In 17th century Venice, music underwent a series of profound transformations. It was a time of splendour, marked both by the development of musical writing and by advances in instrument making, with the rise of the violin and the recorder, experimentation with continuo without bass or keyboard and the golden age of the sackbut.

The debut album by Ensemble Tumbleweeds, under the direction of Claire-Ombeline Muhlmeyer, ‘Ballade vénitienne’ fully embraces this rich effervescence through works by Castello, in whose music the sackbut rivals the violin in virtuosity, as well as Grandi, Kapsberger, Marini, Uccellini and Frescobaldi. All of them spent time in La Serenissima and each in their own way contributed to the extraordinary flourishing that would, in the following century, establish Venetian influence across Europe.