Days on Earth is Mark Lockheart’s ambitious 2019 album, bringing together 25 years of musical experience in a six-movement suite. Featuring leading British jazz musicians — Liam Noble, Tom Herbert, Seb Rochford, John Parricelli, Rowland Sutherland, Laura Jurd, and Alice Leggett — alongside a 30-piece orchestra, the album blends off-kilter grooves, rich orchestral textures, African harp melodies, and 70s-inspired funk.

Each movement explores human traits and tendencies, from fragility and strength (This Much I Know Is True) to belief and reconciliation (Believers and Long Way Gone), creating a vibrant, thought-provoking soundscape. Recorded at Mark Knopfler's British Grove Studios with strings led by Jackie Shave, Days on Earth highlights Mark as both an inventive composer and expressive instrumentalist.

The album received widespread acclaim, including a four-star review in The Guardian, and has been featured in the Financial Times, The Times, MOJO, RONDO, Downbeat, and Jazzwise. Its premiere at Milton Court with the Guildhall Studio Orchestra marked yet another new chapter in Lockheart’s evolving musical journey.

“Lockheart’s laconically Wayne Shorter-ish sax sound, and influences including Duke Ellington, Gil Evans and Burt Bacharach as well as his Loose Tubes and Polar Bear alumni, have brought him now to the most ambitious recording of his two decades as a leader” - Guardian ****. Read full review here.

“It’s an impressive achievement in both concept and execution, the work of a musician who has reached middle-age with his adventurous spirit still intact and is prepared to take musical as well as financial risks to bring his project to fruition.” - Jazzwize ****. Read full review here.

“His most ambitious project yet and an obvious labour of love, “Days On Earth” is shaping up to be a triumph for Lockheart.” - The Jazz Man. Read full review here.

“Throughout the program, Lockheart frequently crafts segments within each of the seven songs, so an element of unpredictability arises and the overall momentum never sags.” - Downbeat. Read full review here.

“Lockheart captures this broad range of emotion by interweaving the spiky lines and smooth contours of contemporary European jazz with the shifting textures of a 30-piece orchestra conducted by John Ashton Thomas” - Financial Times. Read full review here if you have a subscription.

“Days On Earth can therefore be chalked up as another fine recording where the composer is looking to take their music forward and not afraid to look outside the conventional framework that is often defined and perceived within their chosen genre, and comes unreservedly recommended.” - Jazz Views.