Just in time for Remembrance Day comes this eloquent and reflective collection of choral pieces from Oxford choir Sospiri, founded four years ago by local composer John Duggan and professional tenor Chris Watson.

Here, movements from the 16th-century Requiem Masses of Luis da Victoria and Giovanni Maria Nanini are interwoven with music by other composers from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, such as William Byrd, Johann Kuhnau, Alonso Lobo and Robert Lucas Pearsall, while 20th-century composers Douglas Guest and John Duggan focus on those who went to war and tragically failed to return.

The Introitus, Kyrie and Versa est in luctum from Victoria’s Requiem make for a beautifully haunting, contemplative opening, sung with great tenderness by this highly proficient choir.

The quality is well sustained, with a lovely warm sound in Byrd’s Justorum animae and Lobo’s Versa est in luctum, while Nanini’s Gradual and Tract, which closes the CD, is delivered with a regretful, meditative tone.

The highlights, arguably, are the pieces by John Duggan, which so powerfully capture the waste and senselessness of war.

Futility — sung by another local choir, Commotio, which performed the 2007 premiere — is set to words by Wilfred Owen, and vividly evokes the horrors of the Western Front with its opening gun shots, while the solo voice and solo cello seem to lend the piece extra poignancy as they intertwine with the choir.

The Singing Will Never Be Done, Duggan’s quartet of First World War poems, was again premiered by Commotio but performed here by Sospiri.

I can still remember being captivated by these pieces when I heard them in performance, and they are just as mesmerising on disc.

This is a CD to listen to while you put your feet up, close your eyes and allow yourself to wafted along on a tide of stirring, inspirational and beautiful music. Requiem is released on the Gift of Music label (www.thegiftofmusic.com).