Original poems written and spoken by Hugh Bonneville.

‘The Path Towards Tomorrow’ was Hugh Bonneville’s pick on Desert Island Disc and went straight at #1 on the classical charts for two weeks.

Hugh Bonneville is currently promoting this project in the press tour for his upcoming play.

Damian Montague has done a number of commercial compositions in the past including Waitrose.

South Downs are the home of both Hugh Bonneville and Damian Montague.

This is the start of a wider brand of compositions inspired by walking spots around England.

The WALK UPON ENGLAND project is a celebration of the English countryside as a source of creativity in music and poetry. At its heart is a suite of music composed by England’s rural living musicians and poets who find their inspiration from walking within the beauty, scale and atmosphere of the country’s unspoiled panoramas and habitats.

The idea for the project was born in Sussex. Composer Damian Montagu was walking alone in the South Downs and wrote melodies during a number of meditative, introspective journeys, capturing them on a portable device as he walked. These recordings formed the basis of the album, ‘In a South Downs Way’, compositions for which were worked-up in Damian’s Sussex recording studio with the help of Hampshire musician and ex-Paul Weller side-man Stewart Prosser, who co-produced and collaborated on arrangements.

The actor Hugh Bonneville shares a love of the South Downs and has lived nearby most of his life. Having heard the instrumental recording, he contributed some reflections of his own, narrating them as interludes on the finished album.

WALK UPON ENGLAND will comprise a series of similar albums, created with writers and poets who live in other locations in the English countryside. Each individual work will evoke a distinct region of the country and over time these will build into a body of work which might best be described as a soundscape of England.

Original compositions by Damian Montagu

Original words written and spoken by Hugh Bonneville

Produced and Arranged by Damian Montagu and Stewart Prosser

String arrangements by Robert Sword

Brass arrangements by Stewart Prosser and Damian Montagu

Piano improvisations on Reflections III and V by Robert Sword

Piano performed by Robert Sword

All strings performed by the Tippett Quartet

Brass performed by Stewart Prosser (trumpet, flugelhorn), Will Spencer

(trumpet, piccolo trumpet), Dave Gale (trombone)

Recorded at Moonshot Studios, West Sussex, England

All songs mixed by Charlie J Perry

All songs engineered by Damian Montagu and Charlie J Perry

Strings recorded by Niall Acott

Mastered by Mark Rogers

Original Artwork by Katie Blunt

Designed by Arun Golia

Additional design by Alex Chilton