The Cinematic Orchestra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cinematic Orchestra
Genre(s) Downtempo
Acid jazz
Trip-hop
Drum'n'bass
Label(s) Ninja Tune & Domino Records
Associated acts DJ Food
Website Official website
Members
Jason Swinscoe
Phil France
Luke Flowers
Tom Chant
Nick Ramm
Stuart McCallum
Former members
Jamie Coleman
T. Daniel Howard
Alex James
Patrick Carpenter

The Cinematic Orchestra is a British-based jazz and electronic outfit, created in the late 1990s by Jason Swinscoe. The band is signed to Ninja Tune independent record label. In addition to Swinscoe, the band includes former DJ Food member Patrick Carpenter on turntables, Luke Flowers (drums), Tom Chant (Saxophone), Nick Ramm (piano), Stuart McCallum (guitar) and Phil France (double bass). Former members include Jamie Coleman (trumpet), T. Daniel Howard (drums), and Alex James (piano). The most recent addition to the band is Mancunian guitarist Stuart McCallum.

Contents

[edit] History

Swinscoe first formed a group called Crabladder in 1990, whilst studying Fine Art at Cardiff College, releasing one official single on his own Power Tools label. In 1994, Swinscoe was given a DJ spot on Heart FM, a pirate radio station in south London.

The Cinematic Orchestra's sound, in both live and studio contexts, employs a live band which improvises along with a turntablist and electronic elements such as samples provided by Swinscoe. In their studio releases Swinscoe will often remix the live source material to produce a finished product that is a seamless combination of live jazz improvisation with electronica, such that it is difficult to tell where the improvisation ends and the production begins.

Their debut album, Motion, was released in 1999. The critical success of that album led to them being asked to perform at the Director's Guild Awards ceremony for the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to film director Stanley Kubrick.

Additionally, the band was asked by the organisers of the Porto European City of Culture 2000 festival to write a new score to the classic 1929 Dziga Vertov Russian silent film Man with a Movie Camera, to be performed live in accompaniment with a showing of the film. The work differed from the band's usual compositions due to its live performance, ruling out the post production work that was present on Motion. The Cinematic Orchestra toured with the work and later released it on an album of the same name. Many of the compositions originally created for Man with a Movie Camera were later adapted from live form (adding in vocal tracks and electronic elements, among other changes) for their next album, Every Day.

[edit] Songs

The song "To Build A Home" from the album Ma Fleur was prominently used on the ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy on September 27, 2007 and on Criminal Minds the CBS crime drama episode titled "Children of the Dark" which aired on October 17, 2007. More recently it's been used in a Cadbury Schweppes ad. The song features guest vocals by Canadian Patrick Watson. It is also used in the NBC drama "Friday Night Lights" on November 2nd, 2007, in Episode 5, "Let's Get It On". The instrumental song "Prelude" from the same album was used in the seventh episode of the first season of ABC's Private Practice.

[edit] Discography

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

[edit] References