Well, November was certainly a busy month. With two premieres in December (wisteria for Gavin Osborn and All the Days of your Life for Cantiana Choir) plus preparation for time is different here… in full swing, I wasn’t sure if I would reach my goal of composing sixty minutes of music during November. This is the second year in a row I have joined my writer friends during National Novel Writing Month. This year, the result is tracing shadows.

You can visit my Bandcamp page to download the album on a pay-what-you-want basis (yes, even for free!).

There were two main influences for this album. The first was my time at Porthmeor Studios working on time – trace – place back in June. It was such a wonderful, creative experience. The titles are all reminiscent of different moments from the project. And, yes, I did literally trace shadows while I was there:

The other influence came from a bus ride on a Monday morning. I had just returned from LABBS (a barbershop singing convention) the night before. After a weekend of being surrounded by singing, the transition to normal life is always a bit disappointing! I had caught an early bus to get into work, feeling tired and wishing the sound of music was still all around me. Then I heard somebody singing. They were very quiet, but were right behind me so I could hear quite clearly. It was a beautiful, simple tune and immediately lifted my mood. I cheered up even more when another voice joined them and, for the whole half hour journey, the duet weaved through the rumblings and beeps of the bus. The vocal parts in this album are all inspired by that journey.

I hope you enjoy listening to tracing shadows. If you haven’t already, I’d love you to also listen to last year’s NaNoWriMo project, sketching the rain.