Some details about the AngloMockba Festival:

This is from the AngloMockba press release:

AngloMockBa – London in Moscow

Grammy Award winning musician and record producer William Orbit (Madonna’s Ray Of Light), Academy award nominated director Stephen Frears (The Queen) and Academy Award nominated musician Michael Nyman will represent contemporary Britain at the AngloMockBa festival in Moscow from 1-3 May 2009.

Liberatum & Red Square PR are delighted to announce that other British/international participants at AngloMockBa will include the acclaimed artists Michael Craig-Martin and Gavin Turk, celebrated fashion designer Henry Holland, GQ editor in chief Dylan Jones, photographer Amanda Eliasch, distinguished milliner Stephen Jones, writer/screenwriter Danny Moynihan and filmmaker Martha Fiennes among many others.

Russian guests include award-winning directors Andron Kanchalovsky and Sergei Soloviev, caricaturist Alexei Merinov, “Best Young Sculptor of Russia” Award winner Svetlana K-Lie, TV presenter Dmitry Dibrov, political leader Irina Hakamada, designer and theatre artist Andrei Sharov, designer Masha Tsigal, writer Pavel Sanaev, film maker Pavel Lungin, photographer Alexander Astafiev, film maker Pavel Bardin and actor Peter Fedorov.

The festival programme consists of stimulating debates, art exhibitions, film screenings, discussions, talks, literary and fashion events, Q&A sessions, lectures, music/DJ events and interviews.

Swissotel Krasnye Holmy is the official hotel sponsor, BMI is the official airline sponsor and TIME magazine is the international media partner. BBC Russian Service, The Moscow Times, Sex and the City and RussianUK are the media partners. With support from NFQ, Jaguar and Land Rover, Minale, Remember?, Veen Waters, Hg2, and MK. Special events will be held at the ABC FineArts Salon, The Most Club, The Chocolate Restaurant.

The aim of AngloMockBa is to strengthen UK-Russian relations by bringing together leading British and Russian cultural and media figures.

the Bolshoi Theatre

Here are just a few bullet points about areas of my activities that may be of use. I put this together for the producers of BBC Breakfast TV and it about sums it up.

Hotel ?rasnye Holmy, Moscow where I’ll be staying.

and this is Pablo Ganguli, creator of Liberatum and the AngloMockba festival

Winston Freedom Clubbin Tour
http://wifc.pdj.ru/avisha/187595.html

this site is in Russian
I will post more details about the show in Novisibirsk as soon as I know more.

If  you’re in that area or are planning to come, send me info on where is best to eat, do some shopping etc. The best way to reach me is via Twitter (just type in ‘williamorbit’)

See you there!

Novosibirk Station

The Liberatum Website has a full schedule of festival events in Moscow
http://www.liberatum.org.uk/?p=28

from the program:

11pm
ORBITING
At The Most
Party, Music and Dance
DJs: Musician William Orbit and Russian DJ
Attendance:: Yulia@redsquarepr.com

8.30
‘PREVAILING TASTE ‘

At Chocolate

103006, B.Putinkovsky pereulok, 5

(495) 787 88 66

Screening of Daphne Guinness’ ‘The Phenomenology of Body’
New collections by Svetlana Tegin
Stephen Jones and William Orbit – Fashion and Music
Q&A – Henry Holland with Andrei Sharov Hosted by Anna Jackson-Stevens
Tatiana H-S, Russian milliner presents her hat design collection
Attendance: Yulia@redsquarepr.com

Pablo Ganguli and Tomas Auksas
Tomas organised the pre-festival cocktail party at Sketch in London on April 27 that was a huge success.

post 62                

The mystery wingfish question:

Mark
grizzlelee@yahoo.com 
Submitted on: Feb 22, 2009 @ 14:12 

I’ve been doing a bit of research into your mystery background image. One possibility might be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_gurnard. 

WO
Thanks, Mark. Finally, the answer.

The Flying Gurnard.

Dactylopterus Volitans.

Remarkable for its very large pectoral fins.

When spread, they have the form of large rounded fanlike wings.

Relative of the Sea Robin.

Lives in temperate to tropical Atlantic coastal waters.

pix:
Joachim Groskopf, Thomas W. Doeppner, Wikimedian Beckmannjan, J. E. Randall,  Brian Mayes, Biyo-loji, Elisa Ceccarelli . 

 

. . .  ‘A-Z’ of Sound coming soon . . . 

post 61

?

Locky
a side profile of a quark?

Corbie
In this picture i see Godzilla eye -from very close… brrr scary

BOWLEY
Is it a glow worm?

Erik Norwa
I think the lights on the CD cover are blurred lights from your mixer.

