Ruby Hughes's new album is a powerful and moving recital focussing on love and loss, pregnancy and parenthood. At its core is Bright Travellers, a song cycle by Helen Grime, surrounded by songs by Gustav Mahler and Charles Ives. The film below introduces some of the works, while below the soprano introduces the programme.

'In singing Helen Grime's song cycle Bright Travellers (settings of Fiona Benson poems) in concert I was struck by how important it felt to share this music with a wider audience and present this album Songs for New Life and Love in a modern context alongside Mahler and Ives songs. Grime specifically chose poems reflecting different aspects of motherhood and pregnancy from conception to birth. There are songs about the growing of life in the womb, about breast feeding, about postnatal depression and still birth.

'So little has been written about these incredibly challenging experiences, yet so many people have lived through them. I hope it will encourage more freedom of expression and offer some solace and healing. There is something very profound about placing Mahler and Grime together in this context. Ives’ love songs and lullabies too make the overarching feel of this disc I hope all the more poignant.'

Songs for New Life and Love, performed by Ruby Hughes and pianist Joseph Middleton, is available from BIS on September 3. You can explore the full album below: