More about: Ed Harcourt

Singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt has released a new track named 'Restoration', with all proceeds in aid of Belgian charity MusicFund.

The track comes in at just over 17 minutes long, and was released to coincide with Nils Frahm's Piano Day. Recorded at 88 BPM and released on the 88th day of the year, 'Restoration' is suitably melancholy and self-reflective, building up gradually before peaking and returning to simple melody and chords.

Listen to the track below:

On releasing the track, Harcourt wrote on his website: "I started by recording the pedals as a simple rhythm, then a cyclical chord sequence. After that I just put down what ever came into my head, attempting to create some kind of Tangerine Dream/Steve Reich/Satie hybrid I guess… I have to say I really enjoyed doing this - it feels pretty mad creating such a track with various limitations according to the instrument and time frame knowing that everyone is watching your every little move…"

Below: Watch Ed Harcourt perform 'The Way I Live' for Gigwise

MusicFund is a Belgian-based charity which specialises in handling donations of music instruments, the creation of repair workshops in music schools and the training of repair technicians for those repair workshops in developing countries and warzones. 

Of his decision to support the charity, Harcourt wrote: "I’ve decided to call this ‘Restoration’ after watching the BBC News documentary about the only grand piano in Gaza and how they restored it.

"I was really moved in particular by Sara, the girl who was preparing for the concert towards the end of the documentary; she talked about how important music was to her, the fact that there was all this destruction and also a slight oppression from their government towards the music school...yet through it all, the desire to learn and play the piano compels her, spurs her on to succeed and survive in some way."

More about: Ed Harcourt