“The importance of this new release is to allow us to go back in time to discover more about the origins of sacred choral music, and – perhaps a revelation for uninitiated – that Hildegard von Bingen wasn’t the first female composer. Three centuries (!) before her, St. Kassía of Constantinople (now Istanbul) composed “texts and music for Byzantine public worship”. … What struck me right away, is the high degree of professionalism of the mixed male-female chorale… For me, it is the spiritual force that emanates from these chants that make them so impressively intense and foreboding.… The full mystic weight invades your spirit like being back in the Eastern Orthodox time. Proof of Cappella Romana’s authenticity? For me, no doubt. We owe it to Alexander Lingas that these and other Byzantine memories from the mist of times are brought to life and recorded for eternity.”