Roger O'Donnell Shares Video for 'December'

"December is a very special song to me, it's the opening track from 2 Ravens and sets the mood as it set the direction that I took when I started writing," says Roger O'Donnell, reflecting on how 'December' came to be. "It's a very intimate and personal song and a reflection of my mindset at that time of year and also this time of my life."

Filmed on Roger's iPhone at his home piano, the otherworldly atmosphere exuded by the video for 'December' is strongly influenced by one scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, juxtaposing the oppressive weight of isolation with the setting Roger sees as his most comfortable place.

Watch the video!

"Growing older is easy, accepting it is sometimes/always more difficult," Roger states. "Becoming comfortable with who you are and what you look like as the leaves fall from the tree can be a dark journey but not accepting it and turning your back or fighting it is to miss everything that the autumn/winter of your life brings."

"I'd just come home from the 2016 tour with The Cure to where I live in the middle of nowhere in Devon - having spent the whole tour longing to be home and to make a cup of tea," reminisced legendary keyboardist Roger O'Donnell in an interview with NME. "I had a lot of bottled-up emotion and creativity, there was nothing else to do, so I made some music that was a lot more personal."

2 Ravens sees O'Donnell (The Cure), with the aid of the vocal talents of Jennifer Pague (Vita and the Woolf) bring to life the melancholic beauty and solitude of the English countryside. The musical mastery of composer, keyboardist, and artistic visionary Roger O'Donnell goes far beyond what he is capable of with a Moog synthesizer. A deeply personal project, 2 Ravens is an astonishingly transformative effort for O'Donnell, as its gorgeous and lush arrangements make for a groundbreaking example of 21st century neoclassical.

Yet as much as that familiar atmosphere is informed by sentimentality, the English countryside's associated sense of solitude brings with it a whole other layer to 2 Ravens one starkly more melancholic in its haunting beauty. "O'Donnell's work is hopeful and evocative," writes MusicOMH's Ben Hogwood, as it "...will undoubtedly calm the troubled mind."

Recorded over the course of five days at London's Air Edel Studios, 2 Ravens features contributions from some of Roger's favorite musicians, including the likes of Alisa Liubarskaya, Miriam Wakeling, Aled Jones, Nadine Nagen and Daniel Gea.

2 Ravens is available now via 99X/10 Records/Caroline International, with the physical release following on July 24th.

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