I was taken aback by the fresh views I gained of the events surrounding the birth of Jesus as I wrote and arranged Two Worlds Kissed: Part 1 – The Season. What had left an indelible mark on me on that ski slope in Grindlewald was how deeply that was written into the events that would lead up to the crucifixion of Jesus some 33 years later. Once again as I was writing for this I found new insights reading over the Biblical stories.

I was challenged to write one song which would include all of the miracles (the ones which theologians label as Signs) which Jesus did – its a remarkable collection and if true are something to be reckoned with. The song ends with the sign of Lazarus walking from the grave. I mean – what?

There’s a link between the triumphal entry and Ps 118 – always a known factor – nevertheless it took on new import as I imagined the crowd rising up to the occasion as they sang the great hallel, I could feel them dancing as they swayed and sang Hosanna!

The darkest song on this album has to be Crown of Thorns. Christians hold Jesus in high esteem because he underwent this extra, horrendous additional cruelty. This song though flips the narrative and puts the crown back into the hands of the Roman soldiers who would wield it. It is a song full of human rage, underpinned and overshadowed by something very evil. It is not a song of hope. Musically it is epic.

Then there were revisits to songs from times past, some previously heard, some unheard. I had a lot of fun remembering and reworking songs from bands I’d been in. Devil’s Triumph? was a song which had been initiated by Robbie Hemes – drummer of Malachi, but which all of the band ultimately had a role in creating – a bit prog in feel. If there’s a God in heaven was a co-write between myself and Tim Hiscock (bassist of Malachi) and which had been performed by Against the Tide.

I asked my worship chum Ofonimeh to sing the female echo in Going back to the cross – a song which tries to put over the ideas of Derek Prince in the exchange of the cross. It’s a powerfully deep worship song which we sang a lot back in the day at KT.

Finally, as I’ve written elsewhere, whilst on a ministry/holiday trip in Brazil I’d led some worship which had overflowed into this immense outpouring of spontaneous praise as we sang together the name of Jesus – I sang in English, they sang in Portuguese – it was huge. To my great delight someone had captured it on phone footage. I would come back to this over several months until finally it married up with an idea born out of Philippians 2 – all about the Name. The audio from the footage was too rough n ready to include, but I gathered the team from Cheltenham and we sang it enough times to create a big sound.

It closes the loop of Heaven kissing Earth. My hope is that the music would move you to experience the joy of that and discover the Truth that is the Gospel – it’s great news.