Although she has featured on various artist-led anthologies, and not forgetting the impressive solo-violin piece Permutations for her sister Tamsin (Signum, 9/17), this is the first release devoted to the music of Freya Waley-Cohen (b1989) and it makes for a thoughtful yet involving listen.

Evidently inspired by the idea of a séance and two of Beethoven’s late piano sonatas, Conjure (2019) draws its string players into a diverting though always focused trialogue that evolves stealthily with no little intuitive sense. Extending this complement of strings to 13, Talisman (2020) is described by the composer as ‘the ritual …that bestows magic on an object, and the object that bestows magic on the ritual’, which is apposite to its interplay of sharply defined expressive gestures with a formal process logical but never predictable. An in memoriam to Oliver Knussen, Naiad (2019) teases out differences between soloistic and ensemble writing as well as of foreground and background for what evolves into a limpid and affecting tribute.

Among Waley-Cohen’s most substantial works, Spell Book (2024) draws on poems and other writings by Rebecca Tamás in what is less a song-cycle than (to quote the composer) ‘a sung Spell-book’. One that unfolds from the impulsive abandon of ‘spell for Lilith’ and distanced musing of ‘spell for sex’, prior to the hectic inevitability of ‘spell for logic’ then the ominous enticement of ‘spell for women’s books’. The reckless verve of ‘spell for joy’ comes in total contrast with the elemental starkness of ‘spell for change’ – which, in its turn, could hardly be more removed from the incremental patterns of ‘spell for reality’. It remains for ‘spell for the witch’s hammer’ to end this sequence with its impassioned outcry against feigned rationality. All three vocalists involved in the latter work come together for this final song, rounding off a sequence that makes for a worthwhile addition to NMC’s invaluable Debut Discs series.