NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA

An intricate chamber folk affair from this aquatic unit. Though part of the extended musical family around the Cardiacs, the musical style is rather different (despite the name there's no hint of "The Seaside", for instance), the emphasis is instead on producing beautiful progressive folk music with lyrics taken from classic poetry. With the "chamber" in question truly packed with performers, and a particular knack for working in interesting vocal performances, it's a very atmospheric album with a unique atmosphere of its own. Nowhere near as stale or stuffy as traditional folk, whilst not out to be weird for the sake of weird, the North Sea Radio Orchestra is simply an expression of the personality of its creators and a truly unique aesthetic offering.