M3ON – aka Tim Lea Young, is a composer, musician and artist living and working in Brighton. Tim scores films and is a prolific writer of music for television and production music companies. He has worked as a synth player/producer with UNKLE and works out of the Toyrooms studios in Brighton.
M3ON’s version of Jerusalem was conceived as part of a suite of variations based around Tim’s string quintet composition called Mt. Zion, after discovering that Mt. Zion is the name of a hill near his home in Portslade.
The arrangement of these variations was arrived at by choosing bar numbers & pitches from the quintet score based on coordinates of Mt Zion in Jerusalem and using the information contained in these bars to create new melodic variations.
Mt.Zion Portslade : 50 ̊ 51 ̇ 54 ̇ ̇ N 0 ̊ 13 ̇ 17 ̇ ̇ W
Mt.Zion Jerusalem : 31 ̊ 46 ̇ 18 ̇ ̇ N 35 ̊ 13 ̇ 43 ̇ ̇ E
William Blake’s poem “And did those feet in ancient time” printed in 1808, was written in Felpham, a village in the Arun district of West Sussex (now part of Bognor Regis) where the Blakes lived for three years.
Blake’s poem was set to music by the composer Hubert Parry almost exactly one hundred years after Blake wrote it. Parry’s setting of the words was designed to raise the spirits of people during the ruination of the First World War but was soon adopted by the women’s suffrage movement which Parry along with his wife and daughters supported. The song is still sung by the Women’s Institute to this day at their meetings.
“Jerusalem is open to many interpretations. William Blake was a complex character and his works can be difficult to read – but one thing Blake was not was a nationalist of any kind. He was a revolutionary.“
~ Judy Cox, Socialist Worker, Issue 372.
This opulent new version of Jerusalem is sung by Lily Wolter from the band ‘Penelope Isles’ (Bella Union), and Clemmie Franks from the vocal group ‘Voice’. It is scored for and played by a 22 piece string orchestra – the Prague strings recorded by Tim in Prague.
Jerusalem is also the opening track on the forthcoming M3ON album which is scheduled to be released next year on Castles in Space. However, we’ve taken the opportunity to bring the track forth for a little bit of festive attention and asked some friends to help out by providing the christmas gift of a remix. Thus the EP is beautifully rounded out with exceptional mixes from Werra Foxma, Apta, Kevin Pearce (Sound of Science) and Correlations – Neil Hale making a long overdue return to Castles in Space just before his double Correlations LP lands for the Castles in Space Subscription Library next week. It was Neil, who having worked in Brighton with Tim on the Correlations album ‘Evocation’ intro’d him to CiS.
“A Scotsman based in Brighton, Tim Lea Young is a rare breed and a truly modern artist. He mixes classical, jazz, electronica and pop production effortlessly. As a multi-instrumentalist, he understands composition and arrangement and makes ethereal, otherworldly music that never shies away from a luscious melody or a crunchy beat. Although he plays and performs almost everything on this M3ON record, he’s never afraid to collaborate with singers and other musicians to create something special. A real talent and one to watch!”
Vic Galloway, BBC Broadcaster & Writer.