Novella (album)

For Novella Renaissance returned to De Lane Lea Studios, where they had recorded Ashes Are Burning and Turn of the Cards, wanting to again work with the studio's engineer, Dick Plant. Though Renaissance are credited with producing the album by themselves, the band members have said that Plant essentially co-produced the album, as he did with Ashes Are Burning and Turn of the Cards. With Novella bassist Jon Camp wrote lyrics for the group for the first time, usually with guitarist Michael Dunford collaborating with him on the music. Camp recalled, "Micky [Dunford] used to come along with the sort of main body of the song and then I used to go and stay at his house in Surrey. We'd spend 2-3 weeks together and then we’d extend the song, we'd write some music to go into it and then we'd take it to rehearsals ..." The band had done virtually no pre-production or rehearsals of the material before entering the studio, or even worked out the arrangements. As a result, recording the album took two months. To achieve the percussive effect on "Can You Hear Me?", drummer Terence Sullivan ran a gong through a flanger, while for "Midas Man" he shook a bag filled with coins. While recording "Touching Once (Is so Hard to Keep)", Richard Hewson, who handled the string arrangements for the album, suggested that a member of the orchestra perform a saxophone solo during the song; though Sullivan described the solo as "brilliant", the saxophonist was not credited for this contribution, and none of the members of Renaissance knew his name. == Release history and cover art ==

Due to the bankruptcy of the band's UK label BTM, Renaissance had no UK record deal at the time Novella was completed. In the USA, however, they were still under contract to Sire Records, so Pamela Brown, an in-house artist for Sire, painted a cover for Novella, and the album was released in the USA in January 1977. The song "Can You Hear Me?" was sampled in the Deep Puddle Dynamics' ''We Ain't Fessin' (Double Quotes)'', and Blockheads' Music by Cavelight track "Sunday Seance". Esoteric Recordings released a re-mastered, three CD expanded edition of the album on 5 July 2019. == Track listing ==

Expanded edition == Personnel ==

Renaissance • Annie Haslam – lead and backing vocals • Michael Dunford – acoustic guitars, backing vocals • John Tout – piano, analogue synthesizers, Hohner D6 clavinet • Jon Camp – bass, acoustic guitars, co-lead vocals on "The Captive Heart", backing vocals, Moog bass pedals, cello on "The Sisters" • Terence Sullivan – drums, percussion, backing vocals Additional musicians • Richard Hewson - orchestral arrangements & conductor • uncredited - saxophone solo on "Touching Once" Production • Dick Plant - engineer, co-producer [uncredited] • Barry Kidd - assistant engineer ==Notes==