HELEN Charlston and Michael Craddock are two classically trained musicians who were due to get married last April, but the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic meant that they had to postpone their big day.

Helen decided to write a poem about their wedding and set it to music, in order to gift it to her fiancé and soften the blow of not getting to say, 'I do'.

The couple who would both travel a lot pre-COVID, never really had the chance to sing together all that much, so decided to make the most of it during the start of the first lockdown.

Helen told Nub News: "Even though we're both singers, we both have our own separate things going on and travel a lot, so we don't really get the chance to sing together."

The soon-to-be husband and wife uploaded a few videos on YouTube of them singing together and people started asking for more.

"That's where it all properly started," said Michael.

They decided to put out a call via social media for composers to write songs and respond creatively to lockdown.

15 composers from around the world ended up getting involved, including Ealing resident, Andrew Brixey-Williams.

Andrew studied Music at the University of York and despite a long career in business, music has always had a special place in his heart.

Andrew was invited by the couple to be involved in the Isolation Songbook and composed his song titled 'Abat-jour', which means lampshade in French.

He told Nub News: "The song was originally inspired by this feeling of stillness, there's been lots of stillness during lockdown.

"At the same time however, although lockdown has caused this sense of stillness, it has equally unlocked my sense of creativity, which is the same for lots of other artists too."

'Abat-jour' is one of the 15 songs included in the Isolation Songbook that was originally streamed online in July.

Following its success, Charlston and Craddock were approached by Delphian Records in order to release a CD of the project.

The recording took place in Edinburgh in September and the couple were hopeful that when the CD was released, they would be able to perform it live in concert too.

"We were hopeful things would have gone relatively back to normal by now and that we would be able to perform the songs in front of an audience, but that hasn't been the case.

"We're still so pleased with the result and are very grateful to everyone involved for helping us create something so beautiful," added Michael.

The CD will be released on March 26, just over a year after the Prime Minister announced the start of the first lockdown and it's available to pre-order HERE.

It will also be available to download on Apple Music and Spotify as well as other platforms too.