Six Celan Songs/The Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi and Acts of Beauty/Exit no Exit are new recordings that present compelling examples of Michael Nyman's vibrant approach to word-setting, song structure and subject matter.

Six Celan Songs is Michael Nyman's most profound song cycle, composed in 1990 for Ute Lemper and, together with The Ballad of Kastriot Rexhepi couples two of Michael Nyman's major vocal pieces and two favoured singers of the composer, Hilary Summers and Sarah Leonard.

8 Lust Songs is a song cycle in which Nyman’s music is set to the erotic poems of the 16th century poet Pietro Aretino.

The poems were inspired by Marcantonio Raimondi’s engravings of couples in various positions of sexual intercourse. The poems and engravings have been called a Renaissance equivalent of the Kama Sutra. They caused huge outrage at the time of publication, banned by the Papal authorities and nearly all copies destroyed. They are the most important erotic texts of the period and have gone on to inspire writers and artists alike for centuries.