.....Reviews
‘...an impressive piece of work, passionate and superbly put together
...very infectious....’
John Sugar, independent producer to the BBC
One of Blake's great gifts to the world is his 'Songs', lyrical poems that have been separated from their melodies which are now lost. The trauma of this loss goes to the heart of the human imagination and incites musicians to compose new settings. In 1989 a discography found 2681 settings*, and since then the number has only grown. From these thousands of Songs created, one of the most beautiful I have heard is by Guy Pearson. His setting of 'Hear the Voice of the Bard' has a haunting cumulative quality; it begs to be adopted as the theme to the next World Cup or indeed the Olympics. A Nessun Dorma for 2012.
Tim Heath, Chair of The Blake Society
‘I think this is the first time that I've been prompted by a Blake cover to revisit the source material...In almost every Blake cover I hear, I don't always feel compelled to listen to them more than once. Glad Day, however, is an album that I'm very pleased to have in my library.....track 13, a cover of the Songs of Experience "Introduction" and "To Tirzah" is exquisite’
read complete review Paige Morgan, literary education
Pearson provides some extremely interesting interpretations designed to capture elements of Blake’s art or poetry. “An Island in the Moon”, for example, is a marvellous instrumental that captures the joie de vivre of Blake’s satire and something of its rumbustious, rococo style, while “Newton” offers echoes of Michael Nyman’s work in order to express the mechanical (yet also immensely elegant) world view of the scientist and philosopher. Ironically, perhaps, it is one of my favourite pieces on the album
Jason Whittaker, Professor of Blake Studies at University College, Falmouth
