Ray Cooper, who left the legendary Oysterband in 2013 to pursue a successful solo career, here presents his third album. It is a big sounding record with serious themes but is nevertheless simple, raw, joyous, and unashamedly romantic.

While Cooper continues to develop as a singer, here he plays all the instruments too, in a stripped down production inspired by producer Rick Rubin’s treatment of Johnny Cash’s late recordings. The familiar mandolin, cello, guitar and harmonica are all there but Cooper also makes his recording debut as a piano player and features it prominently throughout the album.

There is folk here but it’s never quite folk. Nevertheless the album is more English sounding too, with the inclusion of several trad tunes and songs woven into the album as the listener is taken on a journey from the English countryside, to Flanders, Venice, Beirut, and even to the moon in his song ‘Ocean Of Storms’.

The opening track ‘Drunk On Youth’ describes a happy memory as a teenager, swimming in a river drunk, the album moves on to describe the true story of a maverick soldier in WWI, the beautiful Arab singer Asmahan, a holiday romance, being a father, the present day migrants in the Mediterranean, before ending with the classic hymn ‘Wayfairing Stranger’, all of which fall nicely under the umbrella of the title. ‘Between The Golden Age & The Promised Land’.