Recent commissions for two choral works allowed David to return to the innocent, choir-based origin of his musical world, at the same time his experience as a parent prompted a lot of outward reflection. What kind of world are we leaving to our children?

Inspired by his score to the forth coming silent black and white film ‘Carousel’ (2026), Norland found other music emerging that refused to be ignored. The film’s director opened the door to an entirely free scoring process – no temp music, no expectation, no guidelines, just pure intuitive expression. ‘La Source’ draws on this experience, alongside his childhood as a touring chorister, the honky tonk upright piano in the north-east London bedroom of his early 20s, his early recording experiments with aTASCAM 4-track cassette recorder, and his intense preoccupation with bells, flutes, stone architecture, and mysticism.

“I love making patterns in things and finding patterns. That’s why minimalism was so enticing to me, the patterns are so explicit. I love word play and anagrams. The big sadness coming through as I was making the record is this clarity over the future of my kids. Everything else is a complete distraction. This incredible nurturing planet and its ecosystem are being rapidly destroyed, and the forces destroying it are relentless and punitive. Perhaps eventually it will be the fact that people love their kids that will stir wider fear and action. It’s hard to think of anything more connected to the idea of spirit.”

“An emotional ride...... (a) real sense of majesty” - The Letter

“Urgent, insistent,.... both human and alien at once” - Clot Magazine

Magazine“Magical....”Elizabeth Alker, BBC Radio 3 “ - Unclassifiable”