"It was just one of those things that we just had to do," is how Susie Napper described Les Voix Humaines' CD William Lawes, the Royall Consort.
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Napper and the duo's co-founder Margaret Little actually met through their children. "We got together over twenty-five years ago," says Little. "Both our elder girls were about two years old and we would get together so that the girls could play together and we also started playing together."
Both are enthusiastic about the music on the CD. "Lawes is one of the great viol composers in England in the 17thc, "says Napper "We've known this music for as long as we've played the viols. And it so happened that we felt that we had the right violinists and pluckers for the project, so we went ahead and did it. And it's been just a huge pleasure to luxuriate in this fantastic sound."
"Yes," agrees Little. "We enjoy the incredible variety in his writing. There are some excruciatingly angst-like harmonies and there's also some very playful stuff. Some of it sounds like traditional music, some of it sounds incredibly musique savant, very serious music."
"Right" says Napper. "Lawes was at the end of the great era what we call British-English music of the time."