Novella (album)

Novella is the seventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Renaissance, released in 1977. Bassist Jon Camp began working as a lyricist for this album, making it the first Renaissance album since Illusion (1971) to include songs written entirely by the band members themselves.

Background and recording

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.