LOVE TO MY LIKING | AMERICAN RECORDER - REVIEW

Love to my Liking

By: Tom Bickley | November, 2024

Alkemie’s Love To My Liking provides a fantastic amount of dance- ability via medieval dances as well as richly subtle and complex songs and motets of the 13th-century trouvères. Alkemie’s five members include Sian Ricketts, playing recorders and douçaines, and singing … Rickett’s recorder playing in Alkemie places the instrument as one timbre in a stunningly beautiful sonic tapestry. As explained in the album booklet, Love To My Liking spotlights the varied use of refrains in this trouvère music, sometimes functioning as returning anchors, sometimes as varying commentary on the verses.

The musicians explore the structures by teasing them apart, yielding greater clarity for the listener, or by building intensely dense sonic textures with all the lines audible simultaneously (as the sources indicate). This album is a delight, and makes for compelling listening. The project can be approached in at least two ways: 1) as the result of highly skilled scholarly analysis of both sources and performance practice, and 2) as a seductive dream about the byzantine intrigues of courtly love conveyed through sound.

The imagery and design of the album booklet amplify the dreamlike quality. The booklet’s concise essay leaves me wanting to know more. The texts of the songs are provided in French and English. I wish there were indications of who is playing and singing on each track, and details about the instruments. But, aside from that, the album is a very well done, with great sound and excellent performances.