Gina French

French had been struck by the images in the Oscar-winning movie, The English Patient, and had been especially moved by the effect of the plaintive and ethereal, Eastern-sounding quality of the ethnic singer whose voice was featured at crucial moments (Hungarian folk singer, Marta Sebestyn) of the film soundtrack. So that sound was on the back of her mind, where it eventually made a cerebral union, of sorts, with another bit of music that had also struck French in a similarly profound way, the sound of the exotic Middle Eastern vocalist (the famous Algerian “Prince of Rai,” Cheb Mami) in Sting’s 2000 world music hit, “Desert Rose.” So after that, unbeknownst to her at the time, these two elements began a subconscious incubation in Gina French’s mind, with the end product down the line destined to become the award-winning title track to her album - Of Rapture