April 17, 2024 • 17 mins
Join us as we celebrate the season of blossom with poetry and music written and produced by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage and his band LYR.
In this episode, Simon shares the inspiration behind his poetry, and the band discuss how they produced the song Blossom: A CV and collaborated with community choirs as part of the Blossomise album.
Production
Producer: Jesse Edbrooke
Sound editor: Jesus Gomez
Discover more
Find out more about Simon Armitage and his poetry
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/who-we-are/news/poet-laureate-simon-armitage-creates-blossom-inspired-poem
Watch videos about the Blossomise project shot by young film makers
www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLgonOCHSWf0I_a_fhmX2K_r_3MoKXA2c
Listen to the full tracks of Simon and LYR’s Blossomise music in collaboration with the National Trust and funded by the People’s lottery post code lyrband.bandcamp.com/track/blossom-a-cv
[Appeal]
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Follow the National Trust Podcast on your favourite podcast app. If you'd like to get in touch with feedback, or have a story connected with the National Trust, you can contact us at podcasts@nationaltrust.org.uk
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
KATE MARTIN (00:37):
Welcome to a special episode of the National
Trust podcast. I'm Kate Martin,a lead ranger in the north of
England.
Today we're immersing ourselvesin nature’s poetry and music in
this season of blossom.
We will be journeying into theworld of poet laureate Simon
Armitage and his band LYR asthey create art for their new
(00:58):
project'Blossomise’.
We're in London to meet SimonArmitage in person.
Simon holds a position inBritish culture serving as the
official poet of the nation,writing poems to commemorate
significant events.
We will explore the creativeprocess of Simon's poetry and
(01:21):
music with his band LYR as theycreate an album with the
national trustcalled'Blossomise’.
This involves working withcommunities all across the UK to
bring to life the essence of thewonderful season with sound.
The timeless draw of blossomcaptivates hearts and minds
inviting reflection andcelebration and for centuries
(01:42):
artists have been inspired byblossom’s symbolic powers of
renewal and hope.
Simon's own words resonate withdepth and insight into the
natural world and the humanexperience. [
SIMON ARMITAGE (01:54):
Skeleton Tree - LYR] I waded down to the cherry
tree to watch it drowning in thesea, arms reaching for ropes of
wind, limbs floundering underthe rain
I’m Simon Armitage, I am thepoet laureate. This is Crouch
(02:15):
End, north London, a lovelysunny day.
I've been writing poems and songlyrics for the'Blossomise’
project.
We’re at church studios, whichis literally a big old church at
the side of the road let's goinside for this big old door.
KATE MARTIN (02:41):
The studio is filled with teams readying for
the day's recording.
The production team are filmingthe process, recording engineers
are setting up microphones andthe choir are warming up their
voices.
In a quieter backstage roomSimon shares how the'Blossomise’
project was born and more abouthis role as the poet laureate.
SIMON ARMITAGE (03:01):
Since I became poet laureate in 2019 at that
point I said I wanted to focuson the environment and put
nature at the heart of a lot ofmy projects. [
Profusion - LYR] Constellationsbloom in orchards of April skies
(03:24):
the stars Blossomise
The project is to celebrate theannual arrival of blossom and
try and create something of atradition, festival around plus
some such as the ones that takeplace in Japan.
KATE MARTIN (03:48):
The Japanese season of blossom, draws millions of
tourists from around the worldwho eagerly await the moment
when the Sakura cherry treesburst into bloom.
They marvel at the sea of pinkblossoms and partake in Hanami
which means flower viewing.
Beyond mere spectacle, Hanami isa cultural ritual encouraging
reflection on life's transientnature, often accompanied by
(04:11):
picnics and tea ceremoniesbeneath the trees.
So what personally inspiresSimon about the season of
blossom, and how does itinfluence his poetry?
SIMON ARMITAGE (04:22):
Blossom is an important reminder of our of our
connection with nature or maybethe fact that you know we are
nature.
