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