North Sea Radio Orchestra (NSRO) are a seven-piece ensemble featuring mainly classical instruments but augmented by pop-tones courtesy of guitar, synth and hurdy gurdy.
This is the first NSRO studio album since 2016.
The original singer Sharron Fortnam has left the band after the marriage to Craig Fortnam came to an end. Fortnum remains and Chantelle Pike now handles the singing duties.
The record features a mix of songs and instrumentals with strong melodies and is destined to be labelled as chamber folk/pop.
The themes include meditations on death, the need for making connections and the mysteries of the creative process itself.
A poetic inspiration is evident in the two tracks which open and close the album. Mansions In Eternity is an instrumental which takes its title from a letter William Blake wrote to his engraver consoling him on a bereavement. The Players Ask Foe A Blessing On The Psalteries And On Themselves is a setting of the W.B. Yeats poem. The second of these closes with an extended orchestral workout with shades of Steve Reich-style minimalism.
A mood of quirky Englishness is unmistakable. This is most obvious in All Alice Like , a country waltz about sleeping and drifting into an altered state like Alice In Wonderland’s descent into the rabbit hole : “I fell into inner time /Floated around/Safe sight and sound/Nothing to fear by”.
The title track is a slice of prog-folk in the spirit of Jethro Tull in which Fortnam and Pike share the vocals.
Full Human centres on loneliness and confusion experienced while ''Wandering around in the sun and the rain”.
Melancholy emotions are a constant in all th tracks although these reflect feelings of alienation rather than full blown depression; the question“Do you know the danger of missing out on everything?” is posed rhetorically in Hearty.
This is an album which blends wistfulness and whimsy. Lyrically it strays a little too much into the latter territory but this is compensated by some richly nuanced orchestral arrangements.
