I’m so, so excited to announce the forthcoming release of the first video and single of The St Buryan Sessions, with premiere/watch party events on YouTube Saturday January 30 and Facebook Sunday January 31!
The St Buryan Sessions were filmed and recorded live (with no audience due to COVID-19) on 1 July 2020 in the beautiful church of St Buryan, Cornwall, parts of which date back to the 11th century. The idea was to recreate the energy, heart, soul and magic of a live performance in a quality production that would stand the test of time.
Thanks to the generosity of the 184 individuals who contributed to my crowdfunding campaign, to Canon Vanda Perrett and the St Buryan Parish Council, to the St Buryan Male Voice Choir for letting me use their lovely grand piano, to the immense skill of engineer/producer Martin Stansbury of Cacophony Cottage, filmmaker Mawgan Lewis of Purple Knif, and camera operator John Crooks, and most of all to the church itself, whose glorious natural acoustic we captured with the help of ambient microphones placed around the soaring space – I believe I’ve achieved that aim. I hope you think so, too.
Click the bell icon at https://youtu.be/0xyVXMnhkeU to set yourself a reminder to join me for the YouTube video premiere of “The Silence Above Us” on Saturday, January 30 at 8pm UK time (12 noon in LA, 1pm in Denver, 2pm in Chicago, 3pm in Philly, 9pm in Berlin, 7am the following morning in Sydney). I’ll be on hand in the chat during and after the premiere to answer questions and respond to comments, and would love to have your company and your feedback. Please share the link with your friends!
And then on Sunday, January 31 (or Monday if you’re in Aus/NZ) I’ll be hosting a similar premiere/watch party event on Facebook, with the same timings, and once again hanging out to chat with you during and after the premiere. Click on https://www.facebook.com/sarahmcquaidmusic/posts/10158036813464016 and then on “Get Reminder” to sign up for this one, too, and once again, please share!
The single will be available as a pay-what-you-want download via Bandcamp from Friday, January 29 onward – so you can have it for free, although of course I’d be very grateful for any contribution you feel able to make.
Coincidentally, the same day sees the release of the first singles from new albums by two great friends and sometime collaborators of mine: “Ogres” (which includes backing vocals from yours truly), the first single from Lawrence Illsley’s forthcoming album Trees; and “Planta Curandera”, the first single from the soon-to-be-released album Lago Ausente by the great Zoë Pollock of “Sunshine On A Rainy Day” fame, with whom I made the Mama album way back in 2009. Both Lawrence’s and Zoë’s albums will be available for pre-order via Bandcamp very soon — look out for more news of that!
I’ll be continuing to roll out singles and videos over the coming year, and hope to release The St Buryan Sessions as an album on CD and double LP, with accompanying concert film, in late summer 2021. The next single and video are set to go out the weekend of 19-21 February.
If you haven’t already done so, please subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified of future releases. Please also consider joining me on Patreon for as little as £1, $1 or €1 a month, and click here to sign up to my newsletter mailing list.
Here are a few photographs from the sessions (the first five are by Mawgan Lewis and the remaining three are by Martin Stansbury):
