A Christmas Cornucopia

A Christmas Cornucopia is a collection of new, inspired interpretations of eleven traditional festive songs, rounded out by a new Lennox composition, "Universal Child." The music on the album was mostly played by Lennox, in collaboration with co-producer Mike Stevens, and recorded in his southwest London studio - at the bottom of his garden. But to achieve the resonance and vibrancy that were integral to Lennox's ideas for these re-energized reboots, the pair also worked with a thirty piece orchestra at Pinewood Studios. And they travelled further afield too: to South Africa, to record with the African Children's Choir, a remarkable organization with which impassioned campaigner and activist Lennox has long had a relationship. A Christmas Cornucopia is no sweetly packaged selection box. As befits its title, it offers an abundance of songs - drawn from British, French and German traditions - and a host of ideas. On "Lullay Lullay," "a lullaby I've known for years and the darkest carol I think," Lennox draws direct links between the Nativity and the plight of Africa's child soldiers. "'Lullay Lullay' alludes to the killing of first-born boy children by King Herod, and going back more deeply into the story of the song, I kept getting images of child soldiers in my head. The violation of children is endemic in many so places. Even though this carol is ancient, the brutality of the subject matter is just as relevant today," says Lennox.