Since its foundation in 2005 the British ensemble Voces8 has drawn glowing plaudits for the impeccable quality of its balance and tone, the versatility of its programming and its far-reaching educational workshops. In addition to a busy international touring schedule there is now a third ‘themed’ album for Decca, billed as ‘a powerful aural portrait of winter…an immersive sonic landscape’. Naturally the composers hail predominantly from northern latitudes, including Estonia, Latvia, Iceland, Russia and England.

The centrepiece is a stunning performance of Pēteris Vasks’s Plainscapes, three wordless linked movements, composed in 2002, and infused with a strong Pärtian flavour, with important roles for violin and cello, played here with tremendous verve by Norwegian siblings Mari and Håkon Samuelsen. This rendition is even more impressive than the Latvian Radio Choir’s recording under Sigvards Kļava for Ondine in 2012, especially in the final section, when a cinematically vivid aviary bursts into life, complete with birdcalls, string harmonics and suchlike.

The rest of the programme is of predominantly slow and smooth music, though all of the greatest interest. Francis Pott’s perfectly poised Balulalow bears many repeated hearings, as does Judith Bingham’s The darkness is no darkness, with its hints of late Vaughan Williams. Voces8’s composer-in-residence Ola Gjeilo offers a radically reharmonised revamp of Holst’s In the bleak midwinter, and there are three delicious arrangements by Geoff Lawson, the finest of which is Come wander with me, first heard in the film The Twilight Zone in 1954.

Finest of all, though, is Rebecca Dale’s specially commissioned title-track, Winter. With mulled wine and a slice of Stollen to hand, this warming masterpiece will definitely see me through any hivernal hardship.