Tag: instrumental music

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So 2 years ago, I painted a melting snow scene entitled Thaw. This was for an art exhibition that took place at Gold Hill Baptist Church in April 2023. However, the idea of a “thawing” season originally started out as a piece of music in December 2022. At the time, the piece of music didn’t go too far until a friend gave me a word that confirmed this idea; he could see a picture of a snow scene thawing out and a bright, colourful garden of joy appearing from underneath the ice. This friend is sadly no longer with us, but I’m very thankful that he stepped out and gave me that word; later that year my life changed and I moved into a new season.  

So why didn’t finish the piece of music so that I could exhibit it with the painting? There are so many reasons for this, mainly that at the time only the painting seemed appropriate for the art exhibition. I also was strapped for time to complete the painting, so I priortised the artwork. However, nothing is ever wasted, and sometimes projects are delayed so that they are released in Jesus’ timing and not ours. This never makes sense to our human minds, but Jesus always has an appointed time when the work he does through us is most effective.  

In the middle of February 2025, I was working on a different piece of music and stumbled across the Thaw piece on my hard drive. I realised that it wasn’t that far from being finished and just needed a few tweaks here and there. 26 months on from when I started composing the piece, it seems that now is the right time to release it. And that’s the thing with prophecy and prophetic art, sometimes you must wait until the right time to release it. Waiting can be hard, but the right timing brings the greatest impact. Ecclesiastes 3:11 reminds us that God 

…has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 

If you’re going through a season when everything is on hold and it seems to be going on for longer than you think, then this piece of music is for you. Prophetic words tend to unfold over a period of time so that they grow with stability and lasting, deep roots. There is a season for everything and eventually the ice will begin to thaw and a new spring will appear.  

To read the blog about the painting Thaw, click here.

You can listen to and download the song here.

If you have enjoyed this song, join the mailing list here

Want to make a donation to my work? Please click here.

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A new track from my Eliana Hope project! Back in the early noughties, I lived and worked in West London; one of the colleges I lectured at was in Ladbroke Grove. I would regularly hang around Portobello Road searching through the market for treasure and enjoying the coffee shops. Such an eclectic area with the market, Electric Cinema and Rough Trade Records bordering the colourful Georgian houses. The tree lined streets adding to the creative muse. It became a place of sanctuary after a long day at work. This track reminds of spending time in that area of London and enjoying the ambience.

The track is available on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Youtube.

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Who is Eliana Hope? Recently I have been thinking about returning to writing instrumental music. Years ago I used to write all sorts in different genres but most of it was never released. I listen to a fair amount of lo-fi so I thought I’d offer my own contribution to the genre and today I released a new single called Sunday Chill in February of this year. I released this track under the pseudonym Eliana Hope as this music is different to my singer-songwriter work. 

You can listen to the track on Youtube or find it on the following platforms: 

Spotify
iTunes 
Apple Music
Amazon
Bandcamp

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You can listen and buy the song here.

It’s time to celebrate women and all things female. If you could describe womanhood in a few words, what would they be? Does it make you feel proud to be a woman? We’ve come so far in the last 100 years and yet in some parts of the world there is a long way to go in achieving equal rights for women. This is piece of music is about celebrating our gender, qualities and strength. A certain kind of strength and resilience that women have, we’re all born with it and life circumstances dictate how that strength and resilience will grow and develop throughout lives.  

I wanted to write an anthem for women that was feisty, confident and empowering. Very much inspired by the Helen Reddy lyric “I am woman, hear me roar…”, this piece of music is for women everywhere of all ages and backgrounds. Originally conceived as a song, I felt that lyrics were getting in the way and that the music alone carried the message. This piece has been sat on my hard drive for 5 and a half years waiting for life. It was in pieces, fragments of ideas that needed putting together, but the words were getting in the way, so I ditched them and all of a sudden I had a piece of music that worked.  

Recently there has been a lot of controversy in the press about women, from domestic abuse, personal safety, murder, right through to shouldering the weight of homeschooling and childcare throughout the pandemic whilst trying to work at the same time. Women’s issues have been front page news. It feels like COVID-19 created pressure that has brought these issues to the forefront of society so that discussion can lead to change. The press often represents womanhood in a negative way, and to be honest, I’m sick of that. Yes, we need to not live in fear of abuse, violence and discrimination, but there are many facets of womanhood that the press don’t recognise such as our nurturing, caring, planning, healing qualities. Women often hold things together and bring unity and wholeness to situations. We’re creative, innovative, skilful and can bear the weight of a plethora of tasks. We are leaders and team players in all facets of life.  

This is the decade of the woman. This is the time to turn the negative reports on their head and make something new and valuable from this crisis. It’s a time for a backlash against the press who would have us be portrayed as weak, subservient and put upon, and for women to speak out about how we should be treated. WOMANKIND is a piece of music for us to reclaim all that is joyous about being female and to help us celebrate our gender and identity.  

You can listen and buy the song here.

If you have enjoyed this blog, join the mailing list here

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Recently I have been working with Jazz Community Church and have been asked to create instrumental music for their services. Here’s an instrumental that I composed to accompany a reading of Isaiah 55 (that’s me reading the passage too).

Music written & performed by Helen Sanderson-White. Copyright 2014 music by Helen Sanderson-White adapted for this reading in 2021.