Duke is thrilled to be able to reveal the  finished cover for the new album and also details on the musicians who

played on the record and helped bring it to life:-

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The artwork has been created jointly by Belfast illustrator Marcus Patton and Gary McIlwaine of Sparks Studio.

As well as being an incredible illustrator, Marcus is a musician, author of several books and has a long interest

in architectural heritage! Gary has overseen the artwork on everything I have ever released, so it’s a pleasure to continue that relationship. The title Blood for Ghosts is a play on Ezra Pound’s phrase ‘Blood brought to ghosts’, referring to the new life brought through translations, in his case, of Chinese poetry. In my case, it refers to new versions of songs discovered in the Princess Grace Irish Library, Monaco, that may have been forgotten or lost through time.

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I was interested in discovering  if some of these songs could survive being brought into the

present day; if they still felt relevant or were still able to move us in some way.

Of the ten songs, six are recognisable from the original song sheets, one was adapted from another

version, for two I have written new music, and for one, new words.

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These are the musicians who played on this record - they were carefully chosen to bring the songs

to life in the way I could imagine them in my head -

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Liam Bradley on percussion and drums,

Nick Scott on upright and electric bass,

Seán Óg Graham on guitars, bouzouki, banjo, button accordion and drum machine programming

Ruth McGinley on piano (for some of the tracks)

Dónal O’Connor on fiddle

Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill on clavinet

Dave Lynch on organ and mellotron

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Niamh Dunne and Joshua Burnside on backing vocals.

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I love how these musicians brought their own slant to the songs through the wealth of their experience

and by responding to the music in their own way. 

I am very proud of the recordings and am excited to share them with you all!

 

Thank you so much for your support.

 

Duke Special x

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This is the pre-order campaign for 'Blood for Ghosts' and we hope that by ordering your copy in advance, you feel that you

are contributing to the process of releasing this record into the world! Funds raised from the campaign will help pay for

up-front costs for artwork, mastering and manufacturing the record.

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'Blood for Ghosts' is NOT being released on CD, but a download code will be included with every vinyl copy. The album will

also be released as a very special book, with an accompanying download code. At the moment, you can only pre-order the

record on vinyl, but we will be adding the book as soon as we can and the pre-order campaign will run here on Advocate

until Friday 6th October.

 

We aim to release the album in the autumn as long as there are no unforseen delays in production. We will confirm the officical release date and let you know when the pre-orders will be sent as soon as we know.

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Initially we offered 100 exclusive Limited Edition Signed & Numbered versions on vinyl, but they sold out in less than 24 hours, so we added another 30 copies, but these have now also sold out. There will be no more Limited Editions available on

vinyl, but you can still order a signed or standard copy:-

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Signed Vinyl - £25

Standard Vinyl - £22

All prices include postage & packing costs.

 

Pre-order your copy now!

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