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Royal Marine to Release Debut Choral Album at Portsmouth Cathedral


After months of work, Royal Marine musician and composer James Dunlop will officially launch his debut choral album, Ascension, with a free concert at Portsmouth Cathedral on Monday November 30th.

The Ascension album is an independent collaboration between young composer James Dunlop and the Portsmouth Cathedral Choir. This 18 month project is the debut album of 26 year old composer James Dunlop and has been funded by the Arts Council England and a crowd funding campaign.

It features 12 tracks of new contemporary choral music composed by James Dunlop and consists of A Cappella works, whilst also featuring the Northumbrian Smallpipe performer, Alice Burn, finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards, as a soloist with the choir. It features works set to religious text as well as modern contemporary pieces of a melodic, thematic nature.

This is James Dunlop’s debut album and a big leap in his musical career; it shows an extraordinary journey with director Dr David Price and the Portsmouth Cathedral Choir and brings new, fresh works to the genre, as well as a new composer’s voice.

Work on the album has been ongoing for the last 18 months and looks set to be a welcomed addition to choral repertoire. Ascension features a broad range of different styles; from commissioned remembrance works, to a Gregorian chant; a new work based on the Big Ben chimes and an experimental ceilidh dance reel with Northumbrian Smallpipes and choir.

It was recorded on location at Portsmouth Cathedral, Hampshire, UK by Sony and Decca utilised sound engineer Andy Deacon with post production by the award winning Badshot Farm Studios, and is a new, modern collection of works to continue and promote the catalogue of choral music.

Ascension is to be released digitally with all major digital music stores and streaming services, on high definition digital music stores, and physically in two versions, a standard jewel case edition and a hard casebound book limited edition.

The Ascension album will launch with a concert in Portsmouth Cathedral on the evening of the launch day, Monday 30th November. Doors open at 7pm for a 7:30pm start and is free to attend. The evening supports the Royal Marines Charitable Trust Fund, The Roberts Centre and Portsmouth Cathedral.

As part of the album launch, all of the sheet music from the album will be released for free at www.riverwoodair.com for one week commencing Monday 30th November.

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