“We are living in extraordinary times, I wanted to respond but had the urge to offer more than one voice, more than one perspective. Not an echo chamber” – Cerys Matthews
The album has been released on Decca Records and is composed by Cerys Matthews with Hidden Orchestra and features 10 UK poets: MA.MOYO, Raymond Antrobus, Lemn Sissay, Liz Berry, Anthony Anaxagorou, Adam Horovitz, Cia Mangat, Imtiaz Dharker, Kim Moore and Kayo Chingonyi.
In February 2020, we welcomed several of the poets into the Gatehouse studio to record intimate pieces from their collections. Then lockdown hit. But remotely, and with the additional help of field recordists and musicians around the world, Cerys and Joe Acheson (Hidden Orchestra) created a sound journey for these poems with the theme of Genesis.
Cerys says; “I’ve always been in awe of the power of a great turn of phrase; in poems, songs and prose. There are some exceptional poems being added to the world right now. So I invited poets whose work I admired and had championed for years to join me in this project. I selected poems that worked across and with each other to become a journey, an aural adventure.
I’m hoping it’ll be the first in a series of ‘poem song’ albums on Decca, with life on earth as inspiration. As simple and complex as that. The theme for this then, as the first, had to begin at the beginning: Genesis.”
Tracklisting
1 Belinda Zhawi -
Flame Lily 2 Raymond Antrobus –
Happy Birthday Moon 3 Lemn Sissay -
Adventure Flight 4 Cia Mangat -
She Strikes The Ball Like a Match 5 Anthony Anaxagorou -
Once I Had An Acceptance Speech 6 Kim Moore -
And The Soul 7 Liz Berry -
Connemara 8 Adam Horovitz -
A House Built From Cloth 9 Kayo Chingonyi -
Loch Long 10 Imtiaz Dharker -
The Trick 11 Liz Berry -
Birmingham Roller 12 Kim Moore -
Sometimes You Think of BownessPurchase the album on the Abbey Road Shop.
