From the Labyrinth

We brought home Sting’s new Songs From the Labyrinth CD last night, and I listened to it this morning while researching credit card processing systems. Interesting stuff (the music, not the credit card crap).

The CD features Sting and Edin Karamazov performing the works of John Dowland and Robert Johnson, composers during the Elizabethan period. Sting and Karamazov collaborated on the arrangements for various lutes and archlutes.

I’m not 100% sure yet what I think of this recording. Technically, it is generally superb. Each part is clearly and accurately captured, with just a trace of reverb over and above the natural resonances of the instruments, although Sting’s vocals are almost too dry for my taste, and there is an unnatural breathiness, as if he is too close to the microphone — very uncharacteristic of Sting’s vocals.

Moving on to John Dowland’s lyrics: this could be one dark fellow, although melancholia seems to have been the order of the day. He certainly suffered from depression at some level, and was considered by his contemporaries to be a malcontent. Below, a couple of examples of Dowland’s Lyrics:

Flow, my teares, fall from youre springs,
Exiled for ever, let mee mourn
Where night’s black bird hir sad infamy sings,
There let mee live forlorn…

…From the highest spire of contentment,
My fortune is thrown,
And fear, and grief, and pair for my deserts
Are my hopes since hope is gone.
– Flow My Tears

The roof despair, to bar all cheerful light from me;
The walls of marble black, that moist’ned still shall weep;
My music, hellish jarring sounds, to banish friendly sleep.
Thus, wedded to my woes, and bedded in my tomb,
O let me dying live, till death doth come, till death doth come.
– In Darkness Let Me Dwell

In all, I can heartily recommend this CD, especially for those who are interested in acoustic music, and especially early English music.