пятница, 12 августа 2011 г.
MUSIC INTERVIEW: Alex Paterson, The Orb
He is the king of prog rock guitar, they are ambient house pioneers whose music has regularly been compared to Pink Floyd.
Perhaps the biggest surprise about the new collaboration between David Gilmour and The Orb is that it's the first time that they have worked together.
The record is called Metallic Spheres, an epic symphony of guitar improvisation, beats, samples and dreamlike electronica, that's finally coming out, after some delay, this month.
Orb mainstay Alex Paterson explains the album began life as a Gilmour solo project to raise the profile of Gary McKinnon, the 44-year-old Scottish computer hacker fighting extradition to the USA on charges of illegally breaking into more than 90 computer networks owned by NASA, the US Army, US Navy, Department of Defence and the US Air Force.
McKinnon's lawyers contest that he has Asperger's syndrome and should not face a court in Virginia.
The guitarist had in mind a version of the Graham Nash song Chicago; his producer, Martin 'Youth' Glover had other ideas and telephoned his old friend Paterson asking him if he'd like to be involved.
"Mr Youth can be a bit of a space cake when he wants to be," jokes Paterson. "For some reason (David Gilmour) says he was turning up then he wasn't. Whoops, that's The Orb going on again. That was just the beginning of it."
Eventually Gilmour did begin jamming in the studio on his lap steel and electric guitar. Youth added bass and keyboards and Paterson took the results away to manipulate.
"We were supplied with so many guitar parts, we thought let's try some different beats with different guitar parts," says Paterson. "With some restructuring we thought, 'We've got a bit of an album going on'."
For a while the record was only 40 minutes long, "like an old-school vinyl album", then Youth and Paterson decided to expand it, adding string parts and drumming.
"It ended up as 10 pieces of music which we put together as two," says Paterson. "It becomes symphonic in its arrangements."
Spontaneity was key.
"We wanted to change people's perspective of The Orb, we're not just a techno band or a dance band," says Paterson. "Well, we were. but in the ambient world we're very established and well liked too.
"We were doing gigs with Kraftwerk a few years ago and Karl (Bartos, Kraftwerk's longtime percussionist) said, 'We wanted to come and see you play'."
(Bartos also wanted a photograph with The Orb but when he saw the shot he quipped "There are no little fluffy clouds in the photo. We have to go outside.")
Gilmour was less certain. "It took a lot of persuading for David to release the album, to be brutally honest," says Paterson. "We took him by surprise, we caught him unawares."
Still, relent he did, though not without insisting that the samples used on the record were well concealed and strictly above-board.
"It's a much more organic album for that reason," admits Paterson. "Youth has done a supreme job on it. He has taken it and polished it and made the whole thing sound more organic.
"It took a year to get the go-ahead," he confides. "Up to a month ago we did not know if it was going to come out. That's rock'n'roll.
"It's making me feel like a spring chicken working with Gilmour," quips 50-year-old Paterson about a collaborator 14 years his senior.
The finished project is very much "a dream come true for Youth", says Paterson, though he himself is not perhaps the avid Pink Floyd obsessive that some might imagine. "I love some of the albums," he says. "Meddle and Echoes 10 out of 10, Wish You Were Here I like. Dark Side of the Moon is overplayed."
Paterson is more a fan of German electronic music. "Neu! – what the hell was that?" he says. "Eno was doing stuff with Cluster. (Cluster engineer] Conny Plank was the producer for a Killing Joke album. As their roadie I got to hang out with him and set stuff up. That was a bit of a grounding for me, seeing 'this is where Eno got his ideas from' which was unbeknown to me at the time."
It was three things that got Paterson into ambient music 30 years ago. "The Rhr in Germany, Music For Films by Brian Eno and a tab of acid. I can't really explain it any better than that.
"We were stuck in a block of flats after a gig in Essen. Killing Joke had just signed to EG (Brian Eno's record label]. I was riflng through somebody's records for what to put on. I found this record on the EG label and wondered 'What this?' It was Music For Films. I put it on and stood outside on the balcony watching all these furnaces pouring molten lead into the sky. It's like the ICI works in Middlesbrough. There's something beautiful about it, but you know it's not good."
