‘Ave Verum’ begins broadly and nobly, yet breeds underlying tension as the opening passage leans, question-like, towards the activity that follows.

Here befalls a change of gear, after which a breadth of different characters is born due to the boys' attention to musical detail: a dash of colour to accentuate an interesting melodic pattern and a different shade for another; a flick of a brush to neatly curve the sound around the corner of a phrase.

One of Libera's finest elements is their ability to sing pitch perfect in octaves so that the sounds of the two levels fit inside each other like pieces of an ornately carved puzzle. A glorious high motif peals liberally, sometimes echoing itself, otherwise a quiet statement.

Behind this craft, a mountain of sounds twist and shake and leap, all of which sit astride a lively but steady bass beat. When the instruments play alone, the high motif is thrown back over the shoulder, a flicker left behind from the passing flame.

Copyright © 2004 Merewyn Bramble, Benj Schatzmann, Stewart Simpson