Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

The Cathedral Singers are a Chicago-based mixed ensemble of professionals who perform in a wide variety of styles, everything from early music and baroque through to stage shows and musicals, and this album was recorded in February 1999 in the shrine of St Francis Xavier Cabrini in Chicago. The Singers were directed by Church of Scotland minister, Rev John L Bell, and the connection with the Iona Community is that John is one of the leaders of Iona's Wild Goose Resource Group, dedicated (to quote the sleevenotes) "to renewing and enlivening the songs and liturgy of the Church". I am very fond of well-sung and well-written choral music, and this is a good example of both. The live acoustic in the shrine adds to the atmosphere, the Singers show excellent technique and the music had Celtic simplicity yet spiritual depth. Well worth getting hold of.

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