Today on Christmas Eve we share Shards' new single, Amen, amen, amen….

The song follows this summer’s release – Facta est deserta – taken from fragments by English Renaissance composer William Byrd.

“I’ve been enjoying zooming in on fragments of William Byrd’s music, dissecting the counterpoint and playing around with melodies and cadences.

In ‘Amen, amen, amen…’ I took the end of a piece he wrote for Queen Elizabeth I and built it up layer by layer, from the bass part upwards, to show the listener how they all fit together to create a beautiful whole. I slowed the voices down, lowering the pitch and stretching them out as they repeat again and again, dissolving into nothingness.

When I was a music student my friends and I used to joke about making album out of our favourite choral ‘Amen’s. We all agreed this would be Side A, Track 1.” — Kieran Brunt

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