Orchestra Of Spheres
My profile of Orchestra of Spheres is live on Audio Culture now.
Selected Works is a weekly (usually) newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell, aka Yours Truly. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately and some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken + some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms.
Described by the Canadian electronic musician Caribou as “Part Sun Ra otherworldliness, part Sublime Frequencies and part ESG,” Wellington’s Orchestra of Spheres embodies a longstanding local avant-garde music tradition that stretches back through the decades into the 1970s/1980s scenes that emerged around The Wellington Artist’s Co-op, Braille Collective, and The Primitive Art Group.
Dressed in otherworldly costumes, they perform with homemade invented instruments such as the biscuit-tin guitar, the sexomouse marimba and the huhu organ, and more traditional musical tools like drums and synths, as well as chanted and sung vocals. Often presented against strikingly trippy visuals, their music draws from a heady amalgamation of influences, including cosmic jazz, no-wave, psychedelia, and numerous rhythm-driven electronic dance genres from across the African continent.
Over the last 15 years, Orchestra of Spheres recordings and live performances have taken them around the world multiple times. Along the way, they’ve released five albums and a bunch of EPs, shared stages with The Sun Ra Arkestra, Thundercat, Caribou, and appeared at legendary UK festivals such as All Tomorrow’s Parties.
You can read my full profile of Orchestra of Spheres here on Audio Culture.
FIN.