Songs of Light and Love is the new album of sacred songs from David Clifton. It can be found on all digital music streaming platforms. A limited edition Vinyl version, specially mastered by Steve Kitch is released on November 19th and is available for pre-order from the Little Room Store. CD’s with a lyric insert are available from the Little Room Store. No cassettes ….yet!

This is a recording for personal devotion and reflection, with songs also written for singing in church gatherings. It was recorded and produced in Knoxville, Tennessee, mastered in Nashville, and written mostly in Knoxville and London. Two songs were written in France with good friend Andy Piercy; ‘A New Jerusalem’, and ‘One Body, One Spirit, One Hope’. Grateful thanks to Tom Wright for reading the Biblical text so beautifully on ‘One Body..’.

Titles 11 and 12 were commissioned by Professor Michelle Brown for the launch of her book ‘Bede and the Theory of Everything.’  The song ‘Guardian of Heaven’ is a musical setting of Cædmon’s poem, the Hymn of Creation. It is thought the venerated monk, Cædmon, wrote this sometime between 658AD and 680AD; it was written down by Bede and is notable for being the first poem recorded in the English language.

The subject of the second song is somewhat more serious. In David’s description for Michelle’s book launch, he wrote ‘I hope I have reflected some of the joy inherent in Bede’s poetic theme. According to Cuthbert, his pupil and assistant, Bede composed this five-line vernacular poem, known to modern scholars as Bede’s Death Song, just before he died in May 735AD. There are often moments of great clarity (terminal lucidity) just prior to death, sometimes described as ‘Sunset Episodes’, hence my inclusion of the phrase ‘sunset song’. I quote from Cuthbert’s letter regarding Bede’s death, because I believe it confirms an authenticity which some scholars have questioned’.

“And he (Bede) used to repeat the sentence from St Paul ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’ – and he repeated many other verses of Scripture – urging us thereby to awake from the slumber of the soul, by thinking in good time of our last hour and our soul’s (dread) departure from the body.”

We hope you enjoy this new release from Little Room Recordings.

Album Credits