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"A SIGN UNTO YOU" - A Christmas Album NOMINATED FOR BEST RELIGIOUS RECORDING at the first ever HAMILTON MUSIC AWARDS! As the official follow-up to his successful Beatles homage, BLUE SUBURBAN SKIES, this new recording marks Christopher Clause's FIRST full-length recording of original material in over nine years! Recorded in the beautiful sounding 122 year old sanctuary of James Street Baptist Church, as well as at his own Cloverhill Studios, A SIGN UNTO YOU brings together music that retells the Christmas story in an innovative way by today's standards. "I wanted the album to sound 'as natural' as possible, without a lot of modern production techniques", said Christopher, "so that most of the album could be recreated in a modern acoustic worship setting. I also wanted to highlight the sound of my Taylor guitar 314LE 2002 model, which gives the album a distinctive sound." The multi-instrumentalist recorded A SIGN FOR YOU in the winter of 2003 over two weeks, put it "in the can" for seven months until this summer, where he began to formally finish the album. Christopher's musical time has been spent between albums producing recordings for Makeshift Policy, Kenny and the 14th Floor and an e.p. by the YES church as well as leading worship at James Street Baptist Church, the oldest surviving Baptist church in Hamilton. The album begins with a spoken word piece (INVOCATION) which prepares the listener for one of the key tracks, ADVENT SONG. "I was asked by my Pastor, Don Berry-Graham, to write a piece specifically for the Advent season, and by using his sermon themes created a song that would be sung every week during Advent. It has been received well in our church community, and it's creation inspired the rest of the album." Some of the highlight tracks are SWEET SWEET LOVE, ON CHRISTMAS DAY, FOLLOW THE STAR (both written 10 years earlier), and the powerful GLORIA, which features the church's original Casavant pipe organ. "Using the Casavant added to the organic feel that I was trying to achieve, and when the organ appears in GLORIA, it is one of my favourite bits on the album", said Christopher. Christopher's final remarks on the reason for recording the album sums up the overall mood and nature of the work: "My hope is that listeners are encouraged to use the album to enter into a deeper, more intimate worship time with Jesus Christ." A SIGN UNTO YOU is an album crafted specifically for worship, and there are a few new Christmas songs that can be sung in corporate worship times. Christopher hosted an advent worship event/multimedia presentation on Thursday November 25 at 7 p.m. which featured the music from the album in its entirety at James Street Baptist Church, as well as other traditional advent and Christmas music. The song SWEET SWEET LOVE was honoured by being selected for inclusion on the seventh annual Hamilton Music Scene 2004 compilation CD. "I am so honoured to be the closing track on the CD", said Christopher on hearing of the compilation's track listing. RELEASE DATE: September 28, 2004 Visit www.footrecords.ca for more on Christopher Clause! Check out the artist's website: http://www.jamesstreet.ca Track List: 1. Invocation 2. Advent Song 3. Magnificat 4. Let Me Sleep 5. A Journey of Kings 6. Follow the Star 7. Sweet Sweet Love 8. Word Became Flesh 9. Gloria 10. Song of Simeon 11. Anna (Freedom of Jersualem) 12. Hope of the Nations 13. A Sign Unto You 14. On Christmas Day Other Genres:
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