I think we also like the idea ofgetting a bit high on the
blossom you know you see thebees that there are fair nuts
with this stuff and so I thinksome of the pieces are quite
trippy and a bit trancey, a bitdroney sometimes.
KATE MARTIN (04:53):
Informing this celebration is the fact that
blossom appears in the mostsurprising of places and as
Simon observed it can be found…
SIMON ARMITAGE (05:01):
Growing in the most unlikely cracks and
crevices out of roofs on oldbuildings in a little bit of
scrubby earth somewhere orwasteland.
And that resilience I think Iwanted to notice and be noticed
and the fact that it canreproduce and thrive in the most
(05:22):
extraordinary circumstances hasgot to be a lesson for hope.
KATE MARTIN (05:28):
That encouraging reminder to persevere is
reflected all around us innature when we see blossom
return each spring.
It’s something that the bandwanted to capture with lyrics
and music in'Blossomise’.
So how does a poet laureateformer band and start winning
Ivor novello awards forsongwriting?
(05:48):
LYR is a three-piece band madeup of author and current poet
laureate Simon Armitage, singersongwriter Richard Walters and
multi-instrumentalist andproducer Patrick Pearson.
PATRICK PEARSON (06:00):
The story is that Richard and Simon have been
in contact about wanting to worktogether for some time but they
just couldn't find a producer towork with.
I'd been working with Richard ona side project and he said
“would you want to come in andwork on this piece? ” I thought
it was a great idea, I love whatSimon is doing.
(06:22):
Richard and I sent a dictaphoneup to Simon and we thought “you
know this would be the start ofsomething fantastic”.
A whole year passed and wehadn’t heard anything and we
thought “maybe this is not goingto happen” and then the
dictaphone came back in the postand I was like “I'm sorry I've
got round to this but here'ssome stuff” and there was some
(06:45):
poems on there, there was somesound.
KATE MARTIN (06:47):
The collaboration between producer Patrick,
vocalist Richard and lyricistSimon became LYR's debut album
and was titled'Call in the CrashTeam’.
It was so well received that theband continued creating and most
recently embarked onthe'Blossomise’ album.
But getting together is achallenge in itself as vocalist
Richard explains.
RICHARD WALTERS (07:08):
So I'm in Hampshire, Pat’s down in Devon
and Simon's obviously up inYorkshire so we're really kind
of-
If you lived on the Isle Of Skyeor something you might be
further away but we're prettyscattered, so when we get
together it's really importantreally vital time together.
KATE MARTIN (07:23):
So to delve into the band's creative process do
the lyrics come first or themusic?
SIMON ARMITAGE (07:29):
In this case all the lyrics came first so there
are 10 poems there are 11 haikusand I wanted to be able to go
into the studio where we do thecomposition and lay them all out
and say to Pat and to Richardwhich of these will make the
best songs?
RICHARD WALTERS (07:47):
Blossom CV I remember that poem really stuck
out and I think it was probablyone of the first ones we started
working on.
SIMON ARMITAGE (07:54):
[Poem] Blossom CV Blossom was a Mountaineer didn't
look down wait anchor inhairline fissures and stress
fractures think of blossom assolar panels when the weather
turned and the seasonsunravelled blossom was a
weathervane rootless andhomeless blossom rode and
(08:19):
drifted on thermal currents asthe climate shifted-
KATE MARTIN (08:21):
The process of taking inspiration in blossom to
a finished poem can take weeksbefore Simon is happy with his
work.
SIMON ARMITAGE (08:29):
So with a poem like blossom a CV each quatrain,
each four line stanza probablywent through nine or ten drafts
before I got somewhere that Iwas relatively happy with.
I just had too many images,competing images for everything
(08:49):
to cohere into one poem and Istarted worrying that it would
just become a very big mixedmetaphor.
KATE MARTIN (08:57):
So Simon dealt with each image individually, as
something of a summary or a lifehistory of blossom.
Not necessarily one tree, butall the situations that a
blossom tree might find itselfin and all the ways that we
might perceive it.
Now back to producer Patrick todiscover how the blossom music
was born.
