ON THIS RECORDING AKANTUS concentrates on Italian compositions from the 17th century, a seminal period in the history of European music and the breeding ground of music of extraordinary beauty. The songs, performed with rare insight and dazzling intensity by Lena Susanne Norin, are examples of the contemporary shift towards subjective expression in text and music. In a now famous manifesto, Giovanni Bardi, perhaps the most celebrated musical theorist of his day and founder of the musical society, the Camerata Fiorentina, gave formal expression to the new conceptions emphasising the personal "as opposed to the merely divine" significance of the human voice in music. Bardi's document is included in the sleeve notes.

"Skivbolaget ALICE har en lika sparsmakad som delikat utgivning och lagom till den mörkaste årstiden bjuder de på italiensk kärleksmusik från 1600-talet: I´vo Piangendo i lysande tolkning av trion Akantus"
Teddy Hultberg SVD

From the booklet text