I first heard last year the NSRO on Stuart Maconie's fabulous FreakZone (Sundays on BBC 6 Music). With no domestic release in sight, I broke down and ordered from amazon.co.uk. Been listening incessantly ever since. If you find acoustic chamber folk pop too fay and aery give this one a pass. However, if you have any affection for the vocal qualities of Kate Bush, the arrangements of Sufjan Stevens, or the delicacy of the Penguin Café Orchestra you need this record. The majority of the pieces are musical settings of British and Irish Romantic poets – Tennyson, Longfellow, Hardy, Yeats. Given the lyrical inspiration, there is an almost unavoidable pastoral quality to the 20 strong NSRO and chorus, which is particularly memorable in their treatment of Longfellow's Chimes and Yeats' He Gives His Beloved Certain Rhymes. My favourite record so far this year.
Sunday, 9 September, 2007
North Sea Radio Orchestra - North Sea Radio Orchestra (oof! Records)
I first heard last year the NSRO on Stuart Maconie's fabulous FreakZone (Sundays on BBC 6 Music). With no domestic release in sight, I broke down and ordered from amazon.co.uk. Been listening incessantly ever since. If you find acoustic chamber folk pop too fay and aery give this one a pass. However, if you have any affection for the vocal qualities of Kate Bush, the arrangements of Sufjan Stevens, or the delicacy of the Penguin Café Orchestra you need this record. The majority of the pieces are musical settings of British and Irish Romantic poets – Tennyson, Longfellow, Hardy, Yeats. Given the lyrical inspiration, there is an almost unavoidable pastoral quality to the 20 strong NSRO and chorus, which is particularly memorable in their treatment of Longfellow's Chimes and Yeats' He Gives His Beloved Certain Rhymes. My favourite record so far this year.
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