Music / Sjaella: Among the Branches. At Snow Concert Hall, July 23. Reviewed by SARAH BYRNE.

The latest in the Snow Concert Hall’s excellent International Series was a performance by the rising a cappella ensemble from Leipzig, Sjaella.

This was the 10th of their 11 Australian concerts for 2025, and proved them worthy of every skerrick of the considerable praise they’ve earned here.

The program, titled Among the Branches, featured a first act of nature-inspired music, followed by an exploration of traditional folk tunes in the second. From the program notes, most of these pieces have been (wonderfully) arranged by the musicians themselves.

Each of these six women has a voice of soloist’s quality, with the humility and sensitivity needed for effective ensemble work. There’s a physicality about their performances, also, going beyond mere choreography, with dynamics built in part around where and how each member positions herself on the stage. The group is almost as fascinating to watch as it is glorious to hear.

The program opened with Sjaella’s own arrangement of Purcell’s A Bird’s Prelude, from the Fairy Queen, including whistling and bird calls from different points around the auditorium, creating a startlingly immersive effect which set the tone for the whole of the concert.

This was followed by a gorgeous madrigal version of Janequin’s Le Rossignol, and then a remarkable piece, Dolci Cantavi, by contemporary American composer Caroline Shaw, showing off Sjaella’s astonishing synchrony and a host of beautiful vocals evoking the fluttering of birds or butterflies. We then returned to Purcell’s Fairy Queen for the four seasons, all unique and lovely.

The conclusion of Winter led us into a piece called Crystallised, by Meredi; a wonderful evocation of burbling, bubbling water forming into ice and melting away into liquid again, using melody punctuated by percussive vocal effects in a mesmerising performance.

The highlight of the evening was the first act closer, Sjaella’s own composition (with “musical input” from Shara Nova), Hypophesis – a frank, funny, physical and feminist depiction of the menstrual cycle, that drew perceptible and empathetic responses from the audience. It was fantastically original and yet also, in some ways, perfectly obvious, though in ways I doubt have ever been captured so perfectly or effectively before in music. I couldn’t have loved it more.

The second half of the program commenced with another nature piece – a corker of a composition called Cockatoo by Australian composer Alice Chance, again utlising vocal percussion and bird calls, and utterly endearing to the audience.

The remainder of the program was made up of various folk tunes, some in dying languages that Sjaella seeks to preserve and celebrate, offering some solo opportunities for ensemble members in styles ranging from opera, through jazz, to pop. All were perfect, down to the settling encore “Guten Nacht”.

The word ethereal has often been used of these performers’ voices; one might almost say overused – but not if you’ve heard them. And their humour and physicality prevents them from sounding fey or waspish. Congratulations to Ana de la Vega, the concert series convenor, for bringing us this gorgeous performance.

Sjaella’s otherworldly sounds come to Canberra