AWARD-WINNING COMPOSER SARAH CLASS TO RELEASE DEBUT ALBUM
Release date: 2nd October 2015
Label: Glorious Technicolour Records
Format: CD & Download
Cat # GTR002
DEBUT ALBUM FROM AWARD-WINNING COMPOSER SARAH CLASS
The award-winning composer Sarah Class will release her debut album ‘Unity’ on 2nd October 2015 on Glorious Technicolour Records.
Unity took Sarah five years to complete, as her busy schedule as a composer meant she could only focus on writing the album’s fifteen tracks between commissions. However, when it came to the recording sessions everything fell into place shortly after Sarah was introduced to Grammy award-winning producer Jay Newland (Norah Jones, Gregory Porter). Sarah said, “I met Jay in New York, armed with my guitar and a bunch of songs, which he asked to hear. When I found out he wanted to work with me I don’t think I could have been more excited. I eventually recorded the majority album with Jay at Carriage House Studios in Connecticut.”
Isle of Wight-born Sarah’s first foray into the world of popular music is the latest chapter in a career which began shortly after leaving Chichester University with a BA (Hons) Degree in Music with Related Arts, when she was asked to compose the score for an independent feature film titled ‘The Weekend’. This brought Sarah to the attention of legendary producer Sir George Martin, who took her under the wing of George Martin Music to guide her career.
In 2001 Sarah composed and produced the highly acclaimed album ‘Aurora’ with the award-winning all-girls choir Cantamus, which spent several months in the UK Classical Chart and saw Sarah nominated for a Classical Brit Award. Sarah also wrote two songs for and arranged the 2003 #1 album ‘Pure’ with Hayley Westenra, before writing the music for the BBC/Harvey Weinstein production of ‘The Meerkats’ (a popular feature film which won ‘Best Score’ at the 2009 Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival), and compositions for the BBC series ‘Madagascar’, which received an Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Contribution to Music & Sound.
More television commissions followed, and in 2012 the BBC/Discovery commissioned Sarah to compose and produce the music for the nature documentary series ‘Africa’, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, which was also nominated at the 2014 Emmy Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Music & Sound.
Despite Sarah’s classical training she only learnt to sing and play guitar in 2007. Sarah said, “It was a huge step for me, but I want to reach out and connect directly as an artist and songwriter in my own right, so I had to do it.”
Sarah released a seven-track EP in 2010 called A New Dawn, but wasn’t entirely happy with the release. Sarah said, “I decided to withdraw some of the EP’s songs in order to continue working on the best of those tracks, including my album’s first single ‘Northern Shore’, which is quite a departure from its early inception. It took a long time but I’m happy it happened this way.”
A keen surfer, Sarah says Northern Shore is about surrendering to a greater power. “Being in or by an ocean is spiritual experience for many people. The song’s chorus of Hawaiian voices evokes in me a dream-like vision of being in the curl of a thunderous wave. The line “cathedral green of a northern shore” sums it up. Live in the moment, ride the wave you’re on.”
Another song from the album, ‘I Wish’, will appear in the Terramater film Brothers of the Wind, starring Jean Reno. Sarah also wrote the score for the film, which is due for release this Christmas. Sarah said, "I’d written another track especially for the film, but the director, Gerado Olivares, fell in love with I Wish when I played him my album. Gerado initially wanted this to go over the film’s key sequence, but in the end I used it as the main theme of the film and developed it orchestrally throughout until the end credits, when you finally hear the full song.”
Looking forward to the release of Unity, Sarah said, “I’m so happy to finally release these songs into the world. The album is essentially about love in all its many forms, with each song like mini anthems to the stages of my life - reflection of the steps we all take during the evolutionary process of being.”
Track listing:
- NORTHERN SHORE
- MAKE ME FREE (Remix)
- WHY MY SWEETEST DARLING
- UNITY
- YOUR PARADISE
- THERE IS A WAY
- SUITS YOU FINE
- I WISH
- A NEW DAWN
- I WANNA SLEEP
- DARKNESS IN MY HEART
- FIRE AND RAIN
- HALFWAY TO HEAVEN
- TOO FOLK FOR POP
- THIS LOVE
http://www.sarahclass.com / www.facebook.com/sarahclass / @sarahclass
A TRACK-BY-TRACK GUIDE TO ‘UNITY’, BY SARAH CLASS
- Northern Shore
I’d just learned to surf in El Segundo Beach in California and I was so excited about it that I fantasised about being a big wave surfer, living in Oahu and travelling the world. Only in my dreams and in this song!! But it’s about forgetting all your worries and living fully in the moment. - Make Me Free
This song is about feeling trapped, insomnia and fatigue and nighttime fears which grow out of proportion. BUT all through this is the small, still voice of calm telling you there is hope and a way out of the darkness. - Why My Sweetest Darling
This was written after a particularly tough relationship breakup. It’s about needing time alone, hating every minute of it, the heartache of loss. It documents one of the most turbulent years of my life. - Unity
I think there is a universal soul like a unified force of energy which connects every cell of our body, every plant, rock, grain of sand and molecule of water and earth. We are not all islands and without connection, as sometimes we may feel. I truly believe we are one magnificent being. - Your Paradise
This is another song about surfing. Ironically, I wrote it in Malta – a place that has absolutely no surf! The song is a metaphor for living life fully and giving it all you’ve got. Life is so short, so let’s go for it! - There is a Way
Three years ago I started to practice Transcendental Meditation. It has changed my life. There Is A Way is about what happens when you finally release thoughts and internal dialogue from your head. Without drugs, therapy or cognitive reasoning, I feel only meditation can truly manifest connecting to your true self and the transformative state of peace. - Suits You Fine
This is a song which celebrates our differences as individuals. It’s about ‘live and let live’ at political, religious, and humanitarian levels and close relationships. It’s about following your own path and being true to yourself. - I Wish
I have every reason to believe in the existence of angels. The song is a call to these beings of light for an escape to another world free of pain and suffering, a place more vivid and alive than our senses would ever let on in this one. - A New Dawn
It was a poem before it became a song. It was inspired by the story of a couple I knew who had to separate. It’s about overcoming loss, bereavement, breakups, arranged marriages, separation through immigration laws and moving on to a positive new life and happier times. - I Wanna Sleep
Through my interest in nature and the environment I became an ambassador with the amazing World Land Trust, which has saved over 400,000 acres of endangered habitat around the world in the last twenty years. This song is about the devastation of our planet, and that it’s not too late for us to do something about it. - Darkness in My Heart
I wrote this song in LA when I was too unwell to fly home. I had a virus which didn’t allow me out of bed for over four months. Homesick and desperately low, it was a very bleak time. I have never performed this song but it remains, ironically, one of my favourites. - Fire and Rain
I love James Taylor and I feel this song is the epitome of great song writing, so I wanted to cover it. What more can I say? I wish I’d hung out in Laurel Canyon with Joni Mitchell and James Taylor in those rose tinted days in the Californian sunshine writing great songs! - Halfway to Heaven
This anthemic song has a positive theme about not giving up, having faith and giving life everything to overcome pain, loneliness and sadness. This is my ‘lighters in the air’ song. - Too Folk for Pop
This song is about not exactly knowing, when asked, how to describe my music’s genre. I’ve always felt my songs fall between the genres, so I like to think my music is a stylistic melting pot. - This Love
Love has many different forms but this is about esoteric love, an inherent unconditional love existing for itself, which runs through us like a constant river. We have the power to let it flow or block its course. It’s up to us.
For further information please contact Dave Clarke at:
Tel:+44 (0) 7966 557774 or E-Mail: dave@planetearthpublicity.com
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