Rigwreck finds The Crossing immersed in the urgent, word-driven choral writing of celebrated British composer Gabriel Jackson. The five works are guided by texts that wrestle with what the Earth tries to tell us, gun violence, longing, and the fragile bonds between self and world. Conducted by Donald Nally, the ensemble gives voice to poetry by Gustav Sobin, Pierre Joris, Dean Rader, Walt Whitman and Kārlis Vēdeņš (in Ieva Lešinska’s translation).

From the ecological reckoning of the title work, written in response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, to the intimacy of Yes, I am your angel and the spiritual expanse of Darest thou now O soul?, Jackson’s music requires the singers to come together in virtuosity and vulnerability. Each work was written for The Crossing and Donald Nally over the span of a decade and recorded in 2024 at St. Peter’s Church in Malvern PA. Rigwreck is contemporary choral music as witness and journalist, transcendent, and direct.