All being well there will now be "three or four big gigs" to accompany the release of Metallic Spheres in London, Los Angeles and Ibiza. "London will be after Christmas," says Paterson. "There's going to be some holographic imagery. I'm working with people in so many different centres at the moment."
Biography
The Orb (sometimes credited as simply Orb) is a British electronic music band known for pioneering the genre of ambient house. The Orb is heavily influenced by dub music, and much of their later output has been in the electronic dub category, more so than ambient house.
The group was formed in 1988 by Dr. Alex Paterson (full name Duncan Robert Alex Paterson) and Jimmy Cauty (one half of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and later The KLF). The Orb’s first release was the acid house anthem “Tripping on Sunshine”.
In May 1989, the Orb released the “Kiss EP”, which was heavily influenced by New York’s KISS FM. Paterson began DJing around London, England at this time when he met Paul Oakenfold. At Oakenfold’s behest, Paterson began DJing at Land of Oz, the chill-out room at Heaven.
Paterson mixed samples of BBC nature recordings, NASA space broadcasts and everything in between into the music of ambient pioneers such as Brian Eno. Around this time, Paterson met Steve Hillage and Hillage later contributed guitar to the Orb’s “Blue Room” single. In return Paterson worked on Hillage’s System 7 project.
In October 1989 the Orb released the 22-minute single “A huge ever growing pulsating brain that rules from the centre of the ultraworld”, which contains large chunks of Minnie Riperton’s “Loving You”. The single managed to reach the lower end of the UK chart. Although Paterson and Cauty had been working on a debut album, the two split in April 1990. Cauty removed Paterson’s contributions to the album and released the remainder as “Space”.
Killing Joke’s Youth, who’d recently found dancefloor success with Blue Pearl assisted with the single “Little Fluffy Clouds”, but existing commitments made it impossible for him to be anything more than a part-time member. In his place, Paterson recruited Kris Weston (aka Thrash), a young studio engineer who had worked on “Little Fluffy Clouds” and recently left Fortran 5.
In April, 1991, the Orb’s debut album, “Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld” was released in the United Kingdom to critical acclaim. The double-album obtained a top 30 placing in the UK.
“U.F.Orb” was released in July, 1992. It featured the 39 minute 59 second “Blue Room” which was their third single to reach the UK charts, although the album version was only 17 minutes long. Early pressings of the album were available in three differently coloured sealed plastic packs (black (10,000) and blue (5,000) in the UK and green (1,000) in the US) containing an additional disc with the soundtrack from Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (Patterns & Textures edition), a mail order only long form video released by the Orb.
During 1993 and 1994 the Orb were dismayed by Big Life’s intention to re-issue some of the Orb’s earlier material. As a result, Paterson and Thrash opted out of their contract and Paterson signed an international deal with Chris Blackwell’s Island Records. The double-album “Live ‘93” soon followed. It was a mix of recordings made in Glastonbury, Copenhagen and Tokyo. The album’s credits included, Simon Phillips, Nick Burton, Kris Weston, Fluff and of course Paterson.
In June, 1994, they released their first studio album for Island, “Pomme Fritz (The Orb’s Little Album)”. The album reached number six on the UK, but critics hated it, even comparing Paterson to Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett.
August, 1994 saw the release of a collaboration between Robert Fripp, Paterson, Weston, and Thomas Fehlmann, hence the name FFWD or Fripp, Fehlmann, Weston and Duncan. Weston’s input was already diminishing by this time and following the release of FFWD, he finally parted company with Paterson. He was replaced by Thomas Fehlmann.
“Orbus Terrarum” was released in March, 1995. In February, 1997, following an ambitious world tour, they released “Orblivion”.
The retrospective “U.F.OFF” came in October, 1998 and was initially available in a Limited Edition double CD.
“Cydonia”, although recorded in 1999, was delayed by Island until its release in February, 2001. Several different versions of the album were leaked on the Net some time before the official release.
The 2004 released album “Bicycles & Tricycles” strongly departed from their earlier ambient sound, and incorporated strong hip-hop influenced rhythms, including rap on one of the tracks.
In 2005 the Orb released a new studio album, “Okie Dokie It’s The Orb on Kompakt”, which focused heavily on the microhouse and pop ambient sounds that the Kompakt label is well known for.
