To signal the return of that wizard of the guitar, lute and vihuela who is José Miguel Moreno, Glossa is delighted to announce the release of Phantasia, devoted to Baroque lute music by David Kellner. For this long-awaited return album Moreno alights upon music close to his heart, the music of a composer whose traces have been mostly washed away through him having been caught up in the war-torn Northern Europe of the start of the 18th century. Born in Leipzig, Kellner moved to parts of the old Swedish Empire, settling eventually in Stockholm as an organist and carillonneur, but not until he had "spent the best years of his youth at war", as a military man in the Great Northern War for a decade. How Kellner came to be the composer of the XVI Auserlesene Lauten-Stücke, published as late as 1747, remains still a little bit of a mystery, but these virtuosic and engaging pieces (in fact 17 in number) are ideal - the authorship of some have been ascribed to Sylvius Leopold Weiss - for the mastery of José Miguel Moreno. Not only have Moreno's playing talents been called into to play for this recording - including Sarabandes, Gavottes, Chaconnes, a Campanella (and with reference to his playing of the carillon) and Phantasies - but his long-standing instrumentmaking skills too. And for this recording Moreno built an 11-course lute, the instrument called for by David Kellner.