The 2020 re-issue of A Christmas Cornucopia will be released via Island Records/Verve on November 20 to mark its 10 year anniversary. It will feature a brand new, previously unreleased track, “Dido’s Lament”, a new tracklisting, and new artwork (across all formats – vinyl, CD and digital).
“I’m absolutely delighted to be releasing the 10th Anniversary of A Christmas Cornucopia. 2020 has been an unprecedented year around the world… The carols on this album represent continuum - harking back to a time before modern technology, climate emergency, global pandemics, pollution, forest destruction, species extinction and all the challenges our world must urgently deal with in terms of crisis in sustainability. I hope this recording will at least offer some comfort and nostalgia, but also an awareness that political leaders, religious leaders and everyone around the world must face up to the question of how many more Christmases we have left to spend on this blighted earth,” stated Annie Lennox.
“Dido’s Lament” – written by Henry Purcell in the 17th century and arranged by Annie Lennox and Mike Stevens – references the tragic love story of Dido and Aeneas as documented in Virgil’s legendary epic poem, The Aeneid, from the 1st century BC. It will be released as the lead single from the album on November 10 and will be accompanied by a music video (out November 12).
All proceeds earned from Annie’s original composition on the album, “Universal Child”, will be paid to The Annie Lennox Foundation. The Annie Lennox Foundation raises money for various charitable projects, primarily those supporting and educating women and children in Africa and people with HIV/Hepatitis C in Scotland.
The music on A Christmas Cornucopia was mostly played by Lennox, in collaboration with co-producer Mike Stevens, and originally recorded in his southwest London studio, at the bottom of his garden, in 2010. The pair also worked with a 30-piece orchestra at Pinewood Studios. And they travelled further afield too: to South Africa, to record with the African Children’s Choir, a remarkable organization with which impassioned campaigner and activist Lennox has long had a relationship.
A Christmas Cornucopia offers songs drawn from British, French and German traditions covering the well-known alongside more untrodden ground. On “Lullay Lullay,” Lennox draws direct links between the Nativity and the plight of Africa’s child soldiers.
Track listing:
CD:
1. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
2. The First Noel
3. Il Est Ne Le Divin Enfant
4. See Amid the Winters Snow
5. Silent Night
6. Universal Child
7. Dido’s Lament
8. Angels From the Realms of Glory
9. The Holly and the Ivy
10. As Joseph Was a Walking
11. Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
12. In the Bleak Midwinter
13. Lullay Lullay
PRE-ORDER THE 10th ANNIVERSARY RE-ISSUE OF A CHRISTMAS CORNUCOPIA HERE:
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