Album: Halcyon Hymns
Artist: Downes Braide Association
2021 Cherry Red Records Ltd.
CD/DVD: DBA-CDVD-05

Geoff Downes: piano, keys, programming
Chris Braide: vocals, piano, keys, guitar, programming
Dave Bainbridge: guitars, bouzouki, mandolin, keys
Andy Hodge: bass
Ash Soan: drums
Barney Ashton-Bullock: narration
Marc Almond: vocals (6)
Tim Weller: drums (9), percussion (4)
Joe Catcheside: narration (7), backing vocals (1)
David Longdon: harmony (2)
Elijah Braide: backing vocals (1, 4)
Sascha Braide: backing vocals (1, 4)

Produced by Downes/Braide
Recorded & mixed at Magical Thinking Studios, Los Angeles, Mar-Aug 2020
Mastered by Jason Mitchell
Painting and lettering by Roger Dean
Computer work: Michael Inns/Jill Aberdour
Photography: Will Ireland/Gottlieb Bros/Olivia Braide/Maria Lundy-Hodge/Sophocles Alexiou/Paul Johnson
Management: Martin Darvill at QEDG Management
Project management: Maria Lundy, assisted by Valentina Pianezzi/Samrah Ashworth/Sophie Tucker/Ellie Schwartz

Roger Dean live painting sessions:
Produced by Freyja Dean
Interviewing and camera by Christabel Clark
Technical support: Huw Shields
Graphics and computer work: Inns
Edited by Marketplace Media services

Lyric videos:
Directed by Paolo Marchetti (A), Jamie Scott-Smith (B, C)
Edited by Marketplace Media services (A)



Tracks:
LP 1, side A:
1. "Love Among the Ruins" [Downes/Braide] (6:24)
2. "King of the Sunset" [Downes/Braide] (6:37)
3. "Your Heart will Find the Way" [Downes/Braide] (5:19)

LP 1, side B:
4. "Holding the Heavens" [Downes/Braide] (7:53)
5. "Beachcombers" [Downes/Braide] (3:30)
6. "Warm Summer Sun" [Downes/Braide; second verse lyric by Almond] (4:33)

LP 2, side A:
7. "Today" [Downes/Braide] (6:58)
8. "Hymn to Darkness" [Downes/Braide] (2:58)
9. "She'll be Riding Horses" [Downes/Braide] (4:35)

LP 2, side B:
10. "Late Summer" [Downes/Braide] (2:24)
11. "Remembrance" [Downes/Braide] (11:43)
12. "Epilogue" [Downes/Braide] (0:37)

Narration written by Ashton-Bullock


DVD:
Roger Dean live painting sessions
Promotional lyric videos:
A. "Love Among the Ruins"
B. "Your Heart will Find the Way"
C. "Today"


Notes (*****): The album came out 5 Feb 2021 as a CD/DVD (DBACDVD005) or digitally, and then later as a limited edition 2LP white vinyl (DBALP005). Dave Colquhoun who played on the previous DBA albums was busy working on Rick Wakeman's The Red Planet, thus Downes recruited Bainbridge. Lee Pomeroy, who played on prior DBA material, was also on The Red Planet. The DBA musicians recorded their parts seperately during the pandemic. Elijah and Sascha Braide are Chris's children. Almond and Longdon both guested on DBA's previous studio album. Roger Dean live-streamed his painting of the cover artwork, which was then used on the accompanying DVD. The songs are intended to reflect a bucolic, halcyon summer. The album is organised around its 4 LP sides.

Braide was the main lyricist. In Dec 2020 comments, Braide explained how, as the pandemic struck: "Marc Almond suggested I 'get stuck into another DBA record' to lift the malaise[.] Somehow [i]t was hard to muster any enthusiasm for it. We had all been so upbeat at the recent [live] shows and now here we were in a collective, creative void. [...] I opened up a folder of new DBA ideas Geoff had sent to me a while back and which I'd listened to briefly [...] I can't say why it happened but one day in the studio as I listened to the bits and pieces of ideas suddenly the songs started tumbling out as if by magic. I'm not exaggerating [...] These new songs sounded like personal reflections, they just wrote themselves." Downes commented, "It was so great to witness Chris's creativity making my fundamental ideas come alive. He took the bare bones of melodies, harmonies and textures I sent him, and somehow crafted these into something way beyond my expectations or imagination." Downes had sent his initial ideas towards the end of 2019, he said in Better Way of Life Jan 2021 interview. In another Jan 2021 interview, Braide said, "with the virtual shutdown of the industry and tours being cancelled etc. it was very much a case of 'right what can I do now then?'. This album came out of that period, Geoff had sent me some ideas and I got to work on them. I chose to look at the world as it was when I was younger, the endless summer days, cycling around everywhere, pure rose tinted nostalgia for a world that had been but suddenly was not available to us now." Although Downes said in another Jan 2021 interview that the album would probably have been made and in a similar way without the pandemic. He also described how he talked to Braide about wanting to draw more on classical and English church music influences, and the album as "more acoustic". In the former Jan 2021 interview, Downes said of the album, "I think it's [...] got quite a lot of influences. It's got classical undertones [...] there's a lot of pathos in the album. There's optimism in a lot of the titles [...] even though there's an air of nostalgia [...] there's a lot of depth of influence from, say, English church music [...] and the classical music I was trained at music college for [...] It's progressive pop, for want of a better term". In a Feb 2021 interview, Braide talked about the album having specifically northern English roots, not just English roots.

On 26 Jun 2020, DBA tweeted that they were working on their fourth studio album, Hodge tweeted the same day in response, "DBA 4th album is being recorded right now". Ashton-Bullock replied the next day, "Some of lockdown has been spent shaping poetic verse & dramatic speeches for our all new @TheRealDBAMusic album [...] A fusion of pop, prog & poetry." In an Oct 2020 interview, Downes said the album is "pretty well finished now". In a Nov 2019 interview, asked about a new studio album, Downes had said, "Yes, although we mainly work remotely as Chris is in LA and I'm in sunny Wales, but we will be working on ideas and putting something new together before too long I hope." In another Nov 2019 interview, Downes had said, "We're talking about it [...] It's really down to scheduling [...] I imagine [...] over the next year or two, there should be another collaboration in the works." Braide said of "Your Heart will Find the Way" that it "has an almost Yes like quality [...] It's also a great example of how Geoff and I will sometimes write. Geoff sent me the verse chord progression and the riff and then I added the chorus chord progression and the melody just fell out on top of those two elements. The brooding verse and majestic riff coupled with the uplift of the chorus dictated the lyric which is about listening to your inner voice and trusting your gut instinct to navigate you out of adversity…It's a positive self-affirmation of a song." Downes said of it, "It has become something of a feature of mine and Chris's songwriting where the verse (in the minor key) sets the mood of the piece only to climax into an upbeat chorus (in the major)."

The album made #23 in the UK Indie album chart and #7 in the Indie album Breakers chart for artists who have not yet made the full top 40 (12 Feb). It was #83 on the physical sales chart and #84 on the sales chart, but did weaker on streaming, thus not making the overall top 100 in the UK, although it did make #96 in Scotland. (HP, 29 Jan 2024)
Return to Home Page