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Blake – Beautiful Night

• 17th Jan 2013

Blake return with their fourth studio album, a beautiful collection of contemporary harmony pop featuring stunning original songs and a few carefully selected covers. Having formed in 2007, recording and performing as a classical group, this is Blake’s first pop album and sees them embracing the challenge.

The change in musical direction is in fact a natural progression for Blake – Stephen Bowman, Ollie Baines, Jules Knight and Humphrey Berney. Inspired by great vocalists such as the Bee Gees, Boyz II Men and The Beach Boys, and having toured almost continually since 2009’s ‘Together’ (their third album), Blake’s live set list has expanded to include more and more contemporary material. The group discovered that the strength of their vocal arrangements and four part harmonies allowed them to interpret a widening range of songs and the reaction from their audiences reinforced their belief that they were creating something special.

“At the heart of Blake is our love of the sound of four voices singing together in harmony, regardless of musical genre. I think it’s always had a timeless quality that’s pleasing to the ear, comforting, emotive, and with the ability to take the listener from ‘melancholic’ to ‘uplifted’ within a beat” explains Jules.

Knowing that the choice of songs would form the DNA of the record Blake cast their net wide, contacting songwriters from around the world and, as Stephen explains, they “were overwhelmed by the songs that were being written for us by such incredible writers. The tone was set when we heard four songs by Diane Warren who has been responsible for so many different hits.” In addition to the ten originals on the record, Blake have chosen to cover four well known songs – Amazed by Lone Star, Desperado by The Eagles, To Make You Feel My Love by Bob Dylan (and recently performed by Adele) and Beautiful Night, perhaps the least well known of the four songs, by Paul McCartney.

Initially recording with US producers Mark Swersky and Steve Greenwell at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, Blake then teamed up with Andrew Powell (responsible for many number one hits including Wuthering Heights), Nick Patrick (who produced Blake’s first and third albums) and Tim Ross. The final two tracks for the album, produced by Simon May, are I’m Drowning and All Of Me – which was previously released as a single to commemorate the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and has been a hit in both China and the Philippines where Blake have been on tour during the last year.

The resulting album is a record that the group are justifiably proud of and one that will both delight their current fans and introduce their unique sound to many more music lovers. “So here we are with a new sound, a contemporary feel and a lot of totally original music written and arranged for and by Blake. We remain indebted to our wonderful fans, who travel great distances to see us in many parts of the globe; some old, some very new. We want them to enjoy this music as much as we enjoyed making it, and continue to enjoy singing it.” says Ollie.

The final sign off goes to Humphrey “making this album has been a brilliant and challenging experience. It has brought four great friends even closer.”