Craig Fortnam


Craig Edward Fortnam is an English composer, conductor and musician. As a boy he lived in Blewbury Oxfordshire, moving to Kingston-Upon-Thames in 1977. Fortnam is a skilled guitarist and bass guitarist, specialising in nylon-string acoustic guitar and also sings. He is best known as the leader, conductor and principal composer of the North Sea Radio Orchestra, but also leads the smaller band Arch Garrison and was previously a key member of several other bands, most notably the Shrubbies and Lake of Puppies.

Career

Musical education and early years in rock bands

Fortnam trained in composition and guitar at Dartington College of Arts, England before moving back to London in the early 1990s to seek work as a musician. During this time, he played with several rock and folk bands connected with the cult English rock band Cardiacs, striking up a long-lasting relationship with several of the band members. Among the bands Fortnam played in was Lake of Puppies, in which he met his future wife and long-term collaborator Sharron Saddington. Fortnam and Saddington went on to form a similar pop group called the Shrubbies with two more ex-Cardiacs, saxophonist Sarah Smith and drummer Dominic Luckman.
During this time, Fortnam wrote a wide variety of music including some contemporary classical compositions which were performed by ensembles including the Kreutzer Quartet and the Britten Sinfonia.

North Sea Radio Orchestra

Craig and Sharron Fortnam formed North Sea Radio Orchestra in 2002 as a vehicle for Craig's more classically inclined compositions and Sharron's voice. The ensemble grew from an octet to a twenty-person grouping including a vocal chorus and has released four albums of original compositions – North Sea Radio Orchestra, Birds and "I A Moon" and 'Dronne'. NSRO has received a large amount of critical acclaim and played a wide variety of venues including many historic London churches and the Roundhouse.

Arch Garrison

Fortnam founded a more folk-influenced project, Arch Garrison, in 2010 as a duo of himself on voice and nylon-string guitar and James Larcombe on keyboards. The debut Arch Garrison album, King of the Down, was released by Double Six records on 22 February 2010, followed by I Will Be A Pilgrim in 2014 and The Bitter Lay in 2020.

Work under his own name

Since 2021, Fortnam has been releasing a mixture of song-based and instrumental music under his own name, beginning with Ark in 2021, and Instrumental Music 1 in 2022. A series of Bandcamp single releases put out over 2022 on a schedule based on the lunar calendar were compiled as Lunar One A Sides and Lunar One B Sides both released in November 2022 on Believers Roast and Bandcamp.

Work as session musician/instrumentalist

Fortnam was a featured musician on the soundtrack to the film A Mighty Heart, playing both guitar and bass guitar. and also played guitar on the soundtrack to the 2008 film Shifty.

Discography

With [Shrubbies]

Albums
  • North Sea Radio Orchestra
  • Birds
  • I a Moon
  • Dronne
  • Folly Bololey – The Music of Robert Wyatt NSRO/Greaves/Barbazza
  • Gap Species
  • Special Powers
Singles and EPs
  • "North Sea Radio Orchestra"
  • "The Flower"
  • "The End of Chimes"
Compilation appearances
  • Folk Off: New Folk and Psychedelia from the British Isles and North America
  • The Arctic Circle Presents: That Fuzzy Feeling
  • Mojo Presents: The Wall Re-Built!
  • ''Leader of the Starry Skies: A Tribute to Tim Smith, Songbook 1''

    With [Knifeworld]

  • Dear Lord, No Deal EP

    With Arch Garrison

  • King of the Down
  • I Will Be A Pilgrim
  • ''The Bitter Lay''

    With Cardiacs

  • ''LSD''

    Solo

  • Ark
  • Instrumental Music 1
  • Lunar One A Sides
  • Lunar One B Sides
  • Bespoke Guitar Pieces
  • Bespoke String Trios
  • ''Music for String Quartet & Percussion''

    Collaborative

  • ''The Exquisite Corpse Game''