A squally Thursday evening presented a fitting background for “prog-baroque” quartet Croissants & Whiskey to gather an audience to witness a musical summoning for the group’s premiere of SPIRITS, a new work written for them by Kym Alexandra Dillon.

As the inaugural commissionee of Continuo’s Commissioning Circle, Dillon was tasked with writing a substantial new work for harpsichord, G Violone, baroque viola and recorder — a bingo card of instruments not even the most experienced of composers could claim to have written for.

Dillon’s response to the challenge was a collection of nine movements, each borrowing from a traditional baroque form, and all collated under the narrative of awakening old spirits. The works displayed technical skill, invention and humour throughout, both from the composer and ensemble.

Croissants & Whiskey. Photo supplied

Movement II: Minuet — The Spirit of the Academy saw a mechanical metronome take centre stage, while Ryan Williams (recorders) musically argued to allow folky grooves into the traditional-style minuet Katie Yap (viola) was insistently playing in time to the beat.

Movement V: Divertimento — The Spirits discover the World Wide Web was a standout, and could happily be performed on its...