As the Dawn Breaks

This is the opening track from English alternative pop singer-songwriter Richard Hawley's sixth album, Truelove Gutter.

The song opens with the celestial wailing of the glass harmonica, the water phone and the Cristal Baschet. The glass harmonica is an instrument based on the haunting tone you get when rubbing a wet finger around the rim of a wine glass. It was rationalised into its mechanical form by Benjamin Franklin in 1761 and was inspired by his love of water. On Truelove Gutter it is played by French classical musician Thomas Bloch, who has worked with Radiohead and Vanessa Paradis.

Hawley told the Newcastle Evening Chronicle that he wanted to create the sound dropping a microphone in a car engine might create at the start of this track, but he didn't know how to do it. He discussed the problem with David Coulter, who plays the musical saw on the album. Hawley continued, "I explained this sound to him, the car engine thing. He went in his bag and pulled out a CD. It was him and Thomas Bloch playing an instrument called the Cristal Baschet. It was exactly the sound I'd been hearing. I could have kissed him."