David Arthur Fanshawe (19 April 1942 – 5 July 2010) was an English composer and self-styled explorer with a fervent interest in world music.

During a summer spent hitchhiking in Iran he heard Islamic music for the first time and was immediately attracted to its beauty.

[1] On completing his studies in 1969, Fanshawe travelled up the Nile from the Mediterranean Sea, visiting Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya over a three-year period before finally reaching Lake Victoria.

[1] Returning to the United Kingdom in 1972 with several hundreds of hours of recordings made during his travels, Fanshawe used the material to compose what became his best known work, African Sanctus.

The album was written and conceived with David's first wife, Judith Croasdell, in the 1970s in their first home at East Sheen, London, after many perilous trips to Africa together.

This was the first completed section of Pacific Odyssey, a new choral work which Fanshawe conceived on a grander scale than African Sanctus.

[1][5] Fanshawe detailed his plans for Pacific Odyssey in an interview with Rory Johnston on Music Now on the BBC World Service, 15 January 1986.