Hell’s Angels (1998) is Patterson’s most significant return to his early style of composition, setting a text by Ben Dunwell interleaved with excerpts from Milton’s Paradise Lost and the Old Testament. The scoring is for choir, amplified string quartet and four percussionists and results in new sonorities revealing Patterson’s imagination at full stretch.

The earlier Mass of the Sea (1983) sets a composite text, assembled this time by Tim Rose-Price, combining portions of the Latin Mass with extracts from Genesis and Revelations alongside new material by the librettist. The avant-garde techniques are still present and a plainchant (Ave maris stella) acts as a thematic scarlet thread. Though the work follows the general contours of innumerable previous settings of the Latin Mass, at every turn Patterson subverts the genre.

Track List:

Hell’s Angels Op.81
1. Fallen Angels
2. The Clouds of Hell
3. Gonna Take a Run
4. Destruction!
5. Vision

Mass of the Sea Op.47
6. Kyrie
7. Recitative
8. Gloria
9. Flood
10. Sanctus and Benedictus
11. Agnus Dei