STING - Songs From The Labyrinth Review

Sting is now a true Renaissance man. As in Elizabethan, with lutes and the music of 16th-century composer John Dowland. The pop singer of today tackles what he rightly sees as the pop music of the late 1500s — with substantial and well-wrought help from Serbian lutenist Edin Karamazov. It was he who introduced Sting to the works of the composer who captured the hearts of the people, if not Queen Elizabeth I herself (he was Catholic; complications ensued)....full text When I read a note on a French Sting fansite that the man formerly known as Gordon Sumner would be releasing an album of classical lute music — a survey of the music of John Dowland — I stopped, goggled, and giggled. Then I got depressed....full text You won’t have heard John Dowland like this before: huskily sung close to the mike, with rhythms, phrasing, pitch and pronunciation all at a rock star’s mercy. Sting’s fascination with Dowland is likeable and real. But the qualities hoped for in crossover ventures — audience appeal, a fresh attack, freedom — surface far more in Edin Karamazov’s lute playing, delivered with improvisatory zeal. Shelve under: “Classical: Misfire”....full text