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The magical Carnival album on CD, featuring specially commissioned illustrated artwork and including a note from the Kanneh-Mason family. Carnival is the brand-new album from the Kanneh-Masons, their first as a family, and will be released on 6th November 2020. The album is a very special collaboration between Academy Award-winning actor Olivia Colman, childrens author Michael Morpurgo and the seven extraordinarily talented (Classic FM) Kanneh-Mason siblings Isata, Braimah, Sheku, Konya, Jeneba, Aminata and Mariatu.

Recorded at Londons Abbey Road Studios, the release includes new poems written by War Horse author Morpurgo to accompany French composer Saint-Sans beloved musical suite Carnival of the Animals. The poems are read by the author himself, joined by The Favourite actor Colman, and guest musicians complete the ensemble for the suite.

On working with the Kanneh-Masons, Morpurgo says, These young people are remarkable, not because they are young, not because they are the seven siblings from one family, but simply because they make magnificent music together, and it is evident they love doing it. Hear them and you know it. See them and you know it. Along with Colmans readings interposing the humorous suite Carnival of the Animals, which represents different animals through descriptive musical motifs, the recording features Morpurgos heart-warming Grandpa Christmas story, set to music for the first time with classic tracks including Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, Flight of the Bumblebee and Sea Murmurs. Morpurgo reads the role of Grandpa, with the youngest Kanneh-Mason, Mariatu, reading his granddaughter. The album includes a new arrangement of Eric Whitacres The Seal Lullaby featuring all seven siblings, aged between 11-24. It is also the debut recording for youngest sisters Konya, Jeneba, Aminata and Mariatu. Also featuring on the album is the Kanneh-Masons own arrangement of Bob Marleys iconic hit Redemption Song, marking 40 years since its release in 1980 fewer than five years before the singers death.

The stunning artwork for Carnival has been specially commissioned from childrens illustrator Emma Chichester Clark, who has created a colourful storybook world featuring vibrant birds, friendly kangaroos, curious elephants and all seven of the Kanneh-Mason siblings depicted, of course, with their instruments.