Composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer DAVE BAINBRIDGE talks us through the tracks on his new album 'Celestial Fire'
![Dave Bainbridge](http://d33hbnubgyqeqm.cloudfront.net/article_images/thumb_12411.jpg)
"Heavenfield"
Heavenfield is a place in one of
the counties I love the most in England - Northumberland (or
Northumbria) - somewhere I visit every year with my family. It was the
scene of a decisive battle in AD 635, which, against fierce invaders
and incredible odds, established Oswald as king of Northumbria. One of
Oswald's first acts was to invite the monks of Iona to set up a
monastery in the Kingdom. This they did at Lindisfarne or Holy Island,
under the guidance of Saint Aidan, and from there the good news of the
Gospel spread throughout the whole nation. What I think is
significant, and indeed relevant in a contemporary context about this
battle is that it was perceived not only as a battle against fierce
invaders, but that Oswald recognised that there was a spiritual
dimension to the battle. Had the invaders won, it may well be that the
whole course of British history may have been different. Christianity
may well have been stamped out before it had really been established.
I see contemporary parallels with the rise of Islamic Extremist groups such as Islamic State, whose goal is to establish a "caliphate" throughout the world by means of extreme violence and eradicate Christianity and all other of the world's belief systems, including those of Muslims who don't adhere to their interpretation of Islam. I think St Paul's words from the 1st century AD are so relevant today: "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." St Paul - 1st Century AD
Musically this wouldn't have been out of place on an Iona album, with Troy's fantastic, soaring uilleann pipes - it's even slightly reminiscent of the opening piece which I wrote on Iona's debut album. I wanted the piece to sound timeless and ancient, so I had Sally singing open 5ths to add to the stark feel. This melody re-occurs several times throughout the album.
"Celestial Fire"
The lyrics for the title track
are in part based on the beautiful passage in CS Lewis' book The
Magician's Nephew, where Aslan sings creation into being. I thought
that was an amazing image. Then I thought about how the sun is
responsible for sustaining life on earth and that our lives are
intrinsically linked with this huge ball of fire in the heavens. Then
I thought about the characteristics attributed to God in the Bible
(who, in the Old Testament appears as a pillar of fire) and how
infinitely powerful he must be, yet also so passionate about his
creation. There are a lot of ways in which things can be described
with reference to fire: burning passion, all consuming, intense,
purifying, etc, so I used some of these ideas in the lyrics for the
piece. Musically I want this piece to start with a blast of energy and
I used the short descending theme throughout the piece in different
forms (ie, later on it comes back as a slow theme over ½ time drum
phrasing).
"See What I See"
I think the lyrics to this are
fairly self-explanatory. On a human level it could be taken as the
conversation between a pessimist and an optimist. But actually I was
trying to contrast how the same circumstances could perhaps be viewed
so differently from a heavenly perspective than from an earthly one.
Sometimes when we're in a difficult situation we're so close to it
that can't see a way out, but looking from a different angle the same
situation can be seen as an opportunity rather than as a negative.
![Dave Bainbridge: A song-by-song run through of his 'Celestial Fire' album](http://d33hbnubgyqeqm.cloudfront.net/article_images/thumb_12412.jpg)
"The First Autumn"
This track and the track
"Innocence Found" are linked by the same story, which I heard from a
lady called Margaret Barker who is a respected Methodist theologian,
when I was the composer/musician in residence for a St Paul's
Cathedral retreat a few years ago. A story widely told in the oriental
church was that when Adam and Eve rejected Wisdom and so lost
Paradise, angels gave Adam three treasures to remember Eden; gold,
frankincense and myrrh. So when the wise men brought these gifts to
Jesus, it was symbolic of the restoration of all that had been lost.
So in essence these two songs are songs of hope and restoration. I
then had the thought of what it might be like if Adam and Eve had
experienced the first autumn after leaving paradise. I imagined the
confusion and alarm at seeing the leaves dying around them, the air
becoming colder. And yet in this season of change there was already
the promise of the hope and restoration that was to come. I was up in
Seahouses in Northumberland on holiday with the family in 2010 when I
recorded the original demos of both of these songs (I had my guitar
and laptop with me!). At the time I didn't know whether they would be
instrumental pieces or turn into vocal songs.
"For Such A Time As This"
This was one of the
first pieces to really take shape for the album and the arrangement
was more or less completed towards the end of 2012. I was really
pleased with the guitar solo on this track. Quite often I come up with
chord sequences or time signatures for guitar solo sections that are
quite complicated, but on this track I wanted a straightforward
sequence that I could just blast over without having to think about
what comes next! I think I should do this more often!
