Marking the 400th anniversary of John Dowland’s death (1563–1626), Los Angeles-based guitarist Joseph Ehrenpreis presents a collection solo pieces by the English composer who bridged the late Renaissance to the early Baroque era. Ehrenpreis arranged Dowland’s music from lute tablature to his 8-string “Brahms Guitar,” an instrument invented by David Rubio and Paul Galbraith in 1994 that uses an endpin and a resonance box, boasting an extended upper and lower range. The album’s title comes from Dowland’s theme and variations based on a popular song of the same name of which the only surviving material is Dowland’s vocal in-tabulation. The etymology of the word in Arabic al-sabr means “endurance” or “patience” or, the Hebrew ahaloth, associated with embalming, sacred ritual, fragrance, whereas in Elizabethan times aloe was associated with bitterness, and used as a medicinal purgative. “I felt that as a whole, this encapsulates Dowland’s artistic output, a man who self describes as ‘Semper Dowland Semper Dolens’ or, ‘When it’s Dowland, it is Sad,’ says Ehrenpreis. “This is renaissance Emo music, and I think Dowland’s attitude and departure from the court has been very influential to punk music and music for the masses, it’s no wonder artists like Sting love to sing it, too.”