"starkly beautiful ... MacRae wrote the majority of the music on this album especially for Betts-Dean (the daughter of Hamlet composer Brett) after hearing her perform his The Lif of this World a few years ago, and it's easy to see why her distinctive, plangent voice and insightful way with text proved such a wellspring of inspiration. Scottish folk influences abound, especially in the opening The Captive and the purely instrumental Haroldswick, and the overall mood is one of spare, chilly beauty. Do try it ..."

EDITOR'S CHOICE

"This new release of works by Stuart MacRae is, in short, a striking collection. The use of a wide variety of texts from Rossetti, Bronte, Alwynne Pritchard, the Poetic Edda, Gaelic and Middle English demonstrates his love and skill with text.Similarly, the use of varying forces among the gathered quartet makes every work stand out and makes the album a wonderful journey.What strikes me is the comparable qualities the album has with Holst’s songs for violin, where the modal inflections make some of the works seem like ancient, rediscovered relics ...Lotte Betts-Dean’s ability to juggle the musical and linguistic differences between all the works shows her incredible knack as a performer"

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

" ... Earth, thy cold is keen by Scottish composer Stuart MacRae, conjures an aural landscape steeped in folk music and medieval lyric, but the result is entirely distinctive and modern. With the Australian mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean and the duo Sequoia (Alice Rickards, violin, Sonia Cromarty, cello), MacRae adds harmonium or electronics to settings from Middle English, the Norse Poetic Edda and traditional Gaelic, as well as later poems by Christina Rossetti and others. The Captive, a setting of Emily Brontë’s The Prisoner, written for Betts-Dean, suits perfectly the singer’s pure tone and skilful storytelling powers. In sharp contrast, Alwynne Pritchard’s text elided compressed is a playfully spiky collage of voice and electronics. The last song, The Lif of This World, a medieval precis of birth to death in a translation by MacRae, is especially affecting. This is music for slow, close listening, beautifully performed, not for the impatient"

'Captivated by the unique, surreal quality of Australian mezzo soprano Lotte Betts-Dean’s voice – a folk-like purity embellished with beguiling ornamentation – Stuart MacRae set about composing eight works for her over a recent intense two-year period. The results are enchanting, characterfully revealed in the album Earth, Thy Cold Is Keen ... There’s gripping unpredictability in a journey that courses through the mystical, largely unaccompanied simplicity of The Captive(words Emily Bronté), the frenetic electronics of Elided Compressed, a traditional Gaelic song playfully remodelled, and much more en route to the crushing density of O Earth, Lie Heavily and the earlier-composed The Lif of this World. The title track is an ethereal combination of voice and harmonium. Sequoia go it alone in two individually seasoned instrumental numbers'

"Scottish composer Stuart MacRae (Inverness, 1976) is one of the most difficult composers of his generation to pigeonhole. His orchestral oeuvre includes symphonies and operas in many different styles, but his interest in choral music has always stood out ...  Earth, thy cold is keen demonstrates MacRae’s versatility as a composer, encompassing both pieces of folkloric simplicity alongside complex contemporary techniques ... Between medieval, folk and fully contemporary, the album is a rarity, which is a positive qualifier, due to its originality and timelessness and the diversity of paths it opens up"

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