Fredrik Högberg (b. 1971): Why do you Dance?
Paula af Malmborg Ward (b. 1962): Sunplay - 55 Bars before Dusk
Andrea Tarrodi (b. 1981): Poppies in October
Brett Dean (b. 1961): Was it a Voice?
Jan Sandström (b. 1954): Lux Aeterna
Carl Unander-Scharin (b. 1964): The Cloud of Unknowing
- Cloud & Light
- Unknowing & Forgetting
- God & Love
- Darkness
- Nowhere bodily is everywhere ghostly
- Prayer

This may sound like an oxymoron, but I've always admired choirs that don't sound like choirs. Ergo composers who write choral music without the human voice in mind. Allow me to elucidate. Most choirs or vocal ensembles sound like a group of people clustered together trying their best to enunciate clearly, remain in pitch and sustain dynamic balance. And by doing so end up sounding like a bunch of individual singers trying their best to blend in and in the process, lose track of the fact that they're performing music. You could say that the Erik Westberg Vocal Ensemble is the antithesis of this in that their coalescence is so seamless that you forget you're listening to a group of singers and all you hear is the music.

The works on this CD, all world premiere recordings except for Was it a Voice?, all seem to explore the various range of special sonic effects the human voice can produce within the strict confines of music, which further renders the choir inconspicuous. The harmonic dénouement and rhythmic pulse of the music is all you hear. A perfect example of this can be heard in the short audio clips below of Fredrik Högberg's Why do you Dance? and Carl Unander-Scharin's Nowhere bodily is everywhere ghostly. Some of the pieces include the haunting sound of the viola played by Kim Hellgren, and the brilliance of the four manual, 140 stop Organ Acusticum at Luleå University of Technology, one of the biggest organs in Sweden, played by Markus Wargh and Aaron Sunstein, which all makes for a well-rounded program.

Conductor Erik Westberg has been a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music since 2008, and amongst other distinctions, has been awarded the ribbon of the Order of the Seraphim, for significant achievements in Swedish Musical Life.