Hidden Orchestra is the solo studio project of multi-instrumentalist composer/producer Joe Acheson. The album features drummer Tim Lane and Jamie Graham, pianist/violinist Poppy Ackroyd and long-time collaborators including harpist Mary Macmaster, cellist/saw player Su-a Lee and Czech bass clarinettist Jiri Javurek.
Although written for sampling, the pieces included on the “Wingbeats” EP stand on their own as individual compositions, striking elements coming to the fore in each one. And each source track tells a story: of birds fluttering in to feed on crumbs in a rural British garden, or flocking in a hedge in the snow in the French Alps; of an imaginary string orchestra; of a suspenseful, early-hours piano jam; of a spot of instrument shopping in Istanbul while on tour; of a sleepy village engulfed by an exhilarating early-morning dawn chorus, rounded off with church bells.
Out on Tru Thoughts, available at Bandcamp.