All We Get Is Life [CD]

Cage and Dowland: the two Johns, four hundred years apart, share a common taste for sober expression, concise forms and intimate realisation - and for the pleasure that comes from words as such. Each cultivates this desire in his own way: Cage, like a tightrope walker, approaches the essence of musical thought with humor, lightness and depth; Dowland aims for the expression of feelings in their purest form. Cultivating as always a fertile anachronism, the Thélème ensemble brings together the complete works for two voices and lute by Dowland and several compositions by Cage. Alongside superstar Sting, they offer a reworking of "Shape of My Heart, a kind of 21st-century lute song, coming full circle in an album where Renaissance and present meet, enter into dialogue, mingle and merge to transcend the boundaries of aesthetics and genres.