“Before having the opportunity to listen (repeatedly) to this fine disc I had heard only a few other pieces by Martin Suckling, liking them enough to put his name on my (mental) list of contemporary composers of whom I wished to hear more. This ‘survey’ of some of Suckling’s recent chamber-size works has more than confirmed my belief that he is a subtle and substantial composer. Above all, the two works on this disc (The Tuning and the String Quintet: Emily’s Electrical Absence) in which Suckling writes in dialogue with poetry, as it were, strike me as major works. They are, in themselves, enough to make it clear that he deserves a distinguished place in that line of British composers who are masters of the musical articulation of poetry’s energies and meanings, the line that runs through figures such as Dowland, Henry Lawes, Purcell and Britten (this, obviously and necessarily, is a very partial list). I have tried, in this review, to bring out something of the symbiotic relationship (i.e. a relationship which is of mutual benefit) between text and music in these works. In doing so, I am conscious that I may have quoted from and discussed Suckling’s texts in a way which some readers of MusicWeb may find excessive. I believe, however, that it is essential to understand something of these texts before one can fully appreciate Suckling’s musical achievement. It may be that my fascination with these ‘vocal’ works has led to my saying less than they deserve about the purely instrumental works, ‘Nocturne’ and ‘Her Lullaby’. My defence can only be purely personal: my love of the arts began with poetry, which love led me into my delight in music and painting, and I still find poems one of the best ways into music.”