"Any recording of this just kills me. Faure's writing feels incredibly contemporary to me, in the way the melodies and harmonies move. The 'Paradisum' has a quality about it that reminds me of Massive Attack's 'Teardrop', or maybe it should be the other way around.

I also sung this in my boys' choir at school – I was a boy treble before my voice broke. Usually, I was more interested in the coach trips to concerts, the mucking about in the back row of the bus, as much as performing. But I remember us singing at Malvern Cathedral, surrounded by candles, and what a profoundly beautiful moment it was. Every now and then, odd moments from childhood just bounce back at you, and I'm always happy when it's this one.
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"As a teenager in the late 70s I wasn't really interested in contemporary pop music or punk-rock, I was listening to stuff from 10 years earlier. This was a big record for me. Sometimes when I'm singing – it occurred to me last night in Istanbul – I realise there's a certain kind of vocalising I do that takes its cue from Leon Russell. He sang in a southern accent but it was very blown-out and exaggerated, very free and loose. I got this record as a gift for playing in the baseball team at junior high – I loathed sports but there weren't enough people to complete the team. So the coach said, have as many records as you want, just please be on the baseball team. I was like, all right I'll do it."