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.
