Stinsford church, near Dorchester in Dorset, just a short distance from Thomas Hardy’s birthplace at Upper Bockhampton, and the place where his heart is buried, provided the perfect setting for A Beautiful Thread, a new words and music concert concept from the ever-inventive Orchestra of the Swan (OOTS). Produced to coincide with the 150th anniversary…
Tag: David Le Page
EARTHCYCLE – A Four Seasons for the 21st century
EARTHCYCLE Orchestra of the Swan An innovative and timely project from ever-inventive Orchestra of the Swan (OOTS), Earthcycle finds a compelling way to engage with the threat of climate change, and the human impact on the Earth’s environment and the disruption of its natural rhythms through music inspired by or evoking the natural world,…
ECHOES: genre-busting inventiveness from Orchestra of the Swan
‘Echoes’ is the latest in Orchestra of the Swan’s ‘mixtape’ series, following on from ‘Timelapse’ and ‘Labyrinths’ (which has received over 8 million audio streams since 2021 and was shortlisted for Gramophone award in the Spatial Audio category). As with their previous mixtape albums, ‘Echoes’ is an eclectic mix of music encompassing a variety of…
An immersive, atmospheric mixtape: ‘Labyrinths’ from Orchestra of the Swan
Listening in not-quite-darkness, with only the dim light from my bedside clock radio, I hear An Ending (Ascent) by that master of the ambient, Brian Eno. Of course I recognise it, but not quite in this arrangement. The sounds wash gently over me and in the dark and still of the night, it’s intimate and…
Orchestra of the Swan Glides into Old Street
It’s Thursday night and the bars and pubs in Shoreditch are lit up and pumping out music into the cold November air. I have come to an album launch of Stratford-Upon Avon-based Orchestra of the Swan. It’s an edgy venue at Kachett, under the railway arches in Old Street. Half of the musicians have travelled up to London…
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