North Sea Radio Orchestra – Birds

I must confess to not being the most educated fellow on the internet. My sole knowledge of Chaucer is that there is a bit in one of his poems where someone gets a stick shoved up their rectum, and I only know that because a mate of mine thought it was funny. The North Sea Radio Orchestra on the other hand really know their Chaucer, and their Yeats, and their Tennyson. They also know how to craft a wonderful album matching gentle, pastoral music to contemporary folk.

The NSRO is an ensemble that draws from a pool of some 20 members, ranging from full chamber orchestra and choir pieces to more subtle songs. There is no hint of the modern in this album, but that does not make the music winsome or overly nostalgic. Instead, there is an optimism to be found here; a link to the past that can provide the listener with a sense of contentment, and freedom to appreciate the intricacies of the lyrics. Sometimes when listening to music, you are painfully aware that you are listening to a recording, that you are listening to a digital representation of fine-tunings and tweaks. That is not the case here, as the quality of the music is so natural, so effortless. This makes the songs here sound utterly intimate, blessed with a personal finesse.

It may seem strange, but to me the best example of this can be found in an instrumental. 'Copt Gliders' is the heart of the album, a dreamlike mixture of strings, brass and gently picked guitar, undercut with a curiously electronic sounding bass. From the thwack of the Morris-man's stick to the swell of the orchestration, this number is redolent of Nick Drake's Bryter Layter in its musical representation of a pre-Industrial England. Opening numbers 'The Wound' and 'The Angel' also achieve this very English sound, Blake providing the words to these simple arrangements on piano and guitar.

Also worthy of mention is 'Guitar Miniature 2', silky and dreamy, and 'Personent Hodie', which could only be improved with a voice-over by Oliver Postgate. It's a shame then that the closing track 'Golden Cage' is the only mis-step, sounding overly raucous compared to that which precedes. 'Birds' is an album of melody and charm, never wistful or dainty, managing to be sentimental without being quaint, and never wallowing in nostalgic pity.
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