A great deal has happened since our ex-Threshold
and ex-Landmarq singer became one of the main characters in the succesful Les
Misérables cast. Not only does he see himself as the singer in Rick
Wakeman’s New English Rock Ensemble, as a guest singer on many Ayreon albums
including the Star One project, our good friend Damian also became aware how
important family values are. Something he surely didn’t have when he was a
kid. It’s that scar which makes up all of the new, mainly acoustic album
“Disciple”, which differs a great deal from his previous solo output
“Cosmas”. Backbone for the entire album is the final John
Lennon composition ever ‘Grow old with me’ which contains lush symphonic
arrangements courtesy of the City of Sheffield Youth Orchestra and recorded at
the world famous Abbey Road studios. No doubt the budget didn’t stretch far
enough to record all of the material there so half of the songs don’t even
contain the orchestra and settle for a minimalistic acoustic arrangement. Some
of them even come close to the ‘busking’ treatment. Of course this results
in a very intimate album where next to the rather personal statements,
Damian’s voice becomes the main instrument. Take the opening titletrack
where real strings and oboe fortify the message of the song leaving enough
room for the voice to sound very clear and perfectly understandable. That
‘clear’ element will be an important feature throughout this rather short
album such as all of the percussion during ‘Brightest way’ which comes
forward in the mix ever so detailed. Approaching the music from a pure
acoustic side often means adding authentic elements to the music which
sometimes results in a folky atmosphere. Take ‘Heavenly mine’ as a prime
example when violin does indeed introduce a pastoral feel. We said that ‘Disciple’ is a very important
and personal album for Damian dedicated to both his sons who not only
delivered some colourful drawings for ‘daddy’ but can also be heard on
‘Beating inside’ which once again contains some very tasteful violin. The
way in which he sings ‘What a man can dream’ slightly makes me think of
someone like Ralph McTell who also was someone who was more like telling a
story as opposed to really sing. The piano and background vocals in
‘Adam’s child’ slightly makes me think of the solo parts by Andrew
McCrorie-Shand on the Druid albums resulting in very ‘fragile’ music. But
then the time has come to sit back and enjoy the main reason for this album :
John Lennon’s ‘Grow old with me’ recorded at the Abbey Road Studios
together with Alex Sharpe with whom Damian sang during his stint with Les Misérables.
The result is indeed breathtaking what with the full bodied sound of the
orchestra adding power to the words. It hasn’t become the kind of
arrangement one would immediately associate with weddings though but it
certainly is a tribute to the unlimited talent of the late John Lennon. Strangely enough there are two versions of
“Disciple” the first being the jewel case version I have in my collection
which doesn’t even mention ‘Grow old with me’ as a song as only ten
songs have been numbered whilst there are eleven songs on the disc. The second
edition concerns a double digipack version which puts the ten ‘other’
songs onto one disc and then puts ‘Grow old with me’ as the first track on
the second disc together with four extra tracks. Not really a good marketing
technique if you ask me but then again whom am I to judge someone’s artistic
output ?
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