As you may remember us saying in issue 4, orchestral music is a beautiful thing. However, these days, outside of film scores and experimental pieces, great orchestral music from the past five decades does not seem to get that much attention. We have found yet another example of excellence in orchestral music; yet another one from over thirty years ago. High and Counting is a collection of pieces composed by Nigel Hess and made available for media licensing by De Wolfe Music in 1981. The pieces were played by the International Studio Orchestra, which, in the 2018 book Unusual Sounds by David Hollander, was revealed to be just a name for De Wolfe Music's team of skilled studio musicians; somehow, we knew who the ISO was all along, though it was never stated outright who they were. Nigel was known...

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