Big project update

31 May 2022

I last wrote about my upcoming Christmas harp CD release in March whilst I was busy preparing and learning all the carols that I had arranged. Practise continued over the following weeks along with blisters, sore necks and expensive harp services and new strings in preparation for the actual recording!

Recording day finally arrived on 23 May where I was booked to play at the Musical Museum in Brentford. It is a fantastic small museum well worth a visit, with spectacular Wurlitzer organs, old gramophones and even the original EMI dog on display!

There is a theatre in the museum which is where I was recording - a really lovely space with great acoustics for the harp. Two long days were spent playing, replaying, and yet more replaying for each Christmas carol, trying to ensure that there was the perfect take for each bit. This kind of playing is exhausting as it is hard to keep the musical energy going when you are playing the same few bars multiple times, and silly mistakes inevitably start to creep in.

I am releasing the CD with the MPR label, run by Mike Purton. Mike was fantasically calm on the day and, along with his sound engineer, Tony, made everything as relaxed as it could be.

I've just made my way through the first edit - always a laborious process and a struggle not to get fixated on the bits that one can't change - and I'm excited to hear how everything sounds when Mike sends me the revised version!

The photo in this blog entry was taken just after I'd finished recording the final carol - tired but happy!