Mr. Drake’s fourth album – lovingly written and played by all concerned, replete with all the joys and woes a life can muster. William D. Drake and Onomatopoeia Records proudly announce the release of their new long-playing record, The Rising Of The Lights.
The album’s title is taken from a mysterious cause of death which plagued London during the 18th and 19th centuries. Drake discovered the malady in a Victorian medical journal somewhere among Venice’s labyrinth of canals while on an Italian tour. “I liked the sound of the words: it stuck with me”. This said, The Rising of the Lights is a work at the very peak of health. Whether it be the ancient grind of James Larcombe’s hurdy gurdy, rediscovered gems from The Sea Nymphs project, or the curious fixation on disease, a spice of old time pervades the new compositions. But this record could not come from a different artist, nor be created at a different time. To quote ‘Ornamental Hermit’, titled from the long-forgotten eccentric English practice of wealthy families keeping an elderly, grey-bearded hermit within their grounds, The Rising of the Lights is ‘overflowing with joy and with pain’.
