The Demon War CD

The Demon War: Songs of the Crimea 1853-6 is an extraordinary collection of original folk songs on the subject of the Crimean War. It emerges from a collaboration between Prof. Simon Rennie of the University of Exeter, and a group of talented folk and classical musicians from the UK and the Ukraine.

Each song is based on a poem written in the 1850s and submitted to a local newspaper by a member of the public. Together they reveal the feelings of ordinary Victorians about war in the Crimea, lost loved ones and heroes, and the politics of the day. These powerful songs are full of contemporary relevance.

The tracks were recorded in the musicians' own homes by Musical Director Saul Rose, and a sense of place is crucial to the album. Many of the songs have local references, and the musicians have selected poems from local newspapers linked to their own home towns.

The musicians are: Saul Rose, Benji Kirkpatrick, Nina Zella, Jackie Oates, Granny's Attic (Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, George Sansome and Lewis Wood), Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, with Ukrainian musicians Anna and Kateryna Pyshniuk, Tetiana Hnilytska and Mariia Hrashchenko.

The CD was made with the support of Halsway Manor, WestPark Music and AHRC IAA.