Chris Thompson
In answer to your question, what do you think that this image is? er..It’s a certain Mr. Wainwright’s toes with a bicycle red lamp on top. The camera must have been on the floor in front…

more »»

post 55     

more answers to questions
 

 

Paul
Submitted on 2009/02/11 at 6:53pm

Hi William,When i first saw the back drop fish pic thought it looked like a turtle minus it’s shell under disco lights,those long flippers are freaky

cant work out which way its evolving

WO
It seemed to be evolving in front of my very eyes when I saw it in the water. I really would like to know what it is. But I am certain that it is not a turtle of any kind.

David Webb
Submitted on 2009/02/12 at 1:44pm

Do you still use your Juno-106? I have a stack of them that all need those notorious VCF/VCA chips that are always failing. There is a guy that is selling newly designed replacement chips but 6 @ $100 each doesn’t seem worth it for these old synths.

WO

When the chips go, things start to get bit random with the beloved 106. Mine have all had trips to the Synthesiser Service Centre at some point in their lives.

[pic taken a looooong time ago]

more »»

post 54

Friday night!

And the weekend starts here!

I’d better answer answer some questions before tea time

harvey
Submitted on 2009/02/17 at 5:43pm

sorry for being stupid but how do you enter william’s competitions?

WO
Not stupid at all, it’s a good question. Just enter your answer in the ‘Comments’ section.
Sometimes, there is a ‘Comments’ section at the bottom of the post.

But there is ALWAYS a ‘Comments’ tab at the top of the most recent post
(where you came in)

Kelly V
Submitted on 2009/02/14 at 6:57pm

Hello William,

I have been watching re-rums of the television series Wonderland and wanted to purchase the theme song from the program. However, I cannot find this song on itunes and after a search on the internet, I found your name listed as composer. Can you tell me where I could purchase this song? There is something about it that just moves me.

WO
Hi Kelly. You could contact Warner Music (Madonna’s label). Or Maverick Records. Wonderland was written and directed by Peter Berg for ABC in 2000 and originally had only the first two episodes shown. DirecTV in the US recently aired all eight episodes.

wonderland TV series music

wonderland extended

ps That’s Rupert Everett singing the harmonies in the background.

post 37                

Questions and Answers  Sunday 8th Feb

 

 

 

 

A few people have asked me how to put a picture of themselves on their ‘comment’. It’s a bit fiddly but I hope you try it because I much prefer to see a picture or an image.

If you register your email address at http://en.gravatar.com/, you can get yourself an avatar image that follows you from blog to blog. You only have to do it once.

Here is more information:
http://www.zath.co.uk/wordpress-gravatars-for-comments/

otherwise it’s that snowman picture (and we’ve had quite enough snow lately)

 

 

 

Timothy Strelchun
Submitted on 2009/01/29 at 7:41am

I just lucked out and found the Strange Cargo Hinterland album on CD used at a local shop and have been chilling out to it this evening. It really reminds me that I need to reconnect me old record player and rip my first exposure to William Orbit and Laurie Mayer that I have on LP – Torch Song Wish Thing. I just wish I had the tracks from Ecstacy and Exhibit A (a

friend of mine I’m no longer in touch with used to have a copy).

Any chance the tracks from these albums can be reissued as singles or albums/sets for download in some for (MP3s/etc.)? I have Toward the Unknown Region but am itching for the older material.

Cheers,
Timothy

WO
There are lots of tracks on the first Torch Song albums that I’m not so keen on. And the demos. well I just cannot listen to them. There are a few early Torch Song numbers from those early days (circa 1982 to 1984) that stand up reasonably well and I will put them up in the near future.  Why not set a date? I’ve written in my diary: Tuesday 17th Feb. I know that I have been late with the A to Z of Production sometimes but this will be done on that very date.

My preferred  Torch Song album is ‘Towards the Unknown Region’ and apart from the drums I think that it sounds better with time. IMHO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

happy
Submitted on 2009/01/29 at 6:11pm

. . . Anyhow, I have to add my voice to others here who are asking about certain other recent audio projects of yours that the vast majority of us never got to hear, namely “Orchestral Suite” and “Cellcloud.” 

WO
Cellcloud will be a forthcoming album by Torch Song. Orchestral Suite, eventually, but not till after I’ve released ‘My Oracle Lives Uptown’ on April 6th. The Orchestral Suite was an experiment and people mustn’t expect too much from it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adam Hunt
Submitted on 2009/01/30 at 3:32am

Okay, so I finally found a program this week to decode flac into mp3 which enabled me to listen to Stereo Odyssey and OH MY GOD!!!! it’s like Strange Cargo 3 but a bazillion times greater!! It’s so refreshing (said in 2009) to hear all those familiar samples and sounds of yours presented in a different way – it’s amazing how some bits and pieces stay with you for years too – like Radioharp which I heard in there lol..!

