CRAIG FORTNAM

Ark ONOMATOPEIA RECORDS

Swapping North Sea Radio Orchestra for Ark in a solo statement.

North Sea Radio Orchestra’s Craig Fortnam has released solo music using the Arch Garrison banner but this is his debut under his own name. Homegrown and intimate, Ark maintains a sense of aural continuity with his other work.

Burnished with seductive, sinuous woodwind, courtly guitar, swooning cello and Fortnam’s own plaintive vocals, the sprightly tunes here form a suite of songs and instrumentals so bright and airy they might have all been blown into the room on a summery breeze. Yet that lightness of touch and those uplifting tones belie the sombre undertow that swirls and pulls at some of Ark’s tracks, with Fortnam expressing loss, anguish, and becoming emotionally adrift having lost close family and friends in recent years. What could have been mawkish instead shines with a clarity that’s touching and direct in material that’s exquisitely constructed and impeccably performed by NSRO regulars.

Part of a line of non-conformist, idiosyncratically ‘English’ composers that encompasses Simon Jeffes,

William D Drake, Robert Wyatt and others, Fortnam’s writing is quietly brilliant throughout.