The heft and glory of the NZSO collides with the Shayne Carter songbook. Ten sumptuous arrangements that keep the integrity of the originals while ‘reforming’ them and dressing them in orchestral technicolour. Classic tracks like Randolph’s Going Home and If I Were You spar with new tracks like Left To Defend. Guitar and orchestra do battle on the mighty Crystalator. Songs from Carter’s solo Offsider album, composed in a mist of classical inspiration, expand from their original two finger piano primitivism into full scale epicness. Other songs glower with the drama of orchestral restraint.
With arrangements by Tane Upjohn Beatson and conducted by Hamish McKeich, REforms is far from being a Christmas record mish mash or lightweight ‘crossover’ album. It’s a unified collection of songs that coalesce into one another and become the one singular and purposeful artistic statement ; an art record from a world class orchestra and one of Aotearoa’s greatest, most innovative songwriters.
Digital album available at
The heft and glory of the NZSO collides with the Shayne Carter songbook. Ten sumptuous arrangements that keep the integrity of the originals while ‘reforming’ them and dressing them in orchestral technicolour. Classic tracks like Randolph’s Going Home and If I Were You spar with new tracks like Left To Defend. Guitar and orchestra do battle on the mighty Crystalator. Songs from Carter’s solo Offsider album, composed in a mist of classical inspiration, expand from their original two finger piano primitivism into full scale epicness. Other songs glower with the drama of orchestral restraint.
With arrangements by Tane Upjohn Beatson and conducted by Hamish McKeich, REforms is far from being a Christmas record mish mash or lightweight ‘crossover’ album. It’s a unified collection of songs that coalesce into one another and become the one singular and purposeful artistic statement ; an art record from a world class orchestra and one of Aotearoa’s greatest, most innovative songwriters.
Digital album available at
