Patrick Ayrton, Louise Ayrton, Lauren Lodge-Campbell - Astrophil & Stella (2025) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Oh, For a Bowl of Fat Canary
02. Fairy Revels
03. Ouverture
04. Where the bee sucks
05. Come, Sleep!
06. Witches’ Song
07. Sublunar Pavan
08. Sublunar Galliard
09. Syrinx
10. With how sad Steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies
11. A Wanderer’s Fantasy
12. Fairy Land
13. Break of Day
14. The Willow Song
15. Under the greenwood tree
16. Oh, that joy so soon should waste!

Astrophil & Stella is the fruit of a life's devotion to the spirit and craft of 17th-century music. Harpsichordist, conductor, and composer Patrick Ayrton has delved into the intricate fabric of this era's compositions, unearthing its hidden mechanisms and timeworn secrets. The result is a song cycle of his own, for soprano and instrumental ensemble. Historically, the art of composing was not merely a skill but the very lifeblood of every musician, and to compose was to speak the language of the present. Thus, Patrick does not aim to simply revive the past, but to rekindle a tradition, one that hovers between memory and reinvention. In his hands, ancient forms breathe anew, woven with reverence, yet subtly imbued with his own artistic voice.

He writes: I believe that the line between improvisation and composition is a fragile, blurry and undefined one. Could some of the great works not simply be the crystallising of numerous extemporisations? The fact is that after many decades of inventing at the keyboard (with a considerate dose of trial and error!), I began, in 2022, for the first time, to set things to paper, with Purcell and his contemporaries as a main source of inspiration. Born of an enduring fascination with this repertoire, Astrophil & Stella is a love letter to the English Baroque - with its sinuous melodies, refined ambiguities of modulation, and tender reminiscences of old folk ballads - qualities that have long inspired me.

All these elements converge in a joyful tribute, at once intimate and expansive, deeply rooted yet untethered by time.

Lauren Lodge-Campbell, soprano
Louise Ayrton, violin
Salomé Gasselin, viola da gamba
Marie Bournisien, harp
Etienne Galletier, theorbo and guitar
Clara Espinosa Encinas, oboe
Tabea Debus, recorder
Zands Duggan, percussion
Patrick Ayrton, harpsichord, organ, direction

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