PATRICK PEARSON (09:16):
The kind of initial idea for this was taken
from a sample that Simon hadmade on the piano in South Bank.
He’d recorded it on his phoneand said “look I've got this
piano motif, is there anythingwe could do with it? ” I took
the piano sample and sort ofmanipulated it.
KATE MARTIN (09:39):
An essential part of music production is
experimentation so Pat usedmusic software to take that
piano chord and stretch it out,then he tried playing it faster,
totally transforming thecharacter of the sound and
looking for a direction for thecomposition.
RICHARD WALTERS (09:56):
It begins with some piano chords and they're
reversed and turned intosomething quite weird. They
don't don't sound like a pianoanymore!
Pat's quite strange guys so hedoes little things in quite an
odd fashion which is what makeshim brilliant producer.
PATRICK PEARSON (10:13):
And I think it just developed from there.
The sample the way that itstretched had given me a kind of
pulse and we added some sampleson top of that and then
eventually we added drums toreplace the samples.
And at one point I actually wentfurther down the industrial
quite high saturation quite highdistortion, but I think the
(10:34):
feedback was that it got toomuch and it lost its identity.
So then you pull that back, youdon't go too far down there you
realise that might be the wrongway for that, but the sample
stayed in there.
RICHARD WALTERS (10:47):
There's a tendency that Simon will bring a
lyric, a poem to us and I thinkyou will quite often have one
idea of how it's going to be andthen it was suddenly go up in
this entirely differentdirection.
And Pat came up with this verykind of dark electronic kind of
dirgey not remotely blossomysound.
It has that kind of strangeeerie darkness with the calm
(11:09):
before the storm.
I think we're aware that likeyou think about a project based
around blossom and it could bethis very kind gentle beautiful
thing and I think it's reallyimportant it had to have some of
our personality as a band.
KATE MARTIN (11:23):
One signature element of LYR’s sound is the
interplay between Simon spokenpoetry and Richard's lyrics
which are sung. The mix meansthere are often two different
narrative voices in each of thesongs.
SIMON ARMITAGE (11:36):
Because of the nature of your voice I think if
I display anger in the lyricsyou often come back on the other
side as a sort of leaveningpresence and vice versa.
RICHARD WALTERS (11:46):
Yeah there’s a bit of a conversation happening.
I tend to sing in a falsetto andmy voice is quite gentle so it's
never going to kind of go into adeath metal section or
anything. [
Blossom a CV - LYR] In spite ofeverything that you do.
We’ve had songs where it feelslike it's kind of like the devil
(12:06):
and the Angel.
SIMON ARMITAGE (12:07):
Like a word off!
RICHARD WALTERS (12:09):
A word off yeah!
KATE MARTIN (12:10):
So how do Simon and Richard decide, which voice is
lead vocal and when?
SIMON ARMITAGE (12:15):
Well I sit down and I score all the sheet music!
I don’t know! how does thatwork?
That work that happens when I'masleep!
RICHARD WALTERS (12:24):
I think you kind of naturally find the
spaces and gives us-
Even when you read it on thepage you can feel the rhythm
there's a definite tempo thatstands out.
I think it's just about givingit space and giving it pauses
and allowing the music to bedynamic and grow. [
SIMON ARMITAGE (12:38):
Blossom a CV - LYR] You have to spell
resurrection and the truemeaning above revelation.
Blossom the magician transforms-
KATE MARTIN (12:52):
Simon shared that the songs were not prescriptive
works but invitations forcommunities across the country
to partake in shaping them.
This was represented in therecordings by the choir made-up
of singers from all over the UKjoining to add their sound.
SIMON ARMITAGE (13:08):
Choral elements of these tracks was in our minds
right from the very beginning.
We wanted that resonance wewanted inclusivity and
involvement and I think thechoir in the songs represents a
community.
(13:29):
The harmony of voices comingtogether different perspectives
different viewpoints.
KATE MARTIN (13:34):
A big influence on the decision to record the choir
in church studios was theacoustics of the space.
