Pizzicato

Advena is the stranger in a crumbling world. This is likely how the album title and recorded works of American composer Mark Buller should be understood.

The text of Mass in Exile describes the world as a wreck. Buller embeds these emotional landscapes in liturgical chants and prayers that are as stirring as they are contemplative. It never gets really loud. « No Trumpets » is the title of the Dies Irae in the Requiem.

The composer works across genres to express searching, questioning, and praying through music. In the introductory « Fruit of Your Heart, » thoughtful, meditative guitar sounds are featured. Buller composes the Miserere with restless rhythms and introduces the various sections of the Credo in Gregorian mode on guitar. These are then joined by repeated Hebrew sounds. Mark Buller successfully combines all these elements.

However, the Texan vocal ensemble Conspirare carries this appealing interpretation above all with their exquisitely balanced sound, which brings the necessary emotionality and intimacy to the works.

—Guy Engels