• Never assume that because viol music, by its nature, is soft, it is therefore safe and gentle. On Consorts Flat and Sharp (Linn), their second album of music by the English composer Matthew Locke (c1621-77), the viol consort Phantasm, directed by Laurence Dreyfus, demonstrate Locke’s striking originality and his tendency to swerve from the mainstream, freely breaking rules of harmony and taste. Born in Exeter, he wrote music for the London stage and spent a turbulent time in Oxford as part of Charles II’s court, which had upped sticks en masse to escape the great plague.
