Although David Bowerman has loved music all his life, it is only just over ten years ago that he started composing his own works.

Born in 1936 in south England, Bowerman had a successful career as a farmer before retiring and moving to Champs Hill in West Sussex. There he and his wife, Mary, built a 160-seat concert hall and recording venue called The Music Room. Holding 25 concerts per year – hosting such artists as Felicity Lott, Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside, Viktoria Mullova, Stephen Isserlis, the Nash Ensemble and the English Chamber Orchestra – it has also been the venue of several critically acclaimed and prize-winning recordings.

For this new disc the label has secured the services of fine musicians including Thomas Carroll (cello), Daniel Pailthorpe (flute), Emily Pailthorpe (oboe), Julian Milford (piano), Sophie Bevan (soprano), and the Sacconi Quartet, all of whom have previously recorded for the label; and Hannah Bishop (trumpet).

Although Bowerman’s first love was always music, he received little or no formal training before he started composing. The results are remarkable, most strikingly his idiomatic writing for instruments. Bowerman himself has written: “I unashamedly draw on music that has meant much to me; a love of the music of Elgar and the organ works of César Franck.”