Adrian Munsey

“A soundtrack to an invisible film, it offers romance and a lush arrangement.”
Hi Fi World
• No. 20 in the BBC Radio 3 Official Classical Chart

Full Circle is a masterpiece by two friends who bonded through a shared passion for a wide range of music and the British landscape – and it proved its popularity by reaching No. 20 in the BBC Radio 3 Official Classical Chart.

Performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and featuring soprano soloist Elin Manahan Thomas, the 14-track album sees Adrian Munsey collaborating with Andrew Powell some 45 years after they first met as students at King’s College, Cambridge.

Andrew Powell is a renowned composer, arranger, conductor, performer and producer who has worked with music greats as diverse as Pierre Boulez, Kate Bush, David Gilmour and Karlheinz Stockhausen. At the beginning of 2011 he and Adrian got back in touch and decided to work together on a joint album. Andrew had heard some of Adrian’s music, which he found intriguing. It was then Adrian’s turn to be intrigued when he heard the result of Andrew developing his music and combining it with his own.

They recorded Full Circle at the world-renowned Abbey Road Studios, working with Andrew’s favourite London orchestra, the Philharmonia. Both Andrew and Adrian were delighted to engage Adrian’s frequent collaborator, Elin Manahan Thomas, as soloist.
Apart from his role as co-composer, Andrew is also the conductor on Full Circle, which includes his own arrangement of Debussy’s ‘Élégie’. It is the first orchestral recording of this work.
Andrew’s own composition ‘Hwiangerdd’ comes from his cantata Y Dyn Unig, a Welsh Arts Council/PRS Foundation commission, which is about the so-called Red Lady of Paviland, the oldest known ritual burial in Europe.