North Sea Radio Orchestra + Kate Arnold

North Sea Radio Orchestra at St John On Bethnal Green

Baba Yaga's Hut present

North Sea Radio Orchestra + Kate Arnold at St. John on Bethnal Green, Dec 12th

Way back in 2002 composer/guitarist and band leader Craig Fortnam formed North Sea Radio Orchestra (NSRO) and they began rehearsing and performing in old churches, secreted away in the heart of the City Of London. At first their audience had to explore the lost alleys and lanes of old Londinium to hear their unique sound; strings, wind. percussion, organs, guitars and voices create a world where harmony and melody abound - both ancient yet modern.

NSRO then moved out into the world at large; performing in venues diverse – from churches to clubs to Freakzone sessions to festivals, opera houses, libraries etc etc. They have released six albums including last year's critically-acclaimed 'Special Powers'

“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

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Classically trained on violin and vocals, Kate now bases her work around the hammered dulcimer and strings, using live-looping and real-time electronic effects. Her two-part electro-medieval album was released in 2020-21 and her piece 'Tagnachtlampe'was described as 'absolutely extraordinary'by BBC Radio 3. She recently completed a full-time PhD on Old