Welcome to the North Sea Radio Orchestra website... Enjoy your stay.NEWS! news! NEWS! and more news!UPCOMING SHOWS:DECEMBER 4TH, KOMEDIA, BRIGHTON: A special, intimate concert by the seaside in the heart of Brighton buy ticketDECEMBER 16TH, ST. OLAVE'S, HART ST, LONDON: This is our Christmas concert in association with the wonderful Arctic Circle buy ticketfor more info visit the LIVE page...Read live review of Manchester concert hereDue to demand, the Shrubbies album, 'Memphis in Texas' is now available to download on bandcamp. Buy!The first NSRO album has been re-released on 'The Household Mark' label. It is available from all good online retailers. Catalogue number is still the same: OOF006NSRO and BIRDS (the first two albums) are now available to download from wherever you are in the world.NEW ALBUM: Eyes right!North Sea Radio Orchestra's 3rd album 'I a moon' was released on July 11th on their new label 'The Household Mark' (THM001). This is now available to pre-order. The album can now be ordered at many retailers including the following:Piccadilly RecordsRough TradeHMVCRAIG SPEAKS: read his latest interview hereREAD BBC REVIEW OF I a moon hereREAD REVIEW OF I a moon by THE LIMINAL hereREAD REVIEW from NORMAN RECORDS hereFACEBOOK: here

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IN THE BOOK SO FAR...THURSDAY NOVEMBER 10TH, ST. GEORGE'S, MANCHESTERSUNDAY DECEMBER 4TH, KOMEDIA, BRIGHTONFRIDAY DCEMBER 16TH, ST. OLAVE'S HART STREET, LONDONScroll down for venue and ticket informationTHURSDAY NOVEMBER 1OTH, ST. PHILIP'S W ST. STEPHEN'S, SALFORD, MANCHESTERThis is our first concert in Manchester, home to our bassoon player, Luke Crookes. It will probably be wintry outside; warm inside, though.More info: http://www.heymanchester.com/north-sea-radio-orchestra TICKETS £8: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/127571***************************************************************************SUNDAY DECEMBER 4TH, THE KOMEDIA, BRIGHTONThis will be a joyous night of music by the sea in a cosy intimate setting. It's the pre-Christmas warm-up so get yourself there! Apples and Eve support... TICKETS £10/£12http://komediabrighton.ticketsolve.com/shows/126517923/events ***************************************************************************FRIDAY DECEMBER 16TH, ST. OLAVE'S HART ST, LONDON, EC3R 7NA Christmas concert, well, the concert closest to! NSRO perform their hits and arrangements of congregational carols to get everyone in the festive mood. There'll be wine, mince pies, a raffle... Dump your shopping and head into the old city. Adrian Crowley supports.TICKETS £10 http://www.wegottickets.com/event/144170***************************************************************************

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Birds 2008

North Sea Radio Orchestra 2006

I a moon

July 11th, 2011

Organ Miniature

Every Day hath its Night

Kingstanding

Chimes

Guitar Miniature

Mimnermus in Church

He gives his Beloved certain Rhymes

Hole in the Sky

Joy for my Heart

Shelley's Skylark

He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

The Angel

The Wound

Copt Gilders

Move Eastward, Happy Earth

A Poison Tree

The Flower

Harbour Wall

Guitar Miniature #2

Phantom

Personent Hodie

Now Welcom Somer

Golden Cage

morpheus miracle maker

I a moon

guitar minature #3

heavy weather

berliner luft

morpheus drone

the earth beneath our feet

ring moonlets

when things fall apart

mitte der welt

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morpheus miracle maker
berliner luft
Copt Gilders
The Wound
Kingstanding
I a moon

The Flower Single 2005

A Organ Miniature/The Flower

B Guitar Miniature/ Stations Green

End of Chimes Single 2007

A Guitar Miniature #2/End of Chimes

B Hurdy Gurdy Miniature/The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls

