In the post-Renaissance period, the lamento established a place for itself in both vocal and instrumental music. This grief-stricken utterance in the face of death – one’s own imminent demise, that of a loved one, a lamentation that may be either sacred or secular – conveys a sentiment of melancholy that verges on the inexpressible...

Café Zimmermann invites its longstanding partner, the countertenor Damien Guillon, to perform a programme of lamenti from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which gives equal prominence to instruments and voice on a journey through the German-speaking lands. In the past few seasons the countertenor Damien Guillon has established himself as one of the leading interpreters of Baroque music. Widely admired for his musicality and his luminous and exceptionally pure vocal timbre, he is regularly invited to perform as a soloist under the direction of celebrated conductors.

Gramophone Magazine Awards Issue 2020
    Seventy minutes with Death for company may look like hard going but such is the expressive depth and profound consoling beauty of the works assembled here, and so committed and responsive the performances, that it compels the attention…This is a release you will want to listen to over and over again for its beauty, but perhaps also for its power to heal.