I think Odyssey is you at your purest form free from constraints and conformity : hypnotic ethereal electronica with that Eastern ambience (SC3), infusing ethnic percussion and sampling whatever pleases your ear without being constrained by copyright or licensing.

Kudos – I only wish I had listened to this 13 years ago aaaarrrghh!

WO
I love the medium of radio more than anything. And KCRW is a fantastic station.  I was just talking with last week about doing something like that again. 

 

  89.9 FM

 

They’ve been having their winter subscriptions drive all week, I think that tomorrow is the last day. Any money pledged to KCRW in money very well spent in my opinion!  That’s how they keep going.
 

Gavin Kendall
Submitted on 2009/02/03 at 1:50pm

Hi William,
The answer to your quiz is E,N & T

WO
Correct indeed Gavin!
‘Eight Nine Ten’
The prize (which I forgot to say last week) is a promo copy of ‘My Oracle Lives Uptown’. You’ll need to send me your address (I won’t print it of course.)
 

 

 

 

I will think up a new competition for this Tuesday, Same prize. Let me know if you would like it signed or not. 

Fraenky
Submitted on 2009/02/03 at 5:57pm

William,
when can i have this new CD in my hands?Hey William, I am so envious of the fames which may hold the new CD album in her hands. When do I get the CD? I can hardly wait for it, until one can acquire here in Germany. Many lots of love from Berlin Fränky
WO

Monday April 6th. I will try to keep you entertained till then on this blog Fränky.

Tom Smith
Submitted on 2009/02/05 at 4:27am

I’ll take a stab at your riddle too … I’m gonna’ guess OTTFFSSBWM? Stands for: Other Than The Frozen Foods Section Snow Balls Will Melt?

WO
Very good Tom. You didn’t win the prize but I like where you’re coming from.
 

Tom Smith
Submitted on 2009/02/05 at 4:32am

PS – If that’s not it, it would make for a great future album title…

I look forward to your album, Tom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris
Submitted on 2009/02/05 at 6:08am

Hi William
I have been a massive fan of yours for a while now and I’m also a massive fan of your work with Madonna on the Ray Of Light album. In particular my all time favorite track to this day is still Skin, I adore the harmonies at the very end where you think there is nothing left but when you crank the volume in a sound program you hear them.
 

WO
To be honest Chris, I hadn’t listened to it for a long time. So I played it on my home system and was enjoying all of it’s moods. I wish that I did have an instrumental and an acappella of it. 

 

Erwin
Submitted on 2009/02/05 at 6:39am

Hi William!

First Question : Did you photoshop the pictures of the celebs holding your new CD? If you did, its awesome! I am a designer, absolutely love Photoshop!!

Second Question : Did you know that Depeche Mode’s new album is coming out in April?! Its called “Sounds of the Universe”.

I cant believe that they and you are bringing out a new album in the same month! Awesomeness!

WO
I admit it! I did it in Photoshop. It must be obvious because I am only a beginner at this fantastic tool. I’ve not met any of the people in pictures except Oprah. I met her when I was in Madonna’s ‘backing band’ and we performed ‘Ray of Light’ on her TV show (I’m probably on screen for .5 of a second! Oh yes, and Brad Pitt stayed at that hotel that I lived at five years ago.

Will Ferrell is the greatest! “If the moon was made of ribs would you eat it”?

And your second question: I didn’t know about the Mode’s new album but I do now and I’ll order it today.

 

Stissiork
Submitted on 2009/02/06 at 1:10am

Your site displays incorrectly in Opera, but content excellent! Thanks for your wise words =)

 

 

 

WO

Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I’ll get web guru Richard Shea onto it. But we did test       on Internet Explorer, Firefox & Safari which work well.

 

Erik
Submitted on 2009/02/06 at 5:08pm

Hi William
I’ve been a fan of you for years now, and to date not one of your productions has let me down (my favourites being your remix of Pierre Henry’s Psyche rock and Blur’s Bugman). I can’t wait for the new realease :O

And I was wondering, is the new version of “Where to you go” that was on your page earlier going to be realeased? Or could you post the whole song like you did with guitar-sitar? Which by the way is such a beatiful song 

And how bout starting to sell unrealeased material right here on your website? There were so many beautiful tracks in your audio section, whould be nice to hear them in full versions.

And lastly, as many others are wondering to, will your orchestral suite ever be realeased or at least aired on BBC? (I mailed BBC about 3 months after the concert, and they said they had no plans as of then to air it:( WHY?)

