Turn of the Cards is the fifth studio album by the English progressive rock band Renaissance, released in July 1974. It was the last Renaissance studio album to include excerpts from existing classical pieces. It was also the first album recorded by the group after Michael Dunford, who had written songs for their previous three albums, joined the group as an acoustic guitarist. In the UK, this was the first release on Miles Copeland's fledgling label, BTM Records (British Talent Managers). In 1977, after releasing a total of 10 albums, including two more by Renaissance (Scheherazade and Other Stories and the double LP Live at Carnegie Hall), the label folded due to bankruptcy. Cover art Hipgnosis, who had previously designed the covers to the band's albums Prologue and Ashes Are Burning, designed the cover. After producing a storyboard of ideas, they visited the recording studio to get a feel for the music, then produced the final artwork. The castle in the background is Warwick Castle. The first BTM UK pressings had an alternate back cover, with a close-up portrait of Annie Haslam framed in one of the 'cards'. Background and recording For Turn of the Cards, Renaissance again made use of De Lane Lea Studios and co-producer/engineer Dick Plant. Richard Gottehrer, co-founder of Renaissance's new American record label Sire Records, is also credited as co-producer of the album, but according to drummer Terry Sullivan, Gottehrer never set foot inside De Lane Lea Studios and his sole involvement with the album was collaborating on the final remix of "Things I Don't Understand", which was done at Record Plant Studios in the U.S. "Things I Don't Understand" was a problematic track from the beginning. During the first take the band went into a spontaneous instrumental jam that they were all very pleased with, but after returning from a break they found that the tape op had accidentally erased the entire recording. The producers did numerous mixes of the song in a struggle to find a sound that everyone could be satisfied with. "Things I Don't Understand" was founder member Jim McCarty's last released contribution to the band. However, it was an old Renaissance song; bassist/vocalist Jon Camp said that when he joined Renaissance back in 1972, it was already a part of the band's set list. Prologue was the last time McCarty actively wrote songs for Renaissance, rather than simply allowing them