Alexandra Montano - Ayton: A Reliquary for William Blake, Songs of the British Isles, Incantations (2007)

This collection of the music of Will Ayton represents some of his efforts to put "new wine into old bottles". From a biblical sense, this is not supposed to work. However, the beauty of the viola da gamba's sound (the "old bottle) recommends itself to music well beyond the viol's historical period (the "new wine"). This selection of music also represents some of Will Ayton's passions: folk music, Elizabethan poetry, his Celtic heritage, his love of stories, his devotion to the art of polyphony, and his preoccupation with the philosophical and spiritual.

PARTHENIA, hailed by The New Yorker as "one of the brightest lights in New York's early music scene" is a dynamic ensemble that explores the extraordinary repertory for viols from Tudor England to the courts of Versailles and beyond. The consort of viols, much loved by musicians in Renaissance Europe, is the precursor of today's string quartet.