With their new album “Madrigals of Madness” the Calmus Ensemble presents a musical journey to 16th and 17th c. Europe with madrigals from Gibbons, Flecha, Monteverdi, Gesualdo and Desprez. This first CD of a promised future series of madrigal compilations about the different emotions pictured in the music is about the madness found in love, war, loneliness and lovesickness. The liner notes contain an interview with a psychiatrist about madness from a medical point of view. A striking blend of sound, precision, lightness and wit: these are the hallmarks of Calmus – a unique line-up of soprano, countertenor, tenor, baritone and bass voices – now one of the most successful vocal groups in Germany. The reach of their activities is constantly expanding, taking them throughout Europe as well as North and South America. They are naturally at home in the vocal music of the Renaissance, the Baroque and the Romantic, with music of our own time – including pop, folk and jazz, as well as chansons and evergreens from the 1920s – also a real passion. Over the years Calmus has commissioned numerous new works and given many world premieres.
