Biography

Introduction

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 PC (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), Federico Ughi (drums) and Alex James (piano). The most recent addition to the band is Mancunian guitarist Stuart McCallum.

Swinscoe and Carpenter (PC) have also recorded together under the band name Neptune.

Style

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.

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.

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.

The band were asked by the organisers of the Porto European City of Culture 2001 festival to write a new score to Dziga Vertov's classic 1929 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.

In 2006, The Cinematic Orchestra created a cover version of the Radiohead song "Exit Music (For a Film)" that appeared on an album titled Exit Music: Songs with Radio Heads. In this piece the band slowed down the tempo of the original, divided the timbre into four sections beginning with saxophone, to the classical guitar, to the electric guitar, ending the piece with the same simple acoustic guitar rhythm as the original version.

The Cinematic Orchestra released the album Ma Fleur on May 7, 2007. Several songs feature Patrick Watson, Fontella Bass, or Lou Rhodes on vocals, with Rhodes and Watson sharing vocals on one song.

The Cinematic Orchestra recorded the soundtrack to the Disneynature film Les Ailes Pourpres: Le Mystère des Flamants, released on December 15, 2008.

Song appearances

The song "To Build A Home" from the album Ma Fleur, which features vocals by Canadian Patrick Watson has been used in episodes of a number of television shows and movies, including:

ABC medical drama Grey's Anatomy (USA, 2007)
CBS crime drama Criminal Minds (USA, 2007)
NBC drama Friday Night Lights (USA, 2007)
BBC medical drama Holby City (UK, 2008)
Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks (UK, 2007)
CBC drama series The Border (Canada, 2008)
CBC comedy-drama jPod (Canada, 2008)
ABC comedy-drama Ugly Betty (USA, 2009)
CBS drama Without a Trace (USA, 2009)
For a contemporary dance routine in the fourth week of the second season of So You Think You Can Dance Canada, 2009
It was also used in a Cadburys-Schweppes advertisement.
It was also used in the independent film, My Suicide, starring Gabriel Sunday, Brooke Nevin, Joe Mantegna, David Carradine, Mariel Hemingway, and Nora Dunn.
It was also used in a commercial advertisement for Chivas Regal brand scotch whisky.
The intro was used in BBC motoring documentary Top Gear in Season 11, Episode 2 during its review of the Mercedes-Benz CLK63 AMG Black Series.

The song "That Home," which is a brief song that uses the same melody as "To Build A Home" was used in the ABC drama Defying Gravity (USA, 2009).

The instrumental song "Prelude", from the same album, was used in another ABC show, Private Practice.

The Public Radio International radio show This American Life often uses The Cinematic Orchestra song "Drunken Tune" from the album Man with a Movie Camera.

The final scene and closing credits of the film Kidulthood (2006) feature the song "All Things to All Men" from the album Every Day.