High beamed wooden surfacesmeant that the choir would sound
warm and vibrant when recorded.
Artists such as Coldplay,Mumford and Sons and Beyoncé
have all recorded here before.
ADEL TUZANI (13:53):
My name is Adel Tuzani. I've been invited to
contribute to the recording fromthe Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir.
It’s always a drudge when youhave to warm myself up but once
I get going it's just a joy, italways is and that's why I keep
doing it after 13/14 years.
RIO HELLYER (14:08):
Hi I'm Rio and I am sort of alto mid in Choir Noir.
People singing together in thesame room it just really it just
does something good for thesoul.
ALEXIS CONSTANTINOU (14:19):
My name is Alexis I sing tenor. Beautiful
songs, loving it!
MARIANNE RIZKALLAH (14:26):
I’m Marianne, I’m one of the
Sopranos in Choir Noir.
Singing the songs today it'sbeen wonderful the arrangements
are amazing.
Kat our musical director hasbeen talking about how all the
parts blossom, so it starts fromthe lower parts going up to mid,
going up to high and everythingkind of erupts and goes into
bloom.
And you really hear it inarrangements that suddenly kind
(14:48):
of burst out of nowhere like thefirst flowers spring. [
GENERIC (15:09):
Blossom a CV - LYR] "in spite of everything that you do
wrong you still get me..."
RICHARD WALTERS (15:13):
I think there's a message in that song about
climate change and the effectthat is having on the seasons
and things blossoming.
My lyric is in spite ofeverything that you do wrong you
still get me it's decided you'repushing me to the edge, me being
blossom. [
GENERIC (15:35):
Blossom a CV - LYR]
SIMON ARMITAGE (15:40):
I am trying to reinforce the idea of kinship
with the natural world becauseultimately that's where we came
from.
We are spiritually,biologically, scientifically,
every other adverb that you canthink of connected with the
(16:02):
world around us and we need tohonour that bond.
KATE MARTIN (16:19):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the
National Trust podcast. Thisspring discover some of the best
places to see blossom in ourcare and beyond. If you'd like
to hear more of the'Blossomise’tracks Simon Armitage and LYR
have composed, or read the poemsthen please click the link in
the show notes.
There are also details to liveevents, performances and stories
(16:41):
on the National Trust website.
You’ll also find videos to thetracks made by inspiring young
film makers from across thecountry on the National Trust
YouTube channel.
To make sure you get newepisodes of this podcast please
subscribe to Apple, Spotify orwherever you get your podcasts,
until next time goodbye.
Welcome to a special episode of the National
Trust podcast. I'm Kate Martin,a lead ranger in the north of
England.
Today we're immersing ourselvesin nature’s poetry and music in
this season of blossom.
We will be journeying into theworld of poet laureate Simon
Armitage and his band LYR asthey create art for their new
(00:58):
project'Blossomise’.
We're in London to meet SimonArmitage in person.
Simon holds a position inBritish culture serving as the
official poet of the nation,writing poems to commemorate
significant events.
We will explore the creativeprocess of Simon's poetry and
(01:21):
music with his band LYR as theycreate an album with the
national trustcalled'Blossomise’.
This involves working withcommunities all across the UK to
bring to life the essence of thewonderful season with sound.
The timeless draw of blossomcaptivates hearts and minds
inviting reflection andcelebration and for centuries
(01:42):
artists have been inspired byblossom’s symbolic powers of
renewal and hope.
Simon's own words resonate withdepth and insight into the
natural world and the humanexperience. [
SIMON ARMITAGE (01:54):
Skeleton Tree - LYR] I waded down to the cherry
tree to watch it drowning in thesea, arms reaching for ropes of
wind, limbs floundering underthe rain
I’m Simon Armitage, I am thepoet laureate. This is Crouch
(02:15):
End, north London, a lovelysunny day.
I've been writing poems and songlyrics for the'Blossomise’
project.
We’re at church studios, whichis literally a big old church at
the side of the road let's goinside for this big old door.
