North Sea Radio Orchestra - Special Powers

NSRO are very much a part of the 'Cardiacs Family' of bands and musicians; having personal and stylistic ties (harmonically and melodically) to Cardiacs and the music of the late Tim Smith generally; other bands in the 'scene' include Gong (and Kavus Torabi), Lost Crowns, William D Drake, Spratleys, Crayola Lectern etc.

'Special Powers' is their fifth studio album and as ever, all material is written and produced by band leader, Craig Fortnam.

Like previous releases, 'Special Powers' features a mix of songs and instrumentals both large and small, inhabiting the psych/chamber/folk/pop world that Craig has lived in for a while now. Indeed, fans of his solo work and Arch Garrison will recognise many of his trademark musical elements; strong emphasis on melody and chord combined with a clear rhythmic sense, a mixed palette of guitars, strings, wind, various keyboard instruments and percussion.
 
Craig's music is often described as 'beautiful', 'English-sounding'; not sure why - probably the chords - which certainly do have a Vaughan Williams/Cardiacs/Dowland/'Canterbury-esque' (etc etc) aspect, but with selective use of dissonance to add a little astringency and temper the bitter-sweet melancholy.

“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” The Wire

“Fortnam is a compositional powerhouse” MOJO

“Part of a line of non-conformist ‘English’ composers that encompass Robert Wyatt, William D Drake, Simon Jeffes and others, Fortnam’s writing is quietly brilliant throughout” Prog Mag

“genuinely very beautiful” BBC

“There can be few currently operating musicians around today who have a sound as distinctive as Craig Fortnam’s. Whether solo or with North Sea Radio Orchestra or Arch Garrison, his writing has a kind of zig-zagging melody that is part Robert Wyatt, part early Kate Bush, part medieval, but all Fortnam” Arts Desk