In the acoustical setting of the Royaumont Abbey, Les Métaboles bring to life an a cappella repertoire of famous Englishmen, from Henry Purcell to Jonathan Harvey.

Supple, clear, and warm, the voices of Les Métaboles are just as capable of intervening as soloists and ensuring the clarity of the vocal lines as they are of blending into the choral polyphony. They are marvelous in this agelessly modern repertoire, which plays with a Gregorian plainchant coated in a vocal mist and traversed by turbulence (Plainsongs for Peace and Light), sculpting the sound with bewitching harmonic sequences (I love the Lord), and finally taking us into another dimension (The Angels), with a floating and strangely comforting beauty.

Recorded within the walls of the monks' refectory at Royaumont Abbey, the entirely a cappella programme combines ancient and contemporary periods. William Byrd's Ave Verum immediately reveals the perfection of Les Métaboles' intonation under the crafted direction of Léo Warynski. A space opens out, starting from the opening quartet of soloists from the pulpit, to the full ensemble. The latter is arranged in a double choir for Palestrina's sublime Stabat Mater, taken at a relatively fast tempo. The result is a choral effusion of great fluidity, of which the quality of execution precludes any precipitation, especially during the exchanges in alla breve values. We find this urgency in Purcell's Remember Not, of which the intensity represents a gesture of desperation. It is echoed in Jonathan Harvey's Remember, to whom the album pays a fine tribute nine years after his passing.

During this election week in the USA, En Pistes’s favourite is the latest record by the vocal ensemble Les Métaboles titled “Une Nuit Américaine”. A record, filled with discoveries, which establishes Les Métaboles as one of the great French choral ensembles.