In this novel attempt to bridge the gap between art song and pop song, John Paul Jones (of Led Zeppelin), Sting, and Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks were commissioned to compose new lute songs. John Potter explains in the liner notes: "We asked rock composers to set existing poetry to music in a genre familiar to us, so that we as performers didn't have to pretend to be pop singers—we continued to interpret texts in our usual way." Thus, Tony Banks set 17th-century poems by Thomas Campion (whose works are also featured on the album) to music, while John Paul Jones translated poetry from the three major periods of Spanish literary history. Sting's contribution, "Bury Me Deep in the Greenwood," originally conceived for the film Robin Hood, incorporates his own lyrics. The final arrangements were created during the recording session in November 2014 at Oslo's Rainbow Studio, with the participation of lutenists Ariel Abramovich and Jacob Heringman. This unusual combination of tradition and modernity was complemented by compositions from the 20th-century composers E J Moeran and Peter Warlock, as well as by the only known work of the almost anonymous Renaissance musician Picforth.
