Simply put, Unexpected Pleasures carries on where Orchid-Starís album Birth, originally intended as Peteís 10th solo album, left off. As the band changed direction for their second album Pete started working at the same time on this album. Itís taken another decade to complete but is worth the wait. This is beaty psy-ethno-chill with a strong Indian influence running through much of it - journeys and stories and brief captured moments in time and space, packed with emotion and atmosphere, lush and richly coloured, powerful and delicate. It is also a chocolate box full of gorgeous and very different guest performances, from the epic Hindi/Urdu torch song Mera Dil (my heart) ñ almost 9 minutes of stunning, passionate wallñto-wall vocals from Psibindi to the entrancing, quirky, random incursions of deaf vocalist Helen Francis into the gentle but dubby title track, where she shares the vocal credits with the beautiful morning song of a Scottish blackbird. Orchid-Star vocalists Samantha Ray and Myo also feature along with 2 tracks from radiant Portuguese singer songwriter Teresa Gabriel and a bewitching, genre-blending collaboration with beatjazz wind-control virtuoso Onyx Ashanti (Soul II Soul/Basement Jaxx) who also appears on Birth. The title track was released on the Diversity in the Isles Vol 1 compilation, March 2016