To begin at the end: Paul O’Dette’s own tribute (Harmonia Mundi, 7/13) to that inspired miniaturist of the lute, Francesco Canova da Milano (1497-1543), aka Il Divino, closes with the same two fantasias/ricercars as does fellow lutenist Nigel North’s latest release, the first of two volumes North is devoting to the composer. On the surface, their approaches are very different. For example, and only broadly speaking, where O’Dette uses internal agogic accents to heighten expressive potential, North leans more towards allowing a phrase’s flow gently to retard as it reaches the still pool of its final tone. But both players arrive at novel ways of grouping these tiny works; both also recognise Milano’s rhetorical genius, the way he takes up a single idea and carries it, and therefore the listener, on an undeniably compelling journey.

North, whose playing is perhaps richer but also less focused and more diffuse (though in a good way) than O’Dette’s, is especially interesting here, expanding the ‘journey’ idea while referencing the traditional sonnet sequence to form five groups of (mostly) fantasias by ‘final tones, mode or thematic material’. As a result, there are journeys within journeys within journeys, Milano’s imitations, transpositions and rhythmic and other transformations revealing kaleidoscopic vistas that spark more and more associations between and among the groups of fantasias. If that makes this recording sound like some kind of drug-induced trip, perhaps on one level it is. But, joking aside, ultimately it’s North’s intense introspection and empathy that make this thoughtful programme more satisfyingly psychological than psychedelic.