This CD of works by the British composer David Gorton is about music of the 17th century – not in the sense of a historical account, but rather in the sense of a journey: a personal exploration of the music from that period. Instead of playing it, Gorton plays "with" this music, as he himself puts it. His works are neither pure adaptation nor pure composition, but somewhere in between. The original sources are always present, but are transformed into something unfamiliar. It is ideal that all the performers on these recordings are skilled in both new and early music.

David Gorton lives in London, where he was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize. He has written large-scale works for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Exposé and CHROMA, among others. His compositional projects are stylistically diverse, ranging from explorations of microtonality to musical games and open forms, programmatic portraits of the landscapes of East Anglia or arrangements of 16th and 17th century material. David Gorton studied composition at Durham University, King's College London and the Royal Academy of Music with Harrison Birtwistle and Simon Bainbridge. Since 2006 he has taught at the Royal Academy of Music and is a professor at the University of London. His music is published by Verlag Neue Musik in Berlin.