Tiles: Blackfriars

As we worked on the Spaces Project, George shared his vision for Blackfriars. He imagined monks working hard in the Scriptorium, scratching on velum with ink and feathers. It reminded me of a story my Dad told me as a child – of a 9th century monk working hard but stopping to write a poem, an ode to his cat Pangur Ban, in the margins of his manuscript. The finished track is full of beautiful imagery ( and is one of my favourites on the album) and I loved working on this tile. Like the Aethelflaed tile before, this one evolved into a full painting, a section of which appears as the tile on the album cover.

I loved wandering around behind the scenes and soaking up the atmosphere as the tracks were recorded. Blackfriars looked beautiful that evening with its high ceilings and fairy lights. At home I played the track on repeat and the words, “Through corridors of stained glass light…”, echoed through my work. The stained glass blocks in the painting reference books in a library. The manuscript the monk is working on contains the actual Pangur Ban poem and the top corners have rubbings from Blackfriar's stonework. Around the top are words from a translation of the original poem, "so in peace our tasks we ply... turning darkness into light”.

Alternatives: The original, from it’s first outline and then focusing in on Pangur Ban.