Donna McKevitt once toured briefly with Katharine Blake’s Mediaeval Baebes, but also worked with Blake’s earlier group, Miranda Sex Garden, which she joined in 1992. The following year MSG contributed to the soundtrack of Derek Jarman’s remarkable film Blue, a meditation on his gradual decline towards death from Aids. McKevitt set one of Jarman’s poems and he was so impressed with the result that he gave her carte blanche to use his work in the future. Translucence, a song cycle comprising 12 settings with five instrumental interludes, was her response to this generous permit.

Teldec’s original release carried a ‘Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics’ sticker. The warning is missing from this issue, which also omits the poems from the insert. Maybe the warning was considered unnecessary because, six years later, expressions of gay love and desire are more widely accepted on the same terms as heterosexual feelings, or because the UK’s children are presumed to be even less shockable (after all, there’s nothing here about ‘smacking my bitch up’), or maybe because there is no expectation that young people would listen to this kind of music anyway. That would be their loss. In 1998 I gave this music a five-star review in another magazine, and I stand by that.

The sharp focus of the recording and the articulation of the four singers do full justice to McKevitt’s writing (Translucence really is an apt title) and the preponderance of syllabic settings ensures that Jarman’s words do not become secondary to the music. You can understand why he was so pleased with her work. Her economy of means is skilfully exploited to produce some rich textures. Pieces for four voices, largely homophonic, are full of luminous sounds, and the solo settings provide lines that are virtuosic without being showy.

Michael Chance benefits most from this imaginative writing, but all the voices are shown to good advantage.The two string players have controlled and expressive music both in the interludes and the accompaniments. A well-deserved reissue.