This is a somewhat preliminary rating & discussion. Many of these works remain unfamiliar. Pullois' career trek in Italy, where he worked for the Papacy for over two decades, can be compared to e.g. Ciconia's & Dufay's, with Pullois younger than both.... But some of his music appears to date from his time in the North (perhaps prior to Italy...), and so the most similar program here is surely that devoted to the Lantins, although Pullois also has works (apparently) surviving from later in the 15th century, including an early cyclic mass (not recorded here). Some of the works here are thus simpler (e.g. "hymn" style or the older fixed forms...), but some belong to the Ockeghem generation.
Of course, it's also a patchwork program, including contrafacta. (Apparently that's largely motivated by the poor survival of texts.) So the pieces don't really form a program per se, but more a collection. Some are more appealing than others, with the two four-voice (sacred) works having been the most recorded to this point.... And these do have distinct contrapuntal interest, even as it's probably the chansons that I'll end up enjoying more....
Regarding the performance, it's colorful & with good individual technique, but there's also a lot of part-doubling & a consequent stiffness to much of the articulation.... (E.g. the Lantins performance, also working from similar novelty, is much more fluid....) That's probably also due in part to challenges of the music, so it's certainly worthwhile that they've hammered out these pieces without any real compromises (other than to the program itself, i.e. missing a few pieces from a presumptive complete set...). After all, we're still missing e.g. a quasi-definitive secular program for Pullois' famous contemporary Busnoys....
Some of this music does show an intriguing personal style though, offering another tantalizing glimpse of the greater contrapuntal variety that obviously maintained during the mid-15th century (& for a while before). Pullois does suggest a musical logic of his own (especially in the four-part works...), i.e. differing from that of his contemporaries — per the title.
Todd M. McComb Updated: 21 April 2025