Birds is the second album by the English cross-disciplinary musical ensemble North Sea Radio Orchestra. It was released on December 1, 2008, on Oof! Records. Background Birds was a continuation of the work begun on the ensemble's first album, North Sea Radio Orchestra, consisting almost entirely of original compositions and containing settings of antique poetry from the Victorian and Edwardian eras and earlier. As with the previous album, Birds contained settings of poems by Thomas Hardy ("The Wound" and "Phantom") and Alfred, Lord Tennyson ("The Flower" and "Move Eastward Happy Earth", both of which had been in the repertoire of the ensemble since its earliest concerts in 2002). Birds expanded the band's choice of poetry for setting choice by including settings of Geoffrey Chaucer ("Now Welcom Somer") and William Blake ("The Angel", "A Poison Tree" and "Golden Cage"). Almost all of the music was written by group leader Craig Fortnam with the exception of "Personent Hodie" (a Fortnam arrangement of a traditional tune) and "Harbour Wall", which was a Fortnam arrangement of a composition by William D. Drake (the original of which had appeared as a solo piano performance on Drake's 2007 album Yews Paw). The band performed a concert at St Martin in the Fields on 18 November 2008 to promote the release of Birds. One album track, "The Flower", had previously been released as the first track on a 7-inch vinyl EP. Critical reception Reviews of the album were generally positive. Isle Of Man Today described Birds as "effortlessly beautiful to listen to… NSRO manage to take you back centuries to an ancient form of music while retaining an eerie ability to remain thoroughly modern… Birds has a distinctly non-conformist sound but nevertheless achieves its aim with quiet, reserved gusto. NSRO aren't about to go on a media rampage shouting about how good they are; the whole project is far too middle-class for that. But by putting out Birds they are giving their audience a knowing wink. They realise they've created a fine piece of work and you can feel the confidence growing from track to track." The Cambridgeshire Times called the album "an intriguing proposition [which] feels at times like it's just been unearthed from an archaeological dig alongside some ancient flagstones. Organ, violins, clarinet, bassoon and oboe feature heavily alongside acoustic guitar, drum, percussion and choral parts, conjuring up images of royal court musicians… [The album]