OK. So here it is, finally, after nearly ten years. Songbook #1 - Fourteen songs by the enigmatic, English producer, The Vicar - a persona "discovered" by David Singleton.

And what do you get? The Vicar´s unique string and chamber arrangements, played by some of the world´s outstanding musicians - Cathy Stevens (Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Everything but the Girl), Tony Levin (John Lennon, Paul Simon, King Crimson), Theo Travis (Gong, Soft Machine Legacy, Steven Wilson Band), Steve Sidwell (Robbie Williams, George Michael), Chas Dickie (Van der Graaf Generator, PJ Harvey), Karen Wimhurst (Zaum, English National Opera), Nigel Barr (Michael Nyman Band), Horacio Pozzo (Argentine Big Time Guitar Trio) . And what don´t you get? Well-known singers from The Vicar´s rolodex. By contrast, in one of those moves designed to delight the curious, The Vicar throws the spotlight on emerging and lesser known singers, from those spotted at small venues - Steve Porter (steveporter.org), on the internet - Paul Ibberson (paulibberson.com) & Mutch Katsonga (darkjam.com/Mutch_Katsonga), Mercury Prize nominee - Tim Elsenburg (sweetbillypilgrim.com), and cult favourites who deserved centre stage in any gathering of fine singers - Andy Yorke (allmusic.com), Lewis Taylor (allmusic.com) & David Scott (pearlfishers.co.uk. All were willing to sing simple melodies "as if for the first time".

"Ask not what you can do to the song, but what the song can do to you." (Yes, That´s an invented quote, but it gives the sense of it, you understand).

The songs go everywhere pop songs should - Gay bars in New York (Man with a Woman), Adolescence (Twenty Two), Moonstruck love (The Moony Song), Vanity (That Boy´s Not Cool), Nostalgia (Childhood Days) - and a few places they probably shouldn´t - a world without belief (San Manuel. Lonely Sunday), a mother coping with the death of a child (Count Your Blessings), and the simply surreal (Inside my Head).

The album is presented on the CD, while the DVD-A presents the full album in 5.1 Surround Sound and in hi-resolution stereo. The surround mix (overseen by legendary surround mix engineer Neil Wilkes) has already been chosen by the sonic supremos at Dolby Sound labs to showcase their latest surround sound systems.

The DVD-A also features a video for the song Count Your Blessings and the complete 38 chapter video-book of the first Vicar Chronicle.

This album forms part of the worldwide release this year of The Vicar Chronicles - fictional and not-so-fictional stories about The Vicar as scribbled by his assistant, Punk Sanderson, with a simultaneous release for the first two novels (in a single bumper book) & the first in a series of graphic novels. Audio-books, and a series of video-books are slated to follow as separate releases.