"Innocence Found"
The lyrics in this song are
more directly related to the story I mentioned above in the notes for
"The First Autumn". I play a number of different instruments on this,
including bouzouki, mandolin, acoustic and electric guitars, piano,
keyboards and all the percussive elements. Julia Malyasova does the
main vocal and her deep, emotional voice is perfect for this kind of
storytelling song. Sally Minnear does the end vocal lead. I really
like the middle section build up on this track. I was after the sound
of a Salvation Army brass band and even considered approaching a local
band to record them for this section, but in the end my great friend
David Fitzgerald multi-layered alto, tenor and baritone saxophones and
I added some brass instrument samples and we got a similar effect.
"Love Remains"
This piece started out with the
opening piano idea, based on the arpeggio figure which I came up with
back in 2007. I couldn't see how this would work in the context of
Iona, but I enjoyed playing it. After a lot of work I came up with
various variations on the arpeggio idea using different harmonies and
began to think of it as a recurring theme that could form the basis of
a longer piece which would also include vocal sections. The whole
thing began to solidify when the idea came to me to base the lyrics on
the beautiful passage in 1 Corinthians 13 about love. For example I
used the line "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but
do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal"
fairly literally in the passage with Joanne Hoggs's otherworldly
vocals - you can hear gongs and cymbals in the background! This is one
of my favourite pieces on the album. I just love Collin and Randy's
drum and bass playing on this track, which is so good it always makes
me smile! Damian's vocals are also stellar.
"In The Moment"
The six note phrase that is the
basis of the big instrumental theme in this track was written during
some sessions in 2008 for a possible album I was planning with a new
band called Open Sky, with Gabriel and Andrea Alonso, Andy Green and
later Steve Lawson (Iona was having a year off at Jo's request). We
spent several days recording ideas at The Chairworks Studio in
Castleford, West Yorkshire, but the record label we'd had talks with
pulled out of funding it, so nothing was ever finished. However, we
recorded some great ideas and this fragment of melody was one of them.
It was originally recorded by Andrea as a layered vocal piece (you can
hear some of those vocals in a couple of places on the track) and also
as a flute piece, also played by Andrea.
![Dave Bainbridge: A song-by-song run through of his 'Celestial Fire' album](http://d33hbnubgyqeqm.cloudfront.net/article_images/thumb_12413.jpg)
One of the things I wanted to include on the album was at least one steaming rock organ solo, in memory of the great Jon Lord whose playing I loved! I came up with a riff that turned out to be in 15/16 time which was great to build and solo over. It really takes off on this track with Collin and Randy's superb playing and Sally's soaring vocal doubling the guitar melody - another of my favourite moments on the album.
The lyrics for this piece were inspired by some amazing events that took place in the USA in 1997/98 which were directly inspired by the track "Reels"' from the Iona album 'Heaven's Bright Sun'. Briefly, the young people of a small Christian youth group during a prayer meeting suddenly felt the presence of angels in their midst as they were dancing to "Reels". They felt the wind of their wings dancing around them, even though it was a small room with no air conditioning in it. This continued for several weeks and spread across churches in several neighbouring states, triggering what you might call a sort of revival as hundreds of young people just enjoyed God's presence and the angelic visitations!
"Heavenfield Reprise"
I had the idea of using
the opening melody from "Heavenfield" in several places throughout the
album. This short snatch of the melody over Frank's beautiful,
shimmering strings is actually just the last part of what was a longer
piece of improvised guitar over a string accompaniment. I cut it down
because the album was already very long and also I needed to record
some additional live celli to really complete the piece. I'll
definitely release the longer version at some point.
"On The Edge Of Glory"
I originally wrote this
as a possible piece for Iona's 'Another Realm' album and Martin
(uilleann pipes/whistle) and I recorded it in February 2009 in
Northern Ireland at Joanne's place. It wasn't used on the Iona album,
but I really liked the melody and thought it would make a great ending
piece for 'Celestial Fire'. The Ireland recording had the basic melody
on pipes and whistle and just a keyboard pad. All the other parts
(autoharp, guitar, pipe organ, vocal layers, Randy's Taurus pedals,
Gabriel's orchestral percussion and David's additional whistle part)
were added during the main 'Celestial Fire' sessions, to create the
grand, more orchestral repeat of the melody.
The title came later as well and is inspired by David Adam's book The
Edge Of Glory. "To walk the edge of glory and see for oneself the ever
abiding presence, that never leaves us or forsakes us."
thanks to Dave for providing this song by song commentary of his excellent album. I consider it, by far, to be possibly the best music I have heard in my lifetime.