KATE MARTIN (02:41):
The studio is filled with teams readying for
the day's recording.
The production team are filmingthe process, recording engineers
are setting up microphones andthe choir are warming up their
voices.
In a quieter backstage roomSimon shares how the'Blossomise’
project was born and more abouthis role as the poet laureate.
SIMON ARMITAGE (03:01):
Since I became poet laureate in 2019 at that
point I said I wanted to focuson the environment and put
nature at the heart of a lot ofmy projects. [
Profusion - LYR] Constellationsbloom in orchards of April skies
(03:24):
the stars Blossomise
The project is to celebrate theannual arrival of blossom and
try and create something of atradition, festival around plus
some such as the ones that takeplace in Japan.
KATE MARTIN (03:48):
The Japanese season of blossom, draws millions of
tourists from around the worldwho eagerly await the moment
when the Sakura cherry treesburst into bloom.
They marvel at the sea of pinkblossoms and partake in Hanami
which means flower viewing.
Beyond mere spectacle, Hanami isa cultural ritual encouraging
reflection on life's transientnature, often accompanied by
(04:11):
picnics and tea ceremoniesbeneath the trees.
So what personally inspiresSimon about the season of
blossom, and how does itinfluence his poetry?
SIMON ARMITAGE (04:22):
Blossom is an important reminder of our of our
connection with nature or maybethe fact that you know we are
nature.
I think we also like the idea ofgetting a bit high on the
blossom you know you see thebees that there are fair nuts
with this stuff and so I thinksome of the pieces are quite
trippy and a bit trancey, a bitdroney sometimes.
KATE MARTIN (04:53):
Informing this celebration is the fact that
blossom appears in the mostsurprising of places and as
Simon observed it can be found…
SIMON ARMITAGE (05:01):
Growing in the most unlikely cracks and
crevices out of roofs on oldbuildings in a little bit of
scrubby earth somewhere orwasteland.
And that resilience I think Iwanted to notice and be noticed
and the fact that it canreproduce and thrive in the most
(05:22):
extraordinary circumstances hasgot to be a lesson for hope.
KATE MARTIN (05:28):
That encouraging reminder to persevere is
reflected all around us innature when we see blossom
return each spring.
It’s something that the bandwanted to capture with lyrics
and music in'Blossomise’.
So how does a poet laureateformer band and start winning
Ivor novello awards forsongwriting?
(05:48):
LYR is a three-piece band madeup of author and current poet
laureate Simon Armitage, singersongwriter Richard Walters and
multi-instrumentalist andproducer Patrick Pearson.
PATRICK PEARSON (06:00):
The story is that Richard and Simon have been
in contact about wanting to worktogether for some time but they
just couldn't find a producer towork with.
I'd been working with Richard ona side project and he said
“would you want to come in andwork on this piece? ” I thought
it was a great idea, I love whatSimon is doing.
(06:22):
Richard and I sent a dictaphoneup to Simon and we thought “you
know this would be the start ofsomething fantastic”.
A whole year passed and wehadn’t heard anything and we
thought “maybe this is not goingto happen” and then the
dictaphone came back in the postand I was like “I'm sorry I've
got round to this but here'ssome stuff” and there was some
(06:45):
poems on there, there was somesound.
KATE MARTIN (06:47):
The collaboration between producer Patrick,
vocalist Richard and lyricistSimon became LYR's debut album
and was titled'Call in the CrashTeam’.
It was so well received that theband continued creating and most
recently embarked onthe'Blossomise’ album.
But getting together is achallenge in itself as vocalist
Richard explains.
RICHARD WALTERS (07:08):
So I'm in Hampshire, Pat’s down in Devon
and Simon's obviously up inYorkshire so we're really kind
of-
If you lived on the Isle Of Skyeor something you might be
further away but we're prettyscattered, so when we get
together it's really importantreally vital time together.
KATE MARTIN (07:23):
So to delve into the band's creative process do
the lyrics come first or themusic?
