North Sea Radio Orchestra

North Sea Radio Orchestra is the first album by the English cross-disciplinary musical ensemble, North Sea Radio Orchestra. It was released in 2006 on Oof! Records. Background North Sea Radio Orchestra was recorded four years into the existence of North Sea Radio Orchestra (NSRO), and was the ensemble's first full-length recording following a series of limited-edition EPs. It has a collection of songs and instrumental compositions drawn from the ensemble's live repertoire, many of which had been played by NSRO since its inception. All of the material on the album is original compositions, much of it settings of Victorian and Edwardian poetry. These include settings of Thomas Hardy's "Shelley’s Skylark", Yeats' "He Gives His Beloved Certain Rhymes" and "He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven", plus the instrumental "Kingstanding" and the part-instrumental/part-choral "Chimes" (featuring a setting of poetry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow). Most of the music was written by the group leader Craig Fortnam, but other members of the ensemble also contributed material. William D. Drake provided "Bill's March" and "Mimnermus in Church" (the latter, a setting of a poem by William Johnson Cory with orchestrations by Craig Fortnam). The folk song "Joy for my Heart" was co-written by Sharron Fortnam and Craig Fortnam.