Kevin Keller once again puts a modern spin on medieval sounds with Arcadia, the sequel to 2023’s Evensong. Like its predecessor, Arcadia features plainchant melodies, reverberant keyboards, and live strings, this time taking the listener through the afterlife.

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Vocalist and songwriter Sofía Campoamor brings both her ethereal voice and her original plainchant melodies to such tracks as the softly radiant “Me solum me invenio” and the luminously ambient “Et lux perpetua”. The album texts come from biblical and liturgical sources, along with original Latin texts written by Keller, expressing the journey through darkness and light.

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After setting the scene calmly with “Et vidi caelum” (“And I saw the sky”), the tempo livens up with “Et nox ultra” (“And night is over”), a Notre Dame-style organum juxtaposed with pulsating electronic rhythms. Later, the surprise modulations and building layers of “In tenebris” (“In darkness”) lead to an ominous climax, ending with the distant call “…but I will find a way…”

The opening cello swells of “Mare, littus, flammam” (“Sea, shore, flame”) suggest a foghorn heard across rough seas, ushering in a beautiful modern folk song over a deep heartbeat. This leads to the album’s climax “In equo fugit” (“She flees on horseback”), building from moonlit mystery to a galloping escape, and finally to the radiant sunrise of “Et lux perpetua” (“And eternal light”). The journey concludes with the softly sung lullaby “Veni intus” (“Come inside”), setting us down gently in a final resting place of eternity and peace.