Distant Voices, New Worlds: Songs, Landscapes and Histories New Music Players, Orchestra of Sound and Light, Ed Hughes, Andrew Gourley, Rachel Farago

• Ed Hughes (b. 1968): In Ieiunio et Fletu (2018):
• 1 Hughes: In Ieiunio et Fletu (2018) 04:30
• Sky Rhythms (2022):
• 2 Hughes: Sky Rhythms (2022) 06:03
• Shirley J. Thompson (b. 1958): Mighty Mandela (1990):
• 3 Thompson: Mighty Mandela (1990) 08:12
• An Hymn to the Evening (2022):
• 4 Thompson: An Hymn to the Evening (2022) 04:44
• Matthew Sheeran (b. 1989): Languet Anima (2024):
• 5 Sheeran: Languet Anima (2024) 03:12
• Evelyn Ficarra (b. 1962): The Arbitrariness of Language (2010):
• 6 Ficarra: The Arbitrariness of Language (2010) 05:46
• What Larks (2022):
• 7 Ficarra: What Larks (2022) 05:50
• Rowland Sutherland: Eternal (2018):
• 8 Sutherland: Eternal (2018) 06:27
• Modes from the Downs (2022):
• 9 Sutherland: Modes from the Downs (2022) 08:00
• Ed Hughes: Dark Angel (2024):
• 10 Hughes: Dark Angel (2024) 25:51
• Total Runtime 01:18:35

Info for Distant Voices, New Worlds: Songs, Landscapes and Histories

This album presents the world premiere recordings of nine chamber and solo works, showcasing the unique voices of five renowned British composers. The collection is centred on the theme of the English landscape and its cultural heritage, expressed through innovative and compelling music.

“Distant Voices, New Worlds” delves into the dynamic relationship between past and present perspectives on landscape. At its core are four specially commissioned works from 2022 for soprano and ensemble, forming the South Downs Songbook. These pieces explore the human experience of the South Downs, the chalk hills stretching from Winchester to Eastbourne. This project, supported by Arts Council England (ACE) and the South Downs National Park Authority, also included educational initiatives and the development of a composing resource pack in collaboration with the Brighton-based ensemble, Orchestra of Sound and Light, known for its fusion of traditional and contemporary instruments, visual art, and moving images.

Supported by contributions from the Hinrichsen Foundation and the Vaughan Williams Trust, this project highlights the intersection of contemporary music, landscape, culture, and memory. The album emphasises the role of diverse artistic voices in promoting public engagement with the environment and fostering well-being.

New Music Players
Orchestra of Sound and Light

New Music Players
was founded by Ed Hughes in 1990

New Music Players was founded by composer and artistic director Ed Hughes in 1990. This contemporary classical group comprises world-class musicians who individually perform a wide range of music, from jazz, to chamber, orchestral and experimental, to Wagner and Schumann, to authentic Baroque and other classical and early music styles.

Their musical intelligence, instrumental skill and multiple interests produce amazingly vivid performances and premieres, and give the New Music Players its distinctive edge. The ensemble has been featured in festivals at the ICA, Huddersfield, Brighton; performed and worked with students at York, Bristol, Sussex, Royal Holloway, Oxford, Nottingham universities, and broadcast regularly on BBC Radio 3. UK and European tours include Ed Hughes’s scores for Eisenstein’s silent films Battleship Potemkin and Strike; works by Ligeti, Hughes and Harvey; Xenakis at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and Hughes's opera When the Flame Dies.

NMP feature on six CD recordings including four discs of music by Ed Hughes on Metier: ‘Dark Formations’, his opera ‘When the Flame Dies’, ‘Symphonic Visions’, a DVD of silent film scores, and ‘Time, Space and Change’, featuring ‘Sinfonia’ (2018) and ‘Media Vita’ (1991) released in March 2020. They perform Ed Hughes’s scores for Eisenstein’s films Battleship Potemkin and Strike on a DVD box set released by Tartan Video, and on several silent films by Japanese director Ozu as part of a series released by the BFI featuring new scores by Ed Hughes.

NMP premiered Ed Hughes’s opera ‘States of Innocence’ at the Brighton Festival in May 2024 and will premiere Nicholas Smith MBE’s opera ‘The Stone God’ at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London in October 2024.

Orchestra of Sound and Light
The vision of Orchestra of Sound and Light is to share the excitement of live music-making and composing through participatory projects ranging from primary schools to major Festival commissions.

OSL is a core line-up of five musicians who all perform professionally at the highest level and have extensive teaching and facilitating experience, directed by composer and Artistic Director Ed Hughes.

OSL has presented workshops and performance projects across East Sussex and Brighton and Hove, including major performances at the Brighton Festival in 2016 and 2018.

Artistic director Ed Hughes and OSL have been awarded funding by Arts Council England for a project in 2022 'South Downs Songbook' featuring new works by composers Rowland Sutherland, Evelyn Ficarra, Ed Hughes and Shirley Thompson, workshops in schools and colleges, and new digital resources. ​

Booklet for Distant Voices, New Worlds: Songs, Landscapes and Histories