“The Conservative’s Fault” marks the eleventh track on Puzzle, the new album by The Second Hand Orchestra, out on 28 October through Sing a Song Fighter Recordings. The track was composed by trombonist Viktor Brobacke and recorded live to reel-to-reel tape at Örnsbergs Musikstudio in Stockholm over two days in April.

Led by musician and producer Karl Jonas Winqvist, The Second Hand Orchestra functions as an open collective of instrumentalists who treat recording as shared authorship. Their sound draws from experimental folk, informal chamber music, and a home-recorded tradition rooted in spontaneity. For Puzzle, the Swedish ensemble gathered thirteen players, each contributing one original idea. Given an hour per piece, the group rehearsed, arranged, and recorded before moving to the next, capturing the album in the same order as its tracklist.

The orchestra describes the process as democratic music-making at its finest, emphasising spontaneity over refinement. The recording, engineered and mixed by Alexander Pierre and mastered by Kramer in Asheville, North Carolina, maintains the immediacy of live performance while revealing the trust, communication and cohesion between the musicians.

In contrast with the covers and reinterpretations featured on earlier releases, Puzzle consists entirely of original compositions. It continues the ensemble’s approach to collective authorship while expanding their repertoire beyond adaptations of existing songs.

“The Conservative’s Fault” carries the humour and tension suggested by its title yet fits naturally within the album’s shared spirit. Brobacke’s composition anchors Puzzle’s final stretch, reflecting the ensemble’s instinct for play, risk and cooperative recording.

Listen to “The Conservative’s Fault” and pre-order Puzzle HERE