Over the weekend of 16/17 November 2024, members of the SFO gathered at Clockwork Sessions in Ruchill, Glasgow to record tracks for a new album.
It was the first time the orchestra had set out to make an album via recordings in a purpose-built recording studio. In the past, most SFO recordings have been made live in concert, which is undoubtedly the best representation of what “experiencing the SFO” is all about. Those that were regarded as “studio” recordings were set up in repurposed venues such as church halls or put down on tape during concert rehearsals.
These previous ad hoc arrangements were successful but, for these latest recording sessions, there was an added element of excitement because it would be in a “proper” studio.
“Spirit of the Northern Sky” was the SFO’s last studio album, recorded in 2013.
There are so many SFO recordings, spanning the 45-year life of the orchestra, that it is well nigh impossible to produce a comprehensive list.
The bulk of previous recordings have come out through Edinburgh’s famous REL Records. They’ve done their best to keep the SFO’s material prominent in the marketplace over much of the orchestra’s lifetime to date by their judicious re-releasing and reorganising of individual tracks as part of refreshed collections of SFO material.
It has been the SFO’s ambition for at least the last 10 years to develop its future music catalogue under its own steam…
… by recording (and in some cases re-recording) pieces and sets under its own banner.
Undoubtedly, the Covid pandemic has hindered this process. Live albums recorded in Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast, between 2016 and 2019, would probably otherwise have led much more quickly to another studio album. But the pandemic prevented us playing together in any meaningful way for many months. Added to that, we had the unfortunate timing of our North America Tour (which coincided perfectly with the onset of Covid) and all its subsequent financial fall-out – which went on for a further 4 years or so.
The new album is called “The Sleeping Warrior” and we will tell the story of the recording process over a series of articles.
The release date of the new recording is not finalised yet as at the date of publication of this article (12 April 2025) but is expected to be within the next month. :-)
You can read the next article in this series here: about the logistics associated with collaborating with a world-renowned recording team.
This article first appeared in the SFO Newsletter for March 2025 (No. 101). If you would like to subscribe to the quarterly Newsletter, which is announced via email and then downloadable from the SFO website, please go to the “Friends” page on this website to sign up.