Fortnam trained in composition and guitar at Dartington College, England before moving back to London in the early 1990s to seek work as a musician.

Fortnam and Saddington went on to form a similar pop group called the Shrubbies with two more ex-Cardiacs, saxophonist Sarah Smith and drummer Dominic Luckman.

The ensemble grew from an octet to a twenty-person grouping including a vocal chorus and has released four albums of original compositions – North Sea Radio Orchestra (2006), Birds (2008) and "I A Moon" (2011) and 'Dronne' (2016).

NSRO has received a large amount of critical acclaim and played a wide variety of venues including many historic London churches and the Roundhouse.

The debut Arch Garrison album, King of the Down, was released by Double Six records on 22 February 2010, followed by I Will Be A Pilgrim (The Household Mark, THM003) in 2014 and The Bitter Lay (Believers Roast, BR24) in 2020.