Following on from his 1970 album, Thro' The Recent Years, recorded with Barbara Dickson, Decca Records invited Archie Fisher to record a followup solo set. Orfeo features a mix of traditional songs and self- penned tracks which was ultimately released as Decca SKL 5057 later that year. Barbara was once again on board, this time providing backing vocals with Rab Noakes, another friend of theirs from the Fife folk scene, playing guitar with Daryl Runswick featuring on bass and Bill Kemp on drums. The album was produced by Ray Horricks who had been working with Decca Records and a handful of smaller labels throughout the 60's on a wide range of genres including folk albums by artists including Shirley Collins, Moira Anderson and Davey Graham, musical soundtracks and early singles by Rod Stewart, as well as several releases by Kenneth McKellar. Of the eleven tracks on Orfeo, four are traditional with the others being new songs written by Archie. Looking back on the album, Archie comments that the songs were intended to be very stylised and very chord-orientated and very much built around guitar tunes which were breaking away from the traditional songs and more towards jazz guitar and torch music. Barbara Dickson also feels that with Orfeo, Archie was keen to break new ground. He was defnitely moving forward musically which was the most important thing I think. Orfeo has been digitally remastered from the original studio master tapes and features detailed CD liner notes on Archie's long career as a traditional music pioneer.
