Exaudi: Pocket Universe album review – virtuoso vocals with a joyfully bonkers bent
Exaudi’s *Pocket Universe* brings together four eclectic vocal works written for James Weeks’ ensemble during the 2010s. The recording showcases virtuosic singing, unusual textures and a playful imagination, while exploring devotion, political history, personal memory and the cosmos.
Cassandra Miller’s *Guide* transforms a Maria Muldaur folk performance into controlled cacophony, while Andrew Hamilton’s *Proclamation of the Republic* evokes Patrick Pearse’s 1916 address through gradually unifying vocal patterns. Leo Chadburn’s reflective *Affix Stamp Here* combines spoken place names, dates and postcard texts, and Geoff Hannan’s title track sets Latin astronomy passages by Galileo and Newton in exuberant, rapid-fire music.
- Four adventurous works showcase Exaudi’s exceptional vocal virtuosity.
- The music spans folk song, Irish history, memory and astronomy.
- Joyful, inventive and deliberately eccentric.