SIMON ARMITAGE (07:29):
In this case all the lyrics came first so there
are 10 poems there are 11 haikusand I wanted to be able to go
into the studio where we do thecomposition and lay them all out
and say to Pat and to Richardwhich of these will make the
best songs?
RICHARD WALTERS (07:47):
Blossom CV I remember that poem really stuck
out and I think it was probablyone of the first ones we started
working on.
SIMON ARMITAGE (07:54):
[Poem] Blossom CV Blossom was a Mountaineer didn't
look down wait anchor inhairline fissures and stress
fractures think of blossom assolar panels when the weather
turned and the seasonsunravelled blossom was a
weathervane rootless andhomeless blossom rode and
(08:19):
drifted on thermal currents asthe climate shifted-
KATE MARTIN (08:21):
The process of taking inspiration in blossom to
a finished poem can take weeksbefore Simon is happy with his
work.
SIMON ARMITAGE (08:29):
So with a poem like blossom a CV each quatrain,
each four line stanza probablywent through nine or ten drafts
before I got somewhere that Iwas relatively happy with.
I just had too many images,competing images for everything
(08:49):
to cohere into one poem and Istarted worrying that it would
just become a very big mixedmetaphor.
KATE MARTIN (08:57):
So Simon dealt with each image individually, as
something of a summary or a lifehistory of blossom.
Not necessarily one tree, butall the situations that a
blossom tree might find itselfin and all the ways that we
might perceive it.
Now back to producer Patrick todiscover how the blossom music
was born.
PATRICK PEARSON (09:16):
The kind of initial idea for this was taken
from a sample that Simon hadmade on the piano in South Bank.
He’d recorded it on his phoneand said “look I've got this
piano motif, is there anythingwe could do with it? ” I took
the piano sample and sort ofmanipulated it.
KATE MARTIN (09:39):
An essential part of music production is
experimentation so Pat usedmusic software to take that
piano chord and stretch it out,then he tried playing it faster,
totally transforming thecharacter of the sound and
looking for a direction for thecomposition.
RICHARD WALTERS (09:56):
It begins with some piano chords and they're
reversed and turned intosomething quite weird. They
don't don't sound like a pianoanymore!
Pat's quite strange guys so hedoes little things in quite an
odd fashion which is what makeshim brilliant producer.
PATRICK PEARSON (10:13):
And I think it just developed from there.
The sample the way that itstretched had given me a kind of
pulse and we added some sampleson top of that and then
eventually we added drums toreplace the samples.
And at one point I actually wentfurther down the industrial
quite high saturation quite highdistortion, but I think the
(10:34):
feedback was that it got toomuch and it lost its identity.
So then you pull that back, youdon't go too far down there you
realise that might be the wrongway for that, but the sample
stayed in there.
RICHARD WALTERS (10:47):
There's a tendency that Simon will bring a
lyric, a poem to us and I thinkyou will quite often have one
idea of how it's going to be andthen it was suddenly go up in
this entirely differentdirection.
And Pat came up with this verykind of dark electronic kind of
dirgey not remotely blossomysound.
It has that kind of strangeeerie darkness with the calm
(11:09):
before the storm.
I think we're aware that likeyou think about a project based
around blossom and it could bethis very kind gentle beautiful
thing and I think it's reallyimportant it had to have some of
our personality as a band.
KATE MARTIN (11:23):
One signature element of LYR’s sound is the
interplay between Simon spokenpoetry and Richard's lyrics
which are sung. The mix meansthere are often two different
narrative voices in each of thesongs.
SIMON ARMITAGE (11:36):
Because of the nature of your voice I think if
I display anger in the lyricsyou often come back on the other
side as a sort of leaveningpresence and vice versa.
RICHARD WALTERS (11:46):
Yeah there’s a bit of a conversation happening.
I tend to sing in a falsetto andmy voice is quite gentle so it's
never going to kind of go into adeath metal section or
anything. [
Blossom a CV - LYR] In spite ofeverything that you do.
We’ve had songs where it feelslike it's kind of like the devil
(12:06):
and the Angel.
