DRONNE

The North Sea Radio Orchestra do their thing once more, and once more it works out very well. This is very pleasant and enjoyable progressive chamber folk, exactly what this band or rather miniature orchestra is known for. There are no drums, it's all too gentle for that. About half of the songs are instrumental, the other half mostly sung by Sharron Fortnam angelic clear folk voice often supported by her husband Craig (the line-up given above only attributes all vocals to Sharron, but that's not true). I had five-starred their previous offering "I a moon" but will not go quite as high for this one; basically the NSRO further fills the space that they have opened for themselves with further beautiful music. One can't accuse them of too much development, but then perhaps you don't want one of your favourite bands to develop if there is nobody else to fill the space if they leave it. Once more we have Craig Fortnam's obligatory solo guitar piece, the odd catchy folk tune, once more, perhaps a bit stronger than on previous albums, tasteful chamber pieces with strong almost classical arrangements. Actually, going more deeply into this album, one can also find some new elements, atmospheric minimal music in Dronne, and a nod to Robert Wyatt's "flowing" style in The British Road. The two parts of the instrumental Dinosaurus Rex at the end together make perhaps their most "proggy" composition yet, mainly because of the extended time and that they give their ideas here to develop, with some more turns than usual. So no, I can't say that the Radio Orchestra stands still, all is alive and well. Still, if their previous albums were for you, this one is, too, and if they were not, this won't be either. I guess one could shuffle all four of their albums and could think that this was all conceived together. A solid four stars.