After an astonishing year which saw her nominated for two BRIT Awards, shortlisted for the Mercury prize and receiving an Ivor Novello Awards nomination, Laura Mvula returns with a new orchestral recording of her Top Ten debut album, 'Sing To The Moon', thanks to Bowers & Wilkins Society of Sound.
Laura always wanted 'Sing To The Moon' to be an orchestrated recording. This was made possible, at London's legendary Abbey Road Studios, by Bowers & Wilkins Society of Sound, which enables artists to create albums that would never otherwise have been recorded and makes them available to members as studio-quality downloads. The live recording of the album fuses orchestral soul, poetic lyrics and the beautiful harmonies of Mvula together with the 52 strong orchestra.
Laura re-recorded 'Sing to the Moon' at Abbey Road with the Dutch Metropole Orkest, the largest full-time orchestra of its kind in the world, led by conductor Jules Buckley. The album was recorded over two days in Studio One using Bowers & Wilkins 800 Series Diamond speakers. Bowers & Wilkins has been the reference speaker manufacturer of choice at Abbey Road Studios since 1988. Offering the pinnacle in hi-fi loudspeaker performance, 800 Series Diamond is renowned for its total accuracy in sound reproduction and includes many of the technologies that Bowers & Wilkins engineers have worked painstakingly to perfect including Diamond Dome tweeters, Nautilus tapering tubes and Kevlar midrange drive units.
"I never imagined I would be in a position where I could have an orchestra play my music," says Laura. "It's totally overwhelming for me because it's what I imagined, but more. Like bringing something truly to life."
"It's very rare, when you add an orchestra to expand the palette of a pop album, that the material feels organic" says Jonathan Allen, the award-winning engineer who recorded the Abbey Road session for Bowers & Wilkins Society of Sound. "But, in this particular occasion, it genuinely was"
The new album contains new arrangements of all 12 tracks on the original 'Sing to the Moon' album, and will be released on Bowers & Wilkins Society of Sound on 16 June as an exclusive studio-quality download to Society of Sound members. The album will then be released commercially later this summer through RCA Victor (Sony).
Tracklisting:
1. Make Me Lovely
2. Like The Morning Dew
3. Can't Live With the World
4. Sing To The Moon
5. Is There Anybody Out There?
6. Flying Without You
7. She
8. Father, Father
9. I Don't Know What The Weather Will Be
10. Green Garden
11. Diamonds
12. That's Alright