Forge Players

A rival to Elvis Costello’s ambitious The Juliet Letters recorded with the Brodsky Quartet, the audacity of this Swedish project is that, despite the archaic diction, it makes the gothic passions of Elizabethan song writer John Dowland sound strikingly contemporary. Put this down to the vibrant interaction of the string quintet and the vivid singing of Mikael Samuelson and Freddie Wadling. Six instrumentals intersperse eight vocal performances, creating a wonderful sequence with the a cappella title song at its centre. “Love Stood Amaz’d” projects a surreal punk edge, reminding us that in another era Iggy, Nick Cave and Ian Curtis would have all been troubadours.