Matthew Locke was the most prominent English musician of the generation before Purcell, occupying a unique place between the Renaissance consort tradition and Baroque chamber music. The Broken Consort refers to a group with mixed instruments, and Locke’s pieces entertained royalty with their ambitiously chromatic tonal language and rhythmic quirkiness. The Composer to the Private Musick was never happier than with surprisingly angular melodies and dramatic gestures ‘into the theatricall way’. This recording is the début release of Wayward Sisters, winners of the 2011 Early Music America/Naxos Recording Competition.