in response to the inquiry, here are my initial thoughts: Meredith Monk, ``mercy'' (ECM) -- For the past 35 years, Monk has been exploring alternative vocal techniques and developing a corollary music. Her innovations have helped shaped the distinctive singing of Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson and Björk, whose current concert set includes Monk's ``Gotham Lullaby.'' At this point, Monk's broad palette of sighs, nasalizations and throat singing benefit from the novelty having worn off a bit, allowing the listener to bask more easily in the wonder of the music itself. Her first album since 1997's intimate ``Volcano Songs,'' ``mercy'' returns to the more richly layered ensemble approach of several earlier outings. A seven-voice choir, keyboards, violin and clarinets variously congregate for some of the most concise and potent displays yet of Monk's ritualistic vision. Her trademark repetition and metamorphosis of short motifs run throughout, with the occasional piano lines lending a wind-up music- box effect. Cries emerge here and there, as if for help -- on ``doctor/patient,'' the word ``help'' is in fact repeated. Yet the haunting textures are braided with a whimsy that contributes to charmingly ambiguous moods and emotions. Grade: A- (Martin Wisckol/The Register)