These 5 words, “No Man Is An Island”, sum it all up, really. Although I have been a great admirer of John Donne’s poems since my late teens, I didn’t know this particular one. Perhaps I wasn’t looking for it, merely drawn to his writings about love and mourning. During a visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral in 2010, however, I bought a small collection of Donne’s poetry for just 1 pound, and there it was. I hit me so hard in the face because I hàd been feeling an island for some time. My “ship aboard the ship” hadn’t been sailing too well, due to “myself forever reproaching myself”. Singing is always the answer to everything. Singing and poetry represent the most spiritual parts of music and language and being able to combine these two makes me feel very privileged. Making these songs has brought me into contact with so many beautiful people, musicians and audiences. “The powerful play goes on” and this CD holds a number of poems that have been with me for a long time. Performing and touring with the amazing Sander Veeken, Sophie de Rijk and Arthur Brenkman over the past few years has been such a joy. Working with them on this CD has been a happy continuation of that feeling. The 2 features on this new album are also so very, very dear to me. The mere fact that my talented Syrian student Afeef recites the Whitman poem give the words so much more expressiveness. Now that he lives in our part of the world, he “may contribute a verse”. And Vincent’s playing the bass in those 2 songs couldn’t be more appropriate. He is my rock solid foundation in life. No man is an island, let’s all make this our slogan. In these days of “the Chillest lands” that the UK and US have elected to become, more and more people are realising that “every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” Let’s just spread the word that “sweetest in the is gale is heard” and make hatefulness a thing of the past.