Details
Songs of Solace is a musical response to Julie Nicholson’s book A Song for Jenny. The book details the harrowing events surrounding the 7/7 London bombings in which the lives of Julie’s daughter Jenny and fifty-one others were cruelly taken.
I was first introduced to Julie in the immediate aftermath of that event. She contacted me to ask if she might use one of my pieces (Mortal Flesh) as part of Jenny’s funeral service in Bristol Cathedral.
The writing and recording of this disc has been a 5 year process - gradually refining the material through live performances until it felt ready. The songs with words are all settings of texts quoted in the book or included in Jenny’s funeral service. The songs without words are a more visceral response to having read and re-read the book: sorrow, questioning, anger, despair, grief, memory, love.
Christian Forshaw, April 2012
