都市新詠 URBAN RENEWAL

Even before the beginning, God's absolute Sovereignty and unsurpassed Glory have always been proven and irrefutable. Today, He has risen and has been walking with us on a daily basis. He is Lord, but He is not just an Almighty Power up there somewhere; instead, He's the most personal, dependable friend who has been guiding and leading us all the way, only if we turn our eyes upon Him and share in His precious Vision.

By incorporating all those song titles into this message, I want to remind myself, and my beloved brothers and sisters, that our faith is our daily life. Let's take a fresh look at all these beloved hymns that have helped pave our way across life's numerous toils and snares, till now, and ever - To God Be the Glory!

It took quite a long time to come up with some of the arrangements in the album. First of all, I took some time to come up with a chord structure that will allow me to "contemporarize" the basic feel of the hymn but still work hand in hand with the lyrics. This new chord structure allows the songs to resemble (in style) with modern praise songs. I think one of the big turn-off aspect of hymns, is how it is played in exact form as written in the hymnals, a kind of a marching grand feel. The new chords allow players to vary the feel of the music in accordance with the state of their worship experience. Furthermore, it allows for improvisation in the instrumentation if the instrumentalist desire to do so...in other words, they don"t have to deal with one chord per note type of chord changes.

In terms of arrangement, I tried to mix between some typical standard arrangements to some more fun types of music. I wanted the album to have some variations from easy listening to rock, from R&B to 2-step dance. However, I have kept the style to something that people can just pop in the CD player and just let it play... so a very listen-able album. My favorite songs in terms of arrangements are "To God Be The Glory" and "Be Thou My Vision", because the styles of these two songs are still considered relatively popular and modern these days.

However, the most difficult part of this project is the recording. To me, this project is so much more about being right with God than my previous aXcess projects. It is all about worship. So I made a point to pray fervently before I start arranging, and especially before the vocalists sing. I wanted to capture their worship, not their perfect techniques. So I would really spend time with the vocalist to pray before we recorded; to get our minds in focus and our hearts right. Many times, I know I was not right with God, because I was living in sin. In those times I simply could not work on the project, because I feel I am so sinful. I think we have really captured these artists' worship, and I think you will feel it too. They are just singing. They are worshipping... thus, all the emotions you hear are REAL!!!

It is my desire that this album will bring these fantastic worship songs back into the lives of young brothers and sisters. I believe many hymns have been forgotten. Yet they have so much substance, because they recorded the original author's testimony. Furthermore, the Cantonese translation (a marvelous job by Alice) kept close to the meaning of the original text so that the testimony would not be lost. The translation also eliminated phonetic anomalies that distracted singers from worship.

It was a very enjoyable project. I give thanks to God that I was able to work with all these different singers and musicians. Their personal worship have been a blessing to me.