Henrik Ødegaard’s music doesn’t shout. It scarcely even whispers.

In this new recording by Vox Clamantis and Jaan-Eik Tulve the veteran Norwegian composer’s music creeps up on you by stealth, a sonic haze illuminating, amplifying, commenting on and – sometimes – even introducing a note of doubt into the absolute certainty of the plainchant melodies that are the foreground of this collection of Paschal meditations, hymns and anthems.

It’s all in the restraint. Take the opener, for example. Jesus dulcis memoria grows from a solo voice (and is that the faintest of hummed drones? So much of this music sits right on the cusp of uttered and imagine sound) to unison statements, all passed between male and female voices. Gradually the texture is filled out with subtle harmony. Voices cling to notes as they sound, turning them into pedal points, or melodic echoes, shimmering threads tethering the matte core of chant floating above.

If the philosophy remains constant, the results are by no means a one-note exercise. The propulsive, processional energy of hymn O filii et filiae is retained...