Folk-rock duo Bear’s Den released a new version of their track Fuel On The Fire last week, a collaboration with long-term friend of the band, composer and arranger Paul Frith.

The track originally appeared on last year’s top-20 album So That You Might Hear Me, but the new release is a studio recording of the version of the track the band did with Frith for their ‘Fragments’ live shows back in 2018. It replaces the pulsating electro sound of the original with a laid back, minimal feel that allows lead singer Andrew Davie’s vocals to take on a new resonance.

The three ‘Fragments’ concerts featured Frith’s arrangements of some of Bear’s Den’s back catalogue, and Frith also reworked some of their tracks and created his own pieces inspired by the band’s work. A selection of those songs has also been grouped together and will be released as Fragments album later in the year.

Writing on their official Facebook page, the band said: “The hope was that Paul’s re-imaginings, his orchestral re-interpretations, would shed new light on some of our songs and in turn cause different reactions in the music and stir different emotions in the listener.”

Frith used his Twitter account to announce his own pride in the project, writing “The guys asked me to have fun with their tracks: adding arrangements to some of them, re-working others, and even writing short new pieces inspired by them. “We put together an amazing set of players and did 3 concerts of the re-imagings, and I can truly say it was one of my highlights of recent years!” Fragments is out on September 18, and is available to pre-order on the band’s official website.

Fragments tracklist:

1. Fuel On The Fire

2. Auld Wives

3. Can’t You Hear It In The Silence?

4. Crow 5. As The Clouds Began To Part

6. Isaac

7. Fireworks Flashing

8. When You Break

9. Broken Parable

10. Breaker / Keeper

11. Lightning Trying To Put Out A Spark

12. Napoleon

 folk-rock