Mr. Dowland’s Dream is an imaginative nocturnal journey built around the music of John Dowland, interwoven with improvisations and unexpected modern resonances. Conceived as a parallel narrative experience, the album invites listeners to follow a poetic meditation synchronized with the musical unfolding — though it may equally stand on its own as a deeply atmospheric listening experience.

At its core lies Dowland’s world of melancholy: Come, Ye Heavy States of Night, In Darkness Let Me Dwell, Come Heavy Sleep, and other emblematic works explore grief, longing, mortality, and transcendence. These Renaissance songs are framed by improvisations from Bor Zuljan and by works from later centuries — including Peter Warlock, William Walton, Pink Floyd (Breathe), and Thelonious Monk (’Round Midnight) — creating a striking dialogue across eras.

Central to the album’s sonic identity is the orpharion, a rare late-16th-century English instrument related to the lute but strung with metal strings. Zuljan performs on a copy of a 1617 Francis Palmer orpharion, as well as on a newly developed 10-course electric orpharion prototype completed just days before the recording. The instrument’s luminous, metallic resonance enhances the dreamlike and ritualistic atmosphere, bridging early music performance and contemporary experimentation.

The album unfolds as a symbolic night passage: twilight purification, descent into darkness, confrontation with death, and eventual rebirth at dawn. Spoken poetry and sung texts by Dowland, Fletcher, Coprario, Byron, and others deepen the existential arc. The result is neither purely historical reconstruction nor crossover experiment, but a cohesive meditation on night, sleep, fear, and transformation.

Intimate, introspective, and sonically distinctive, Mr Dowland’s Dream becomes both homage and reinvention — a Renaissance spirit refracted through modern imagination.

Bor Zuljan, Orpharion
Clara Brunet, Vocals