The joy of the Goldberg variations is how good they sound on just about anything. Harpsichords are fun. Glenn Gould forever and ever, amen. But also, have you considered the marimba? If I'm being honest, the version I reach for most is Philippe Theriot's accordion masterpiece. SLIXS is a worthy addition to this canon, with three variations anchoring the sextet's splendid vocal album of J.S. Bach instrumentals.

This album is a delight from start to finish. It's a little bit Swingles, a little bit King's Singers, a whole lot of talent. It's funny, Bach chorales themselves can sound a little bit stodgy because of the walls of German text and the way the chords can line up better on a keyboard than a choir. Yet these pieces do the inverse — the vocal timbre opens them up, and the percussive, non-verbal lyrics allow the runs to shine in a way that vowel-driven melisma can't.

The excerpt from Die Kunst der Fugue is the piece that straddles the line most fully. It comes off with the panache of a true chorale, showing the artistry to be found in setting these kinds of compositions for a vocal setting. Michael Eimann's arrangements catch the mood beautifully. This is the third SLIXS foray into Bach music, starting with a soundtrack and morphing into full-length records. It's a good concept that deserves the depth.

Violin Sonata No. 2 floats above the rest as perhaps the most beautiful of the selected performances. My least favorite is the bit from The Well-Tempered Klavier, but probably because I've never clicked with that piece rather than any fault of the singers. The Vivaldi organ concerto also is worth mentioning, as the arrangement includes an actual organ to provide the notes outside of vocal range, which adds texture while also managing to be another voice rather than a backing accompaniment.

Bach's music has stuck with us for 300 years, yet musicians and audiences are still finding new ways to connect with it. Quer Bach 3 is quite the accomplishment.

Instrumentalists are often told by educators and adjudicators to make their individual lines "sing". SLIXS takes that note literally in Quer Bach 3, a project that is astronomically more impressive than it appears. The deceptive difficulties of J.S. Bach's music paired with the added challenge of adapting that music to a seamless vocal interpretation make this album's successes all the more laudable.

Selecting syllables that adequately represent the musical lines without becoming a distraction is no easy feat, and Michael Eimann does just that — textures are maintained, lines have the opportunity to be expressed with appropriate articulation, and voices are able to shine through with appropriate fore- and background presence. This is a hard task in contemporary a cappella, but when handling the melodic challenges of Bach, it is all the more imperative to accomplish. In addition to the almost mathematical way in which Bach's chord structure progresses — which requires constant attention to intonation — interpreting subtleties and making music of the composer's long instrumental lines is no small task. Each of SLIXS' members must be sound ensemble participants in order for the music to jump and dance off the page, and fortunately, they do this masterfully.

What I find fascinating is how varied even the offerings on a full a cappella Bach album can be: from concertos to fugues, differing ensemble configurations and textures are well-expressed throughout this release. The live organ concerto at the end is a nice touch, so finely performed as a tag and a nod to the source material. My personal favorite is the highly energetic Art of the Fugue, which allows each voice to sing with its exposition and dance together in their development. My only quibble with The Well-Tempered Klavier is with a couple of instances of voice breaks in longer scalar passages, particularly in extreme ranges, in which it becomes momentarily distracting that a voice is performing rather than an instrument.

While many academics will sing individual lines as an example, to design and perform full Bach pieces vocally is a project that requires such tenacity and attention to detail. Whether you are a fan of Bach or a cappella, SLIXS presents something not often heard and even less often well-executed, and is very much worth a listen.

SLIXS is back with the third rendition of their all-vocal interpretations of J.S. Bach's instrumental pieces, Quer Bach 3. For those, like me, who missed the first two albums, this is Bach like you've never heard his music before. From the beautiful, precise singing to the inventive arrangements, this album promises a lot and delivers on it.

Right away, I found myself fascinated by the vocables, of all things, not only because the syllables themselves are outside the typical "jm" and "doo" heard in contemporary a cappella arrangements, but also because the combinations are so colorful. I thought at first listen that the original Swingle Singers had gone fully classical in their scatting renditions. Rather than a lot of the same syllables meant to evoke a particular instrumental timbre, the everchanging vocables on Quer Bach 3 dance, which brings a buoyant instrumental quality to the release that one rarely hears in plodding Bach chorales written for voice.

Moreover, the syllable combinations become attached to particular motives, the repetition of which elucidates the complex counterpoint of the fugues and other harmonic wanderings. The Concert in A Major demonstrates this effect especially well: any time the primary motive returns, we hear at least one voice sing the unforgettable "za ba de pri kum ba zum keh" (excuse my very approximate transcription!).

For the most part, I appreciate how arranger Michael Eimann distributes the contrapuntal lines among the voice parts — adding octaves here, splitting a jumpy line between two voices there — so that all six singers remained involved. The three Goldberg variations on the album showcase this skill particularly well. Only the arrangement of the Little Prelude in C Minor, which is typically a sparse two-part piano piece, seems too busy because the right-hand line moves back and forth between the timbrally distinct upper voices so often.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the entire enterprise, from a choral technical perspective, is the ensemble's pristine tuning throughout the album. As anyone who has sung choruses from G.F. Handel's Messiah will tell you, tuning the fast-moving runs and keeping them light are two of the hardest challenges. SLIXS does so without a keyboard to support them, though I'm sure the post-production helped slightly.

My one critique is that the balance of tracks with solos didn't quite bring them forward enough in the mix to stand out and shine. Rather than straining my ears to hear, for example, Katharina Debus singing on Partita No. 1 in B-Flat Major, I would have liked her to be slightly more present and centered in the mix.

For those who love J.S. Bach and a cappella, this album is for you! For all others, it may be a great addition to your classical music study/work playlist or if you're trying to look beyond the typical contemporary a cappella fare. No matter why you listen, you will enjoy the fantastic artistry and creativity of this very talented group!