Tansy Davies came into her own on disc with ‘Troubairitz’ (7/11) and this new release rounds out her output in the first decade of this century. A diverse collection takes in both solo and ensemble pieces – the former ranging from the laconic Scarlatti inventions of Loopholes and Lynchpins, the Bach-inspired monologue of Loure and the oblique ritual of Dark Ground. The viol consort has amassed a whole new repertoire in recent years but the Dowland deconstruction of make black white is among the most impressive in its radical reimagining of the group’s sound as well as its sense. Heard from this perspective, the three ensemble works seem less radical than anticipated: only in its more impulsive later stages does Iris evoke the shamanic journey which inspired it, while the abrasive sound world of Falling Angel is not matched by the distinctiveness of its material, though the trilobite evolution behind spine ensures a more pungent instrumental interplay.

The performances are as authoritative as expected from the calibre of soloists and ensembles involved, not least Samuel Boden and Huw Watkins in the two songs after Nick Drake – the distanced eroticism of ‘Static’ and the achingly plangent ‘This Love’ – that this most reticent of artists would surely have appreciated. An absorbing if uneven disc, then, that those who already have the earlier Davies disc should acquire forthwith. The sound quality is excellent and the composer’s own notes highly informative but Paul Griffiths’s contribution does rather tie itself up in knots in expounding its appreciation.