The Swede Bo Hansson is a man of many talents: a guitarist, and a composer of a wide range of music in folk and jazz idioms. Choral music might be a relatively recent departure for him but its roots run deep, back to the days of his childhood when he sang as a treble in his local choir. He has observed that ‘the human voice is the closest you can come to your soul’ and in that search he writes music that demands much of its performers in its sustained intensity of sound, a penchant for a cappella and a fresh way with word-setting even in the most established of texts, as in the darting energy of the Gloria from the Missa brevis.

Rupert Gough and his Royal Holloway Choir are no strangers to Hyperion, having previously made waves in music by Baltic composers Miškinis and Dubra. Here’s yet another sign that he’s one of the most exciting choral conductors of his generation.

It's always a particular pleasure to use a painting by a living artist as an album cover, and especially so when that artist is as distinguished as Charlie Baird. The eclecticism of Baird's work is remarkable, ranging from fields of vivid sunflowers in Provence to semi-abstract geometrics, and we've been fortunate enough to design a number of Hyperion covers which utilize his paintings. But 'Sunset Flock' is not only a personal favourite, it represents his work at its considerable best, for if there’s one subject to which he's repeatedly returned, and which he captures like few others, it's flocks of birds, often wheeling in dynamic flight against a background of turbulent seascapes.

Hyperion has a proud tradition of recording contemporary choral music by composers from Scandinavia and the Baltic States. Among others, Ēriks Ešenvalds, Jēkabs Jančevskis, Tõnu Kõrvits, Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, Vytautas Miškinis and Uģis Prauliņš have all benefited from Hyperion's advocacy, and 'Endless Border'—an album of (mostly) a cappella works by the Swede Bo Hansson—is another in an impressive line. It also demonstrates the unfailingly high standards of this country's university and collegiate choirs—playing to another of Hyperion's strengths—in this case the Royal Holloway Choir and its director Rupert Gough. The title track, which suggested the cover, is a setting of a poem by the Swedish poet Sun Axelsson: her sense of wonder at 'Endless border of presence. / Too close the unreachable sea' finding its match not only in Hansson's extraordinary setting, but also in the restless energy of Baird's wonderful painting.

Happily, Baird, who celebrates his seventieth birthday next year, remains as productive as ever. For those within reach of southwest London, the Oliver Contemporary gallery in Wandsworth regularly exhibits his work; just one compelling reason among many to visit this hidden gem.