2005 also saw the release of “Orbsessions Volume 1”, which was an album of rarities from throughout The Orbs’ career.
Sadly, Andy Hughes passed away, June 12 2009, following a ‘short illness’.
The group was formed in 1988 by Dr. Alex Paterson (full name Duncan Robert Alex Paterson) and Jimmy Cauty (one half of The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and later The KLF). The Orb’s first release was the acid house anthem “Tripping on Sunshine”.
In May 1989, the Orb released the “Kiss EP”, which was heavily influenced by New York’s KISS FM. Paterson began DJing around London, England at this time when he met Paul Oakenfold. At Oakenfold’s behest, Paterson began DJing at Land of Oz, the chill-out room at Heaven.
Paterson mixed samples of BBC nature recordings, NASA space broadcasts and everything in between into the music of ambient pioneers such as Brian Eno. Around this time, Paterson met Steve Hillage and Hillage later contributed guitar to the Orb’s “Blue Room” single. In return Paterson worked on Hillage’s System 7 project.
In October 1989 the Orb released the 22-minute single “A huge ever growing pulsating brain that rules from the centre of the ultraworld”, which contains large chunks of Minnie Riperton’s “Loving You”. The single managed to reach the lower end of the UK chart. Although Paterson and Cauty had been working on a debut album, the two split in April 1990. Cauty removed Paterson’s contributions to the album and released the remainder as “Space”.
Killing Joke’s Youth, who’d recently found dancefloor success with Blue Pearl assisted with the single “Little Fluffy Clouds”, but existing commitments made it impossible for him to be anything more than a part-time member. In his place, Paterson recruited Kris Weston (aka Thrash), a young studio engineer who had worked on “Little Fluffy Clouds” and recently left Fortran 5.
In April, 1991, the Orb’s debut album, “Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld” was released in the United Kingdom to critical acclaim. The double-album obtained a top 30 placing in the UK.
“U.F.Orb” was released in July, 1992. It featured the 39 minute 59 second “Blue Room” which was their third single to reach the UK charts, although the album version was only 17 minutes long. Early pressings of the album were available in three differently coloured sealed plastic packs (black (10,000) and blue (5,000) in the UK and green (1,000) in the US) containing an additional disc with the soundtrack from Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (Patterns & Textures edition), a mail order only long form video released by the Orb.
During 1993 and 1994 the Orb were dismayed by Big Life’s intention to re-issue some of the Orb’s earlier material. As a result, Paterson and Thrash opted out of their contract and Paterson signed an international deal with Chris Blackwell’s Island Records. The double-album “Live ‘93” soon followed. It was a mix of recordings made in Glastonbury, Copenhagen and Tokyo. The album’s credits included, Simon Phillips, Nick Burton, Kris Weston, Fluff and of course Paterson.
In June, 1994, they released their first studio album for Island, “Pomme Fritz (The Orb’s Little Album)”. The album reached number six on the UK, but critics hated it, even comparing Paterson to Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett.
August, 1994 saw the release of a collaboration between Robert Fripp, Paterson, Weston, and Thomas Fehlmann, hence the name FFWD or Fripp, Fehlmann, Weston and Duncan. Weston’s input was already diminishing by this time and following the release of FFWD, he finally parted company with Paterson. He was replaced by Thomas Fehlmann.
“Orbus Terrarum” was released in March, 1995. In February, 1997, following an ambitious world tour, they released “Orblivion”.
The retrospective “U.F.OFF” came in October, 1998 and was initially available in a Limited Edition double CD.
“Cydonia”, although recorded in 1999, was delayed by Island until its release in February, 2001. Several different versions of the album were leaked on the Net some time before the official release.
The 2004 released album “Bicycles & Tricycles” strongly departed from their earlier ambient sound, and incorporated strong hip-hop influenced rhythms, including rap on one of the tracks.
In 2005 the Orb released a new studio album, “Okie Dokie It’s The Orb on Kompakt”, which focused heavily on the microhouse and pop ambient sounds that the Kompakt label is well known for.
2005 also saw the release of “Orbsessions Volume 1”, which was an album of rarities from throughout The Orbs’ career.
Sadly, Andy Hughes passed away, June 12 2009, following a ‘short illness’.
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