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Here's how it all began...In the October of 2002, composer and guitarist Craig Fortnam found himself walking through the City of London with a sackful of tunes slung over his shoulder; tied to a stick (Dick Whittington style). Now, as all music comes from the air, the sack was all that stopped Craig's tunes from escaping and following the Thames out to sea. Needing a substance with the weight of history behind it, Craig bent down and began to scoop up handfuls of London clay, folding and kneeding it into the melodies and chords from his sack. As this was such hard work, he got his wife, Sharron, to help. As she folded and kneeded, she began to sing, so her beautiful voice found it's way into the expanding mixture.When the music was almost ready, Craig called together twenty musicians and singers from all over the Metropolis and they all ducked into St. Martin's-within-Ludgate where the North Sea Radio Orchestra was born. As the clay music was still wet, and therefore somewhat fragile, the NSRO only performed in the City of London for the first while. So, their growing audience had to travel to the strange and magical streets of old Londinium to hear the beautiful sounds.When the music was ready, the NSRO ventured forth into the wider world where they have attracted many glowing reviews for their live and recorded performances. North Sea Radio Orchestra's membership has ebbed and flowed but the following line-up has remained true to the cause:Nicola Baigent plays clarinet and bass clarinetLuke Crookes plays bassoonBen Davies plays piano and philicordaHarry Escott plays celloCraig Fortnam writes the tunes and words and plays guitar, mainlySharron Fortnam writes words and singsJames Larcombe plays philicorda, monosynth, some piano and hurdy gurdyDug Parker singsHugh Wilkinson plays percussionBrian Wright plays violin and violaSometimes, percussion is played by Jez Wiles.They like to play in churches. They enjoy the resonant acoustics and the lack of amplification. Art galleries suit them fine too, like the Fishmarket in Northampton or Whitechapel Art Gallery in East London. They like to play at around five o' clock at festivals especially at The Green Man in Crickhowell and the Big Day Out in Bracknell. Occasionally, they enjoy the challenge of performing in rock venues and opera houses with amplification. Now, in 2011, North Sea Radio Orchestra release their third album, 'I a moon'... Eyes right!

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READ WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING ABOUT 'I a moon'http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/65d3http://www.theliminal.co.uk/2011/07/north-sea-radio-orchestra-i-a-moon/http://www.normanrecords.com/cd/126423-north-sea-radio-orchestra-i-a-moonhttp://drownedinsound.com/releases/16342/reviews/4143078Yorkshire Evening PostFor the uninitiated (and its criminal that there are so many) the NSRO are a small chamber ensemble who perform the compositions of Craig Fortnam, old pal of the feverishly innovative prog-punk band Cardiacs and a man clearly influenced by gloriously off-kilter sound. For their third album Fortnam has ditched some of the fanciful pastoral whimsy and romantic poetry of previous albums to focus on more personal issues.The result is a newfound poignancy and gravitas, which isn't surprising as theres the suggestion that many of the lyrics allude to the ongoing irreversible illness of Cardiacs frontman Tim Smith.Full of typically vibrant melodies and sinuous, eccentric arrangements for oboe, strings, piano, guitar and vibraphone, all bedecked with Fortnams wife Sharrons lovely lullaby voice and the odd dash of percussion. I a moon furthers the cause for the NSRO to be celebrated as genuine classical crossover artists and be elevated to the status of national treasure.The Wire Some have suggested that North Sea Radio Orchestra look at the world through sepia-tinted glasses; that their chamber combinations of woodwind, keyboards, strings and Sharron Fortnams pure-toned voice reek of old English parlours; that they are excessively nostalgic. The fundamentally forward-looking music of I a moon refutes that facile argument. Fortnam might sing, We are sitting in a row/Looking over England/Watch the evening go, on The Earth Beneath Our Feet, but play the song next to something by Vaughan Williams or Benjamin Britten, and you can immediately hear where they part from their admitted influences. At times guitarist Craig Fortnams compositions do tap into folk memory, most obviously on Heavy Weather, with its sea shanty refrain of Heave-ho/Down below. But over a tolling four-to-the-bar piano figure he weaves in bassoon, bass clarinet, tuned percussion, strings and twinkly synths over its eight minute course. Its inspired arrangement has some overlap with Clogs, Art Bears, Pentangle and Penguin Cafe Orchestra. The albums real surprise is Berliner Luft. With its acoustic guitar strum and drum machine, it sounds like something off Harmonias Musik Von Harmonia, until it gains more substance through a series of agitated, almost Zappa-esque wind and tuned percussion themes. North Sea Radio Orchestra might share with Britten and Vaughan Williams a kind of haunted melancholy that has come to be seen as characteristically English, but their music couldn't have come from any other century than the 21st. MOJOPew-haunting chamber-pop pastoralists make great leap forward.NSROs second album, Birds, left you wondering if compositional power-house, Craig Fortnam might need to augment the sweetness with extra sinew next time around. And this admirably toughened up third album can indeed mix it with the best. The basic sonic armoury is much as before Vaughan Williams-style strings, subtle woodwind, ornamental acoustic guitar filigree and the crystalline-verging-on-Kate-Bush vocals of Craigs other half, Sharron Fortnam but its now marshalled with an intensified sense of collective purpose. Swapping the poetic settings of yore has helped, and the stirring six-minute opus Berliner Luft is definitely the keynote track. Who knew that what the music of Steve Reich has been crying out for all these years was a Krautrock makeover?UncutBlending folk and avant-garde, choral and classical elements, the NSRO inhabit a self-made Electric Eden. Fronted by composer Craig Fortnam and his vocalist wife Sharron, formerly of cult oddballs Cardiacs the groups third album blends pastoral whimsy, parping woodwind and neo-baroque trilling. There are echoes here of everyone from Kate Bush to Michael Nyman, while cascading piano ballad, When Things Fall Apart could sit comfortably alongside PJ Harveys recent anguished explorations. A little too prim and poised for rock-schooled ears, perhaps, but impeccably elegant and genuinely lovely in places.READ WHAT THE CRITICS SAID ABOUT 'Birds' here

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READ WHAT THE CRITICS SAID ABOUT 'BIRDS''Birds' conjures up a variety of quintessentially English scenes; the dream visions of medieval literature, a typical influence in folk music, are evoked in opening track 'The Angel', while the drama and majesty of William Blake's religious visions creep into 'Copt Gilders' and Harbour Wall'. It's a strange thing that a Fairport Convention influenced chamber orchestra could sound so contemporary, or even interesting, but there is a definite pop element to the songs presented in 'Birds'. The music throughout is wonderfully comforting and soothing, with obvious technical skill, and Sharron Fortnam's voice has such clarity and beauty that it is a particular highlight of the album. Clash Magazine - 8.5/10'Beauteous and sinister, like the dance of the maidens before the Wicker Man goes up in flames....bewitching' Q Magazine These exquisite pastoral settings of poems Blake, Hardy, Tennyson and Chaucer cast an intriguing historical light on the evolution of the British pop lyric. But thanks to the crystalline purity of Sharron Fortnam's singing, this London-based chamber ensemble's second album feels more like a heavenly daydream than a college assignment. The Daily Telegraph Birds is an expectation-transcending mix of styles that maintains the integrity of its sources while building bold new sounds. Classical might not be the new rock'n'roll but the North Sea Radio Orchestra have used it to create an ethereal folk-pop beauty. Sounds XP On the follow-up to their gorgeous eponymous 2006 debut, the North Sea Radio Orchestra deliver another magical mix of folksong, modern classical and baroque. To call them a modern chamber ensemble gives you no idea of the strange beauty of their music as they take the transcendent power of Vaughan Williams, marry it to the intricate shapes of Nyman and Glass, throw in the cheery playfulness of Vernon Elliott's soundtrack music for Oliver Postgate's short films and then give it all their own quirky spin. Craig and Sharron Fortnum are the key players, Craig penning the melodically rich compositions and Sharron leading the players with a voice to make linnets green with envy. With lyrics borrowed from the romantic poets, the NSRO pull off the trick of sounding both curiously timeless and refreshingly original. Most importantly, though, they play the loveliest music.Yorkshire Evening Post Rating: 4/5What makes the North Sea Radio Orchestra so special is Fortnam's gift for orchestration, the deft and original way he puts deceptively simple materials in the hands of sophisticated performers. Melody pours from his pen on every page. The Guardian *****North Sea Radio Orchestra is the kind of deserving enterprise the BBC should really be throwing money at. Having honed its craft in public libraries and sympathetic places of worsbip, this superbly disciplined chamber ensemble is now more than ready to step onto a larger stage. And as sumptuous swirls of organ, strings, guitar and bassoon eddy around a rapt Spitz, in east London, the pastoral splendour of its debut album comes magically to life. Craig Fortnam's compositions stake out a unique terrain, somewhere between Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending and the baroque meditations of Sufjan Stevens, and his wife Sharron populates it with a voice of dazzling, pre-industrial clarity. The Sunday Telegraph *****North Sea Radio Orchestra have at times been charged with a certain amount of bourgeois smugness and also of being fluffy and twee. OK, so theyre not The Bug. But there is a passion and musical ambition here that is entirely lacking in much contemporary music. Instead, this group offer ready comparison to the Hauntology aesthetic, where the exploration of tradition also undergoes a radical mutation. Yet perhaps this misses the point. Birds is a unique 40 minutes - captivating, beautiful, peaceful and thoughtful. Its seemingly so far removed from most peoples experience of everyday life that it cant but help transport you elsewhere - it floods your mind eye with a pollution-free rolling green world and entirely resets the rhythm of your day. How could that not be worth exposing yourself to? The Quietus

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