Thank you for an amazing blog, looking forward to every new thing you do 

Erik
Norway

WO
That’s TWO tracks I’ve dug out of the archives to refresh my memory. ‘Skin’ (see above) and now ‘Bugman’. I listened to it with headphones and it warped my brain. It was pure anarchy when I recorded that album (“13”) with Blur. A great experience with a great band. I will do a feature on that production some time. I like that album more and more as time passes but hadn’t listened to all of it for a while.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I might put up ‘Where do you Go’ some time soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[See above for the answer to your question about ‘orchestra suite’]

Paul
Submitted on 2009/02/06 at 11:14pm

That is a one bizzare looking fish/mammal do you know what it is?

 

 

 

WO
I was rather hoping that somebody would tell me that. It was twenty or thirty yards out from the shore, just beneath the surface, on the west coast of Barbados.

They were about 18 inches long and had kind of flipper ‘wings’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

post 30                

Questions and Answers

Mark Moore
Submitted on 2009/01/27 at 1:39pm

Hi William, The Adelson illusion is brilliant and explains so much, so simply. I went to see a tonal music recital last night, ‘The Sacred Power of Harmonics’, with voices, Tibetan singing bowls and gongs. The guy was making a low ‘om’ tone with his mouth and a hi-pitched tone with his lips (which sounded uncannily like a vocoder or auto-tune with phasing!). I’ve heard this sound before in movies and documentaries but always assumed the additional sound was an instrument rather than a lone human voice. The combination of the two notes sometimes gave the illusion of a third. As for the bowls and gongs… it was pure BBC Radiophonic Workshop. If you didn’t know you would swear they were using synths.

WO
Hi Mark

That must have been fascinating. Phantom voice mantras and Radiophonic Workshop bowls! Didn’t they use tape recordings of lampshades at different speeds to create their soundscapes? And the monks probably need a lifetime to develop that sound. We do have it easy these days with out laptop synths and deejay downloading decks!

I should mention. Ladies and gentleman, this is THE Mark Moore here, the man who created the legendary S-Express and kickstarted the whole 90′s dance movement!

more »»

 

Questions and Answers

 

Jake Myler
Submitted on 2009/01/15 at 7:37pm

. . . I also am curious as Gavin Kendall is about the Strange cargo thing. Will there be anything with that name released again? On the flip side however, does it really make any difference though, were Strange Cargo albums of a particular musical theme or were they simply a name?

WO
It’s a contractual thing Jake. I would only be able to use that name if I released it on Warners. But it makes no difference anyway, the music would be the same. It is just a name.

happy
Submitted on 2009/01/19 at 10:20pm

In the Adelson illusion [below], are the squares marked A and B really the same shade? How can you tell?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WO

I had to look twice too. And was masking it off with my fingers just to be sure. Then I got into cutting and pasting in Photoshop and it really is the same. Even as I was moving the ‘cuttout’ pieces around the chequerboard they seemed to be changing their ‘greyness’.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All part of the fascinating work of Prof. Edward H Adelson at the MIT dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/

Here he offers proof:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It is all about the context in this illusion and in sound also, the same pitch or timbre can seem changed radically when set in a different musical content.

 

Vasil Velchev
Submitted on 2009/01/25 at 10:32pm

Hi William
I don’t know if you read this, maybe you have a whole team to read and answer your fans. . .

WO

Even my teams have their own teams! (not really) And thank you for your kind comments Vasil

 

elektrolad
Submitted on 2009/01/24 at 8:26pm

01010100011010000110000101101110011010110111001100100000011001100110111101110010001000000
1111001011011110111010101110010001000000110001101101111011011100111001101101001011001000110
010101110010011000010111010001101001011011110110111000100001

WO

01011001011011110111010100100000011101110110010101110010011001010010000001100001011100110
11010110110100101101110011001110010000001100001011000100110111101110101011101000010000001
10010001101111011010010110111001100111001000000110000100100000011100100110010101101101011
0100101111000001011100010000001000100011010010110010000100000011110010110111101110101001
00000011010000110000101110110011001010010000001100001001000000111000001100001011100100
11101000110100101100011011101010110110001100001011100100010000001110100011100100110000101
10001101101011001000000110100101101110001000000110110101101001011011100110010000111111

 

Nacho
Submitted on 2009/01/19 at 6:23pm

… long held thoughs: Would it be possible for you to find a way of releasing the “uncut” unedited tracks? I mean, for Djs it has been very difficult to Dj with most of your tracks, if anything BECAUSE although they usually present the music themes or rhythmic ideas in a interesting way, but they usually end in a fade out, typically when things are getting to a new interest layer…

more »»