Freedonia State Orchestra

Nicholas Breeze Wood
Mandolin. Mandola. Oud. Recorders. Sixhole Pipe. Percussion.

Bob Minney
Accordion. Hammered Dulcimer. Sixhole pipe. Guzle. Percussion. Piano.

Mervyn Brunt
Violin. Bagpipes. Hurdy Gurdy.

A cd of traditional Eastern European dance music. Released in 1990.

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The story of the F.S.O. is one of the saddest stories of artistic trauma heard in more recent times. Forced to flee from their beloved Freedonia in the summer of 1922 after the total failure of that years Krishna Myrrh tea crop; the cash-crop on which the Freedonian economy was based; the 73 members of the orchestra were forced to find other methods of earning a living in new and strange lands.
Many, reduced to eating the boiled-up bags of their bagpipes: died of flatulence, while others travelled to the Alps where they learned to catch small defenceless rather cute, furry animals with the aid of violin string snares and other, savage, painful, yet highly effective gathering techniques. These animals they then dried in the hot Alpine sunshine and sold to the local tourists as traditional mittens.
Eventually In the late Summer of 1952 the Freedonian economy was stabilised once again with the introduction of Yak farming, and the subsequent export of Yak skin bath towels and toiletries, and many of the orchestra's members returned to their homeland to take up positions in local government departments.
Of the original members of the F.S.O. living outside Freedonia only three now remain alive. Unable to return to their homeland due to an incurable addiction to compact discs and small tins of cat food; an offence punishable by death in Freedonia, they are forced to live in exile in Britain.
This recording is a sad reminder of the past glories of Freedonian orchestral music, and the money raised from its sales helps to buy the F.S.O. compact discs and other essentials.