One of the most famous British duos in the world of electronic music, Orbital was the forerunner of the genre later developed by Daft Punk and The Chemical Brothers. Thanks to the British duo, bands playing dance music today perform on an equal footing with rock stars at the top music festivals. Orbital is also well-known for the element of live improvisation during their shows.
Orbital was founded by two brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll in 1989. The artists recorded their first track using their father’s cassette deck. The piece called “Chime” was released in December 1989. The track reached number 17 in the UK charts. It earned the band an appearance in the legendary programme “Top of the Pops”. Their debut album titled “Orbital” (also known as the “Green Album”) was recorded by the brothers in 1991.
The second studio album “Orbital 2” released in 1993 won them both critical acclaim and numerous fans. The album reached number 28 in the UK charts and stayed there for fifteen weeks. It opens with the track “Time Becomes” which contains a sampled composition of Michael Dorn’s line from the movie “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. The same motif was used at the beginning of “Moebius”, the track from their first album. The pun was intended to trick fans into believing that they got the first album of the duo packaged as “Orbital 2” by mistake.
In 1996 the band recorded the single “The Box”, which reached number 11 in the UK. The album “In Sides” with the above track became the Top Five album. It included considerably more dance music than the previous releases and was well received by music critics. The brothers also contributed to soundtracks of such films and TV series as: “Event Horizon”, “The Saint”, “The Beach”, “xXx”, “Octane” and “Pusher”.
In 2004, after a series of successful gigs, the group split up and each brother pursued a solo career in music production. Orbital returned to the stage in 2009 to headline the Big Chill festival. It was live music that was the oxygen stimulating the creative work of the duo. The brothers performed at the largest festivals worldwide, including: Glastonbury, Homelands, Tribal Gathering, Fuji Rock, Lollapalooza, Electric Picnic, Global Gathering, Creamfields, Blue Dot, Woodstock or Coachella. The British performed also at the 2012 Paralympics opening ceremony in London.
Since the beginning of their career, the duo have released a total of eight albums. The upcoming ninth one – “Monsters Exist” will premiere on 14 September 2018.
Orbital will perform at 10th Soundedit Festival on Thursday, 25 October 2018, in Klub Wytwórnia (ul. Łąkowa 29).
October 26th (Friday) headlines a Cold Wave legend The Opposition before the Club Music icon Morcheeba . October 27th (Saturday) will feature Mery Spolsky, Nosowska and Giorgio Moroder. On the same day the official ceremony of awarding “The Man with the Golden Ear” statuette will take place.
Soundedit Festival 4 Day Pass 25-28 October 2018 (Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday) at the price of 230 PLN zł can be purchased at: ticketmaster.pl, bilety24.pl and biletomat.pl. Thursday Day Ticket for Orbital costs 110 PLN zł. Day Tickets for other days (Friday, Saturday) cost 110 PLN zł each. Passes and tickets may also be purchased at Klub Wytwórnia ul. Łąkowa 29, tel.: 42 639 55 55, (bilety@wytwornia.pl) as well as in the chain stores of Empik, Media Markt and Saturn.
“I Am The Sound!” – I am the sound. I am the tone. I am the music. Welcome to the 10th edition of Soundedit, welcome to Łódź!
Photo: Kenny McCraken
by