2014

Nocturnes are traditionally pieces of music that evoke the night. In this exquisite album of gentle instrumental compositions, Nigel has created a journey through the quiet stillness and empty silence of the night, from the arrival of twilight to the first edges of the dawn. Each piece of music weaves into the next as together they describe the tender ebb and flow of darkness across the waiting earth. This music honours shadow in a way that is inspired by the intense experience of the nights on Dartmoor’s high open hills, where the skies are black and the stars are many. Night silence can sometimes be complete but night storms may be wild beyond measure. As we travel within this dark realm our senses become heightened so that we become aware of other, perhaps unexpected, ways of relating to the enveloping landscape. The piano sits at the heart of these recordings, returning Nigel to his original instrument after many years of flute playing. He embarked on a quest to find the piano that would fulfill this task and after many months of searching all around the UK, he finally located this 1920’s Grotrian Steinweg on the edge of Dartmoor! But of course flutes feature as well, including some especially made by Nigel for this album from Dartmoor elm, hazel and hornbeam. The strings were played by Rebecca Allnatt (cello) and Malcolm Latchem (violin), both members of Ten Tors Orchestra. Carolyn’s voice became a choir of women singing plain chant and choruses, as well as the many sacred names of night and moon. TRACKS: Half Light, Shadowfall, Evensong (Sacred Night), Vespers, Midnight Song, And The Land Lay Still, Silence And The Moon, This Dark Realm, Starfall (Wrapped in Dream), The Summoning Light, Morning Song Album length: 71 minutes. Released in 2010. Please contact me if you have any questions Thanks Bill