Working in a broadly traditional style, he explores a harmonic world of blurred but euphonious richness, the writing skilled and unfailingly effective…These beautifully shaped performances by a finely constituted and fearless mixed choir, offer a convincing array of colour, texture and dynamics.

A number of these pieces were commissioned for the Merton Choirbook, and The Magi’s Gifts in particular is approached with obvious affection and real understanding for its carefully interwoven structure. This is Benjamin Nicholas’s tenth year at the head of the choir, and he has them singing with relaxed authority and confidence.

His approach to word-setting is always acutely responsive…A preponderance of slow unaccompanied music allows the listener to luxuriate in and enjoy the core strength of Benjamin Nicholas’s Merton College choir, with its solid bass section and sufficient choral weight to cope with the wide dynamic range that so much of Allain’s music demands…A stimulating and beautifully sung collection, which connoisseurs of the great British choral heritage should rush to buy.

I’ll admit to a slight vested interest in this album of choral music by the British composer (b.1965), as the anthem ‘God be in my head’ was commissioned by myself and a group of fellow singers as a wedding-present for two close friends; all of the qualities which attracted us to Allain in the first place are on display here, including luminous textures, subtle word-painting, and a predominantly tonal idiom spiked with unexpected dissonances.