ACTOR Hugh Bonneville and fellow Sussex residents composer Damian Montagu and trumpet player Stewart Prosser are celebrating their countryside in music and poetry with a new album In A South Downs Way.

The album was released on Decca last month.

It marks the start of a new recording series called Walk Upon England, which brings together rural composers and artists to create a soundscape of the English countryside.

The album is a beautiful collection of tracks written by Damian for strings, piano and brass with Hugh narrating some of his original writing, together creating an evocative celebration of the South Downs.

The compositions are performed by the Tippett Quartet as well as a group of Sussex musicians, including former Paul Weller trumpeter Stewart Prosser, who co-produced the album.

Damian was inspired while walking alone in the South Downs and wrote melodies during a number of meditative, introspective journeys, capturing them on a portable device as he went.

The recordings were then arranged and co-produced in his Sussex recording studio.

Hugh chose The Path Towards Tomorrow from the album as one of his tracks on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, and the piece immediately went to number one on the iTunes classical chart.

Hugh said: “My friend, Damian, played me some tracks that he and Stewart were developing and asked me to read some poetry over the wonderful music. It inspired me to offer some words of my own."

"In A South Downs Way reminds me of the place I’m lucky enough to call home,” added the Milland-based actor, who starred in the long-running ITV hit drama Downton Abbey.

Damian added: “What began as a purely creative endeavour has blossomed into a wonderful project. I hope that listening to the album will transport people to the South Downs or indeed anywhere which evokes the beauty and peace of somewhere they love.”

‘Walk Upon England’ is a series of recordings celebrating the English countryside as a source of creativity in music and poetry. At its heart is a suite of music by England’s rural composers, poets and artists who find their inspiration from walking within the beauty, scale and atmosphere of the country’s unspoiled landscapes.

Walk Upon England will comprise a series of releases from writers and musicians who live in other locations in the English countryside.

Each album will evoke a distinct region of the country and over time these will build into a body of work which might best be described as a soundscape of England.