Sinfonia (2023)

Our 40th Anniversary celebrations were delayed for two years by Covid and culminated in an orchestral concert, with the 35-piece Leipzig Sinfonia at Berlin’s famous Tempodrom venue in the summer of 2022. There have been many examples of bands playing with orchestras but not many of them very good, and we were keen to avoid the mistakes of others. Many of our songs feature an element of orchestration, either as samples or with real musicians, but the intention of the concert was not only to feature these, but to pick an almost random selection and give our friend, Shir Ran Yinon, full license to rearrange them for an orchestra. At the same time, it was important to maintain the identity of the band, so the drums and bass were still going to be full-on. The aim was to avoid the appearance and sound of ‘New Model Army with an orchestra’ but instead to create a ’40-piece version of NMA’. The one-off show was a something magical and was released as a live album and DVD entitled “Sinfonia” in 2023.