Purists, look away now. Purcell, Handel and Bach weren't jazzers and didn't compose with off-the-cuff excursions on the modern trombone and saxophone in mind. This isn't the music of the Baroque as proponents of ‘authenticity’ like Christopher Hogwood would have it, then. But it works remarkably well all the same. In part, that's because, if avowedly inauthentic, it's suitably respectful of the source material, and, vocally at least, played by Baroque experts. Purcell's ‘Music for a While’ is performed without obvious interference from the jazz quartet, Jeanette Köhn's wonderfully natural and expressive soprano blending beautifully with the Swedish Radio Choir under Gustav Sjökvist (who contributed significantly to Jan Lundgren's Magnum Mysterium). And, of course, Bach and co were, in their own way, great believers in improvisation. Eva Kruse provides a teasing bass intro to ‘Air on a G-String’, which develops atypical but deeply atmospheric saxophone elaborations. With moodily sombre trombone and guitar work from Nils Landgren and Johan Norberg and a spectacular vocal performance from Köhn, Dido's famous lament ‘When I Am Laid in Earth’ – the title unfortunately (and misleadingly in terms of subject matter) foreshortened to just the first four words on the sleeve here – proves as spellbinding as ever. The chorale- and cantata-infused set as a whole has a sacral air.