Andrew and I were delighted to receive this email from Robert Mayer who has managed to identify a real range of influences in English Sun.  Thank you Robert!  Did anyone else find any other influences in the album?
Dear David and Andrew,
I hope you will please forgive this intrusion, but I finally remembered to purchase English Sun, and wanted to take the time to thank you for your album -- although album is such a meager word for what I'm encountering. When I enjoy any album, I usually find myself connected to it either emotionally or intellectually, but rarely both. However,  that's what I find with English Sun. For example,  "Half-Light" and "High Scree" are helping me get going today, while "Dido" and "Lamentoso" help me relax at night.
I'm still fighting off the urge to note occasional influences/sensations/slight tastes/hints (I'm struggling for the right word) of Purcell, Albinoni, Britten, and Vaughn-Williams (sigh -- I think I found/sensed Mahler and King Crimson this morning), but that's not to say this is a knock-off of those artists. This is both a provocative and original music. Thank you again so much for taking the time to collaborate. I know I've intruded enough here already, but may I ask which poetry -- in addition to Sinfield's -- served as inspiration pieces? You mentioned the images of the Lake District, which makes me think of  Wordsworth.
Thank You Again,
Robert A. Mayer
Burley, Idaho, USA

Here is another perceptive and interesting review of English Sun written by Alison Prince (The Arran Voice).

“In these improvisations, silence is a third partner to the two instruments, contributing its own significance to the woven threads of sound. Perhaps because of this recognition of the nature of emptiness, every musical sound that shapes and limits it comes with the sensitivity of a pencil line on white paper. The interweaving of these very varied musical lines often builds into a complex pattern, but always with a tacitly realised emotional expression that makes each track distinct and individual. Cross’s electric violin produces a broad range of sound, from the lyrical to the almost percussive, acting as a touchstone to Keeling’s clear and mysterious flute. The result is a recording to dream to. Andrew Keeling’s grandson Liam was born at the point when the newly mastered tracks were arriving, and any fretfulness on the baby’s part was instantly calmed by the music. Noisy Records Ltd produced this wonderful CD, but their name in this instance is hardly suitable. English Sun is in fact a deeply evocative game played by two masters on a field of silence.”

The DCB is playing in Italy and Poland next month. 

The trouble with not doing live concerts for a while is that you forget everything that's not written down!  I'm working through the scores and playing the tracks but there are still some gaps....I suppose I'd better re-invent them.

This is part of Sign of the Crow....