Beautifully Performed Music by Veljo Tormis, recommended by PATRIC STANDFORD Toccata Classics    TOCC 0073

The distinguished Estonian composer of a vast catalogue of choral music, much of it rising from the folklore of his country, will soon be eighty. He is perhaps justifiably best known outside his country for the overwhelming power of his setting of one of the incantations from the Kalevala, the Curse upon Iron which first appeared in 1973 for mixed voices and is recorded here for the first time in its equally frightening version for male voices (which Tormis made in 2001), with the ominous ever present shaman drum played by the composer! It must be among the most fearful minimalist pieces ever written, full of revulsion against the iron ore that has contributed to so much of our human destruction: 'Damn you, bastard! Wretched iron! I know your birth, you purblind fool, I know well your source, you evil!'

The only loss in this arrangement for men's voices is the higher pitched screams, and yet there is quite enough brutal and muscular excitement in the divided male voices.

Another newly arranged piece is Forging the Sampo, sharing a similar message of the conflict between man and technology. There are moments of strength and lyrical beauty, as in the haunting Our Shadows, the philosophy of the aboriginal people of North America: one day we will reappear.

The eight Men's Songs, all with a strong folk base, are recorded complete, together with a range of songs and incantations that present a fine retrospective of this major composer's choral output, all beautifully performed. I can only recommend this disc very highly.

Record Box is Music & Vision's regular series of shorter CD reviews