Smith told how the brief for the piece was given: "Frank [Cottrell-Boyce, the opening ceremony's writer] and Danny [Boyle, its creative director] put forward beautiful, transcendental poems by people like WH Auden, Thomas Nash, Philip Larkin.
Karl [Hyde, Smith's partner in Underworld] spent a long time working with those words to make them flow, helping avoid all the possible cliches we could fall prey to.
"[2] The track features performances by Alex Trimble (lead singer and guitarist of Two Door Cinema Club), percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, the Dockhead Choir conducted by Mag Shepherd, Only Men Aloud male voice choir, soprano Elizabeth Roberts, and Esme Bronwen-Smith (co-writer with Rick Smith of the soprano and choral score).
The singers were Will Balkwill, Zoe Brown, Ronan Busfield, Emily Dickens, Elizabeth Drury, James Hall, Johnny Herford, Katy Hill, Jimmy Holliday, Eloise Irving, Gareth John, Oliver Jones, Christopher Lowrey, Philippa Murray, Robyn Allegra Parton, Catherine Pope, Alison Rose, Domhnall Talbot, Reuben Thomas and Amy Wood.
The drums were played by Paul Clarvis, Barnaby Archer, Oliver Blake, Daniel Bradley, Rebecca Celebuski, Jason Chowdhury, Jonathan Colgan, Oliver Cox, Fabio de Oliveira, Mike Dolbear, Robert Eckland, Daniel Ellis, Richard Elsworth, David Holmes, Oliver Lowe, Nicola Marangoni, James O’Carroll, Gerard Rundell, Ramon Sherrington, Corrina Silvester, Alex Smith, Owain Williams and Justin Woodward.
The title refers to Caliban in The Tempest by William Shakespeare, whose 'Be not afeard' speech Sir Kenneth Branagh, as 19th Century engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, had recited earlier in the ceremony - a speech from the play's Act 3, Scene 2, in which Caliban refers to his dreams: Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
The lyrics for the song were written specifically for the opening ceremony by Underworld’s Rick Smith and sung by Alex Trimble.