Stornoway have shared a festive bauble with fans.
Out now, new song ‘Excelsior’ taps into the emerging excitement of Advent, a song about connection. Mixed by Mike Lindsay, the track boasts a gorgeous vocal arrangement from the Gwalia Male Voice Choir.
Brian Briggs leads the way, the pure choirboy inflections of his vocal conjuring images of frosted churchyards and trees fringed with snow.
He says…
“At this time of year many of us connect with our families and our communities. ‘Excelsior’ is a song about losing something powerful that we thought was a constant in our lives. A mighty Ash tree, Fraxinus excelsior, lies fallen in the frost having succumbed to Ash Dieback, a symbol of the fragility of our natural environment. As we retreat indoors to celebrate the festive season, ‘Excelsior’ is a reminder that we need to stay connected to nature and to each other at Christmas, because to lose that connection is to stop caring.”
Bassist Oli Steadman adds…
“‘Excelsior’ was the first new song I’d heard from Brian and Jon, played solo at a friend’s Christmas party in 2021. I immediately fell in love with the chords and the chorus line, ‘You’re more than silence lost.’ The other unforgettable thing about this moment was that our friend Tom Hodgson was playing trumpet in the style that he’d learned many years ago as part of a traditional brass band in the north-east of England, something between a Salvation Army band at Christmas, and a lone bugle player performing ‘The Last Post’.”
Tune in now.
Stornoway released their new album ‘Dig The Mountain’ earlier this year – check out a full interview with the band in the Clash archive.
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