AT LAST …

…  the cover of PHAETON, and very well worth waiting for.  Apparently the technique for producing this striking image (which includes real gold leaf) was not straightforward, but John Mercer has – as ever – produced a wonderful graphic, and one ideally suited to the music it accompanies.  The tracks will be available from iTunes etc next week. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the set owes to sounds and ideas from Baroque music around Europe.

By the way, this week I was at the launch of my friend James Wilson‘s new novel “The Summer of Broken Stories”.   I don’t recommend books I haven’t read yet, but this is one I intend to read soon, and James’ work is always very rewarding indeed.

I shall be recording several new tracks later this month in Manchester with a great group of brass players.  Examples will be uploaded  into the player, together with samples from PHAETON, probably in early June.

And the current work: just finishing off the orchestration for DRUMMER BOY.  Megg Nicol and I went to a production meeting in Aldeburgh a few days ago, and I was delighted to discover that the designer of the opera is to be Claire Lyth with whom I worked at Greenwich Young Peoples’ Theatre several years ago when we both had our first jobs.