Anne Dudley of Art of Noise explores ancient and modern traditions in choral and orchestral work on her new album entitled, reasonably enough, Ancient And Modern. Going from The Art of Noise to an album of traditional choral music may seem like an odd move, but to Anne the progression was a logical one.

"People perceived Art of Noise as a dance group, and all our success was in the dance charts in New York and America. But if you strip away the beats, you'll hear that what we were doing was quite challenging and obscure, and actually closer to musique concrete. It's quite astonishing what people will take in, if you give them a beat to help them along!"

Redefining the boundary between noise and art is one thing, but it's still a big leap to exploring the classical tradition. Ancient and Modern features reworkings of Bach hymn music into an arrangement for choir and orchestra, as well as her interpretations of traditional English chorale music in such hymns as 'The Holly and The Ivy'. It's unquestionably a return to tradition, and Anne is happy to acknowledge that.

"When I was at college in the 70s, modern music was to my ears, esoteric and unapproachable. Very difficult, intensely intellectual stuff. It never really occurred to me at college to actually study composition. I had a penchant for writing tunes, and that would have been the end at college. People were scraping the insides of pianos when I was there!

"I changed my mind about modern music drastically one day by accident really. I turned on Radio Three and I heard a piece by John Adams, in a style I'd never heard before. I'd never heard anything so fresh and modern, yet approachable. Then I began to find that lots of people were developing this archaic style. I think it's a reaction to the modernism of the 60s, and the idea that we can find an answer to anything in technology.

"Music has developed to be more and more challenging and exciting, and some people would argue that's the way music should be. I think there's room for both. All of that English choral tradition is in our subconscious, it's a part of us. People love things like 'Jerusalem'. Even if you don't go to church, it's part of what we are, and I think people find that very reassuring."

The treatments Anne metes out to these traditional pieces, although traditionally voiced, also betray a modern influence in their rhythmic pulse and secular attitude. It's a kind of fractal view of visions from the past, imbuing both ancient and modern with a new vibrancy. That too, Anne sees as the continuation of a tradition.

"Composers have always taken traditional themes and dressed them up in contemporary clothes. Bach did interpretations of what were then traditional pieces, in what he would have considered a modern style. Vaughan Williams did a very similar thing when he was editor of Ancient and Modern with the English Hymnal in this century. He adapted and adopted these tunes, and used them in his own works. It's not that unusual for a composer to do that!"

The seeds of Ancient and Modern in 'Finale' are to be heard from Anne's previous album 'Below The Waist'. It combines ethnic and English traditional music. The idea was that of an explorer in the jungle discovering a lost tribe, who were not lost at all but had been discovered earlier by a missionary and were singing English Chorale songs. This was developed further with The Art of Noise's other classical trainee, Jaz Colman. On Victorious in the City, they explored the culture clash that is Arabic pop.

Ancient and Modern is a far more soothing, pastoral work than that, but it deserves attention by fans of traditional music, as well as those who are more interested in exploring the boundaries between noise and melody. Open your mind and your heart will follow.