Producer and composer Joe Acheson has carefully developed the Hidden Orchestra project from a simple initial concept of an ‘imaginary orchestra’ into something that has blossomed into a wide-ranging musical universe that is truly unlike any other.

The new album «To Dream is to Forget» brings with it a number of changes. The musical direction of the album, released on Acheson’s newly formed Lone Figures label, includes a deliberate effort to condense musical themes and ideas into more direct arrangements, with less use of field recordings than in previously released material.

Following this principle has indeed resulted in shorter average track lengths, but this rich collection of 10 original compositions retains the same high level of musicality and dearth of ideas.

The band returns familiar members Jamie Graham (drums), Tim Lane (drums) and Poppy Ackroyd (violin) as well as new members Jack McNeill (clarinet) and Rebecca Knight (cello) who help realize Acheson’s musical vision.

The album’s title is taken from a line by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa — «No one tires of dreaming, because to dream is to forget, and forgetting does not weigh us down, it is a dreamless sleep during which we awake.»

And that seems a fitting calling card for a collection that draws influence from a fantastic and diverse array of places. Musically, at any given moment you can hear the sounds of Max Cooper or Four Tet as well as Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel.