Each of these 10 works by Jake Runestad, written between 2006 and 2018, has a similar reverence for texts that touch deeply but gently on human issues and benefit from his imaginatively varied toolkit of resources. That he writes well for singers is enthusiastically proved by the all-volunteer Denver-based Kantorei choral ensemble and eight instrumentalists, and some full-blooded recordings.

In the title-track, Sing, wearing the sky, to a text by the 14th-century Sufi mystic Lalla, Runestad captures what he describes as ‘the metaphor of dancing while feeling free or naked’ with sensuous Indian abandon leading to incongruously homespun Americana, sung gloriously throughout by mezzo-soprano Kali Paguirigan, vividly scored with an exhilarating violin solo and an upsurge of energy ending in a superb climax.

The Secret of the Sea, to texts by Whitman, Longfellow, Hilda Doolittle and the Inuit shaman Uvavnuk, and inspired by the Sydney Opera House, where it was premiered, arises out of an Impressionistic haze and seduces with another memorable piano melody. Some heavy-duty choral work recalling Nevsky and Orff, intense and fragile at the same time, further charges Runestad’s musical moodscape.

Other highlights include the pounding drums, ritual chant and Juli Orlandini’s lovely solo soprano in We can mend the sky (Warda Mohammed); a lovely choral melody in Proud music of the storm (Whitman); exuberance tempered by supplication in Alleluia; and nonsense syllables in a snappy production number called Ner ner, meant to leave an audience cheering with a final radiant, audiophile riff.