Released on 6 September 2019, With Friends from the Orchestra is a collaboration with orchestral musicians that reimagines a selection of songs from across the Hogarth era in new orchestral arrangements.

The album grew from a series of orchestral concerts performed by the band in 2017, during which string and brass arrangements were developed and refined in live performance before being committed to studio recording. The approach gives the album an organic quality that distinguishes it from the more clinical feel that orchestral rock collaborations sometimes produce.

Songs including “The Leavers”, “A Few Words for the Dead”, “Estonia”, and “Power” take on new dimensions in orchestral form, the arrangements extending their emotional range without diminishing the essential character of the original recordings. The orchestral textures complement Rothery’s guitar in particular — there are moments throughout where the interplay between strings and electric guitar achieves a rare and affecting beauty.

With Friends from the Orchestra is not a greatest hits in orchestral clothing — it is a considered, lovingly crafted reimagining of a specific body of work, and it succeeds as a standalone creative statement rather than a supplement to the existing catalogue.