Andres Mustonen, artistic director of Hortus Musicus, writes of the group's new release: "The present release, titled Canto, is not trying to be an anthological overview of Italian music from the 16th and 17th centuries. It is rather a walk through the streets of Italian cities of the time, sometimes passing by a church, sometimes slipping into taverns or listening to sounds coming from the open windows of the doge's palazzo... This album lacks the puritanical-musicological ambition to remove a layer of dust from the yellowed manuscripts lying on archive shelves. The uninhibited performance of Hortus Musicus - that is life, our life itself."