SIMON ARMITAGE (12:07):
Like a word off!
RICHARD WALTERS (12:09):
A word off yeah!
KATE MARTIN (12:10):
So how do Simon and Richard decide, which voice is
lead vocal and when?
SIMON ARMITAGE (12:15):
Well I sit down and I score all the sheet music!
I don’t know! how does thatwork?
That work that happens when I'masleep!
RICHARD WALTERS (12:24):
I think you kind of naturally find the
spaces and gives us-
Even when you read it on thepage you can feel the rhythm
there's a definite tempo thatstands out.
I think it's just about givingit space and giving it pauses
and allowing the music to bedynamic and grow. [
SIMON ARMITAGE (12:38):
Blossom a CV - LYR] You have to spell
resurrection and the truemeaning above revelation.
Blossom the magician transforms-
KATE MARTIN (12:52):
Simon shared that the songs were not prescriptive
works but invitations forcommunities across the country
to partake in shaping them.
This was represented in therecordings by the choir made-up
of singers from all over the UKjoining to add their sound.
SIMON ARMITAGE (13:08):
Choral elements of these tracks was in our minds
right from the very beginning.
We wanted that resonance wewanted inclusivity and
involvement and I think thechoir in the songs represents a
community.
(13:29):
The harmony of voices comingtogether different perspectives
different viewpoints.
KATE MARTIN (13:34):
A big influence on the decision to record the choir
in church studios was theacoustics of the space.
High beamed wooden surfacesmeant that the choir would sound
warm and vibrant when recorded.
Artists such as Coldplay,Mumford and Sons and Beyoncé
have all recorded here before.
ADEL TUZANI (13:53):
My name is Adel Tuzani. I've been invited to
contribute to the recording fromthe Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir.
It’s always a drudge when youhave to warm myself up but once
I get going it's just a joy, italways is and that's why I keep
doing it after 13/14 years.
RIO HELLYER (14:08):
Hi I'm Rio and I am sort of alto mid in Choir Noir.
People singing together in thesame room it just really it just
does something good for thesoul.
ALEXIS CONSTANTINOU (14:19):
My name is Alexis I sing tenor. Beautiful
songs, loving it!
MARIANNE RIZKALLAH (14:26):
I’m Marianne, I’m one of the
Sopranos in Choir Noir.
Singing the songs today it'sbeen wonderful the arrangements
are amazing.
Kat our musical director hasbeen talking about how all the
parts blossom, so it starts fromthe lower parts going up to mid,
going up to high and everythingkind of erupts and goes into
bloom.
And you really hear it inarrangements that suddenly kind
(14:48):
of burst out of nowhere like thefirst flowers spring. [
GENERIC (15:09):
Blossom a CV - LYR] "in spite of everything that you do
wrong you still get me..."
RICHARD WALTERS (15:13):
I think there's a message in that song about
climate change and the effectthat is having on the seasons
and things blossoming.
My lyric is in spite ofeverything that you do wrong you
still get me it's decided you'repushing me to the edge, me being
blossom. [
GENERIC (15:35):
Blossom a CV - LYR]
SIMON ARMITAGE (15:40):
I am trying to reinforce the idea of kinship
with the natural world becauseultimately that's where we came
from.
We are spiritually,biologically, scientifically,
every other adverb that you canthink of connected with the
(16:02):
world around us and we need tohonour that bond.
KATE MARTIN (16:19):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the
National Trust podcast. Thisspring discover some of the best
places to see blossom in ourcare and beyond. If you'd like
to hear more of the'Blossomise’tracks Simon Armitage and LYR
have composed, or read the poemsthen please click the link in
the show notes.
There are also details to liveevents, performances and stories
(16:41):
on the National Trust website.
You’ll also find videos to thetracks made by inspiring young
film makers from across thecountry on the National Trust
YouTube channel.
To make sure you get newepisodes of this podcast please
subscribe to Apple, Spotify orwherever you get your podcasts,
until next time goodbye.
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