ANGEL made ALBUM OF THE WEEK on Classic FM

My new album, Angel, has been made ALBUM OF THE WEEK on Classic FM this week ahead of its release next Monday.

http://www.classicfm.com/composers/hawes/album-reviews/angel-review/

John Suchet plays a different track from the album each day this week.  On Monday he started with Out of the Depths and today he played Angel Song.  Keep listening in this week to hear more tracks from the album!

Angel is released 3rd March and you can pre-order your copy at Amazon and iTunes.

Classic FM - first air play for ANGEL

Just announced on the Classic FM website - tracks from Angel are going to be played by Alex James on his Magical Musical Tour this Saturday (22nd Feb) at 7pm.  He's a great presenter and I'm really looking forward to hearing him introduce the music.  Do listen if you can!
http://www.classicfm.com/radio/shows/alex-jamess-magical-music-tour/22-february-2014/

ANGEL - recording the album

Recording the album: (top-bottom) Patrick with the Choir of New College Oxford and the RPO; 

Patrick and Edward Higginbottom, choirmaster of New College Oxford; Patrick recording the Piano Preludes; 

the recording team – Mike Hatch (recording engineer), Grace Davidson (soprano), Patrick, Anna Barry (producer)

The following are extracts from a recent interview about the recording of my new album, Angel.

"We recorded the album in St Michael and All Angels Church in Oxford and Angel Studios in London – both fitting venues given the subject matter!"

A prominent presence throughout the disc is Grace Davidson's soprano voice.  Her beautifully clear and radiant tone - in this context, it might be described as "angelic" - is first heard on the opening piece, Prayer To A Guardian Angel, as well as on Out Of The Depths, the gently lulling Uriel, To Thee All Angels, and the final track, The Last Lullaby, which eases the disc to a close in a delicate shimmer of harp and strings.

"We didn't want anything too mannered," explains Patrick, "and by that I mean we didn't want a solo voice with too much vibrato. We wanted purity and light, not a voice that was too heavy or thick."

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra create a beautifully light texture to the album under the brilliant lead of Clio Gould who also performs on a couple of the tracks as a soloist.  The fantastic harpist Hugh Webb also features throughout the album.

Also intrinsic to the sound-world of the album is the choir of New College, Oxford, ably directed both by chorus master Edward Higginbottom and Patrick himself.

"I wanted a collegiate choir or a cathedral choir, because I think the boy treble sound is unique," Patrick reflects.  "It's a very English sound, and to me it has an inbuilt innocence about it, and I wanted the album to have a feeling of innocence."

Patrick has given the New College choir their own showpiece on the disc, Angelus Domini, an exquisitely simple piece which shows off the finely-knit texture of their unaccompanied voices.

Aside from the choir, Patrick has introduced additional vocal colourings via tenor Mark Wilde, the baritone Robert Davies and countertenor Robin Blaze, who take the roles of the angels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.  Along with Uriel, sung by Grace Davidson, these pieces make up Patrick's Archangel Suite.

Angel is due out on 3rd March 2014.  You can pre-order Angel on Amazon and iTunes

ANGEL - the inspiration behind the album

The following are extracts from a recent interview about the inspiration for my Angel album.

"I had an idea for an album about angels, which I don't think has been tackled in the classical music world before," says Patrick. "Then my brother Andrew, who's a priest and a poet, mentioned to me the Angel of Mons, which was an apparition that took place right at the beginning of the First World War, on August 23 1914. I was fascinated by it and I did a lot of research, and I realised that the Angel of Mons gave me a specific link between the centenary and my concept for the album."

The Angel of Mons remains one of the most mysterious and controversial episodes in the First World War. Eyewitnesses claimed that British troops had been assisted during a retreat from attacking German forces by, as Patrick explains, "a light appearing and a figure on horseback pointing them in the direction of safety. It was misty and murky and a complete shambles, and the apparition saved them."

"Of course I'm human and I have all sorts of doubts," Patrick reflects, "but I believe the Angel of Mons occurred and I believe it was the result of an outpouring of prayer.  It was at a time in our history like no other, when the war was about to become a massacre, a genocide almost. I believe events conspired to bring about a spiritual apparition."

The event is specifically addressed on the second track on Angel, Out Of The Depths. It's an extract from a 40-minute work called The Angel of Mons which Patrick and his brother Andrew are currently working on.  "It's on the album because it's such an important influence," he explains. "My brother adapted the lyrics from the psalm Out Of The Depths [Psalm 130], which he thought captured the event beautifully - 'out of the depths we cry O Lord, hear our voice'. Then the psalm says 'be patient, you will find mercy, you will find redemption.' It's almost like the voice of the Angel of Mons, and it's sung as a solo by Grace Davidson."

Elsewhere on the disc, Patrick has approached the idea of angels from different directions, and with contrasting musical treatments. "The image of the Virgin Mary being approached by the angel Gabriel made a big impact on me as a child, and as a committed Christian I'm aware that was the beginning of the Chr

istian faith," he recalls. "The concept of angels holds the project together, and this enabled me to create variety through the use of a choir, soloists, an orchestra, and solo harp and violin. I thought I'd put a couple of solo piano tracks on it too, which are the two Angel Preludes, Seraphim and Cherubim. They're the angels who are constantly in prayer in front of the Almighty."

Angel is due out on 3rd March 2014.  You can pre-order Angel on Amazon and iTunes