This recording is of songs, solo piano works and a piano duo by John Sykes. The songs are largely settings from William Blake's poems of Innocence and Experience, but there are also settings of poems by Sykes's friend and contemporary, Randall Swingler.John Sykes (1909-1962) was a pianist, composer and schoolteacher. He gained his FRCO as a schoolboy and became Organ Scholar at Balliol College Oxford. Later, he studied with both Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob. Albion Records is the recording arm of The Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, so it is Sykes's association as a pupil that inspires this release.