Toyohiko Satoh

In June 1993 the three founding members of Sour Cream, the avant-garde recorder trio created originally in 1972, got together again in order to make a new recording: the ensuing double album became the stuff of legend. Frans Brüggen, Kees Boeke and Walter van Hauwe, joined by Isabel Álvarez (voice) and Toyohiko Satoh (lutes), went into the studio with a programme called 'The Passion of Reason' which made a journey through music with a scientific slant to it, influenced by the concept of the mediaeval quadrivium or the convergence of music, arithmetic, astronomy and geometry. With pieces by composers ranging across five centuries, from Guillaume de Machaut to JS Bach, by way of Solage, William Cornysh and Heinrich Isaac, together with the mysterious repertory from the Baldwin manuscript, the members of Sour Cream raised a fascinating and hypnotic edifice in sound, taking the listener back to the speculative world of Hermetic philosophy and alchemy. Initially released on the Attacca label by Sieuwert Verster (the co-founder of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and inseparable colleague of Frans Brüggen), 'The Passion of Reason' was reissued by Glossa in 1997. After several years of the album being out of stock, we are pleased now to be able to bring this recording, timeless like so few others, back into our catalogue.

Toyohiko Satoh, one of the most important and influential lute players of the last century, plays on this recording the largely unknown late works of French baroque composer and lutenist Robert De Visée, guitar teacher to the King Luis XIV.

Toyohiko Satoh plays on an original lute made by Laurentius Greiff in 1610, which gives this recording a very distinct sound and atmosphere.

DE VISÈE is a tribute to an old lute master of the Baroque by an old lute master of today, played on one of the most precious, rare and soulful instruments available for this repertoire.

Karofine is a musical journey in the 16th & 17th centuries between Europe & Japan. Japanese soprano, Chiyomi Yamada, acoompanied by lutenists Toyohiko Satoh and Favid van Ooijen, perform songs from the European courts & Japanses pleasure quarters of that time.

All the Japanese lute songs arer previously unrecorded and, like the previous titles on the Carpe Diem label, this represents exceptional value-for-money.