Saqqara, my fifth studio album, is particularly special to me during the Covid 19 pandemic as it's a memory of journeys taken before global travel restrictions. Saqqara is the oldest necropolis pyramid in Egypt and its silhouette became the inspiration to record a collection of songs recollecting images of the art and artefacts I saw en route down to Aswan.

I travelled by road, following the Nile, pausing at the wonderful sites along the way, and each time falling more in love with the beauty and majesty of these ancient creations. The hot dusty desert is a bleak but romantic setting for the looming pyramids and the sumptuous brightly painted wall art inside.

As I recorded each song, back in my north London studio, I was happily transported back to that glorious hot summer, with visions of Cleopatra and Mark Antony, Tutankhamun, and earlier still, King Khufu. Processions around the newly built pyramids, then clad in sun-gleaming limestone, became the location for my own personal film song sound-track.