The varied programme of this recording identifies, as Armonico Consort’s director, Christopher Monks describes, ‘ … a wide range of pieces united by the tendency of their composers to wear their hearts on their sleeves and their ability to fix a sense of raw emotion on paper’. For the majority of the composers represented here, the reasons for revealing naked sentiments through their music is as a response to a religious theme, whether through the suppression of particular relgious practices or the influence of relgious ideals themselves. Crossing several centuries, from the sixteenth to the present day this album displays how every generation has been inspired to use both sacred and secular music as a powerful medium to express their personal emotions.