who has cast his usual magic spell to produce yet another disc of superb choral singing. But with music of such utter loveliness, one suspects any choir could not fail to respond with such inspired singing.