James Francis Cauty, also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo The KLF, co-founder of The Orb and as the man who burnt £1 million.
Ambient house is a downtempo subgenre of house music that first emerged in the late 1980s, combining elements of acid house and ambient music. The genre developed in chill-out rooms and specialist clubs as part of the UK's dance music scene. It was most prominently pioneered by the Orb and the KLF, along with artists such as Global Communication, Irresistible Force, Youth, and 808 State. The term was used vaguely, and eventually fell out of favor as more specific subgenres were recognized.
Kristian "Kris" Weston is a British electronic musician, record producer and remixer best known for his work as a member of The Orb. Around the beginning of his career, he worked with Andrew Weatherall on remixes of Meat Beat Manifesto, remixed for Saint Etienne, U2 and others. He was still a teen when working on the first few albums by The Orb.
U.F.Orb is the second studio album by English electronic music group The Orb. It was released on 6 July 1992 as their last work with record label Big Life. Upon its release, the album reached No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart. The music database AllMusic described it as "the commercial and artistic peak of the ambient-house movement."
The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld is the debut studio album by English electronic music group The Orb, released as a double album on 2 April 1991 by Big Life. It is a continuous, progressive composition evoking a two-hour psychedelic trip that draws from various genres and incorporates samples and sound effects. Much of the album was recorded after founding member Jimmy Cauty left the group, leaving Alex Paterson as the central member, with additional contributions by Andy Falconer, Kris Weston, and others.
"Little Fluffy Clouds" is a single released by the British ambient house group the Orb. It was originally released in November 1990 on the record label Big Life and peaked at number 87 on the UK Singles Chart. The Orb also included it on their 1991 double album The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. "Little Fluffy Clouds" was re-released several times with different B-sides, with its 1993 re-release reaching number 10 in the UK.
Live 93 is a live album by The Orb released in November 1993 through Island Records. Live 93 is a collection of highlights from The Orb's 1993 performances in Europe and Asia. It features The Orb's live performance crew of Alex Paterson, Kris Weston, producers Nick Burton and Simon Phillips, as well as audio engineer Andy Hughes, who had stepped in when Weston decided to stop touring. The album cover of a sheep over a power station is a parody of the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals, an album cover they had previously parodied on the cover of Aubrey Mixes: The Ultraworld Excursions. The album reached #23 on the UK Album Chart.
Return to the Source (RTTS) was a London-based Goa trance club and offshoot record label run by partners Chris Decker, Mark Allen, Janice Duncan and Phil Ross. Along with the recurring Escape from Samsara party, which also had a monthly Friday night slot at The Fridge in the mid-1990s, it was an early mainstay of trance in its underground days and through its breakout in the late 1990s. According to Allmusic, its "compilation series of the best trance music on the scene...brought Goa trance to the mainstream hordes".
Alex Paterson is an English musician and co-founder of ambient house group The Orb, in which he has worked since its inception.
"Blue Room" is a single by English electronic music duo the Orb. It was released on 8 June 1992 on Big Life Records. The full 39-minute version features a number of samples, including a small portion of the beginning of "Mysterious Traveller" by Weather Report and a damaged portion of "Happy Birthday to You" by Marilyn Monroe at the end. An edited version of the song appears on the album U.F.Orb.
Orbus Terrarum is a studio album by English electronic music group The Orb that was released on 20 March 1995 by Island Records. Member Kris Weston had begun work on the album before leaving the group. After he left, German producer Thomas Fehlmann joined as a full-time studio member, and the group, now consisting of Alex Paterson, Andy Hughes, and Fehlmann, completed the album. Unlike their previous efforts, Orbus Terrarum features more "earthbound", "organic" sounds in contrast to the psychedelic, science fiction-themed music they had previously written.
Pomme Fritz is a mini-album by English electronic music group The Orb, released on 13 June 1994 by Island Records. Produced to sustain the group during a period of mismanagement, it was their first album with German producer Thomas Fehlmann, as well as their last with input from Kris Weston, who appears in a much diminished role as engineer. The chaotic Pomme Fritz moved the group away from their melodic, ambient sound towards a more abstract, experimental style, incorporating instances of noise, sampling, fragmented rhythms, industrial textures, indecipherable voices, and sound collage techniques. Island Records "hated" the album and "didn't understand it at all", according to group leader Alex Paterson.
Okie Dokie It's the Orb on Kompakt is the seventh studio album by English electronic music group the Orb, released on 8 November 2005 by Kompakt. It features new material in addition to new versions of their previous Kompakt releases.
"Toxygene" is a single by electronic music artist the Orb. It was released in 1997 as the first single from the album Orblivion. The song was originally commissioned as a remix of Jean-Michel Jarre's "Oxygène 8" from Oxygène 7–13. However, the Orb "obliterated it" and reassembled only a few fragments for their remix, much to the chagrin of Jarre, who reportedly "threw a fit and refused to release it". The Orb released the track themselves under the name "Toxygene", which further irritated Jarre, to whom Paterson retorted "The French are always five years behind us, anyway." In statements made after the release of "Toxygene", Jarre denied the reports: "It's not that I didn't like it, but I wanted the first wave of remixes to be linked to Oxygene's theme and textures." The release was accompanied by a music video directed by Ben Stokes.
The Orb are an English electronic music group founded in 1988 by Alex Paterson and Jimmy Cauty. Known for their psychedelic sound, the Orb developed a cult following among clubbers "coming down" from drug-induced highs. Their influential 1991 debut album The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld pioneered the UK's nascent ambient house movement, while its UK chart-topping follow-up U.F.Orb represented the genre's commercial peak.
FFWD is an eponymous album by FFWD - Robert Fripp, Thomas Fehlmann, Kris Weston, and Dr. Alex Paterson.
777 is the second studio album by English electronic music group System 7, originally released by Big Life in the United Kingdom in 1993. The album was released in the United States by Hypnotic Records in 1998, after having been unavailable in the country, and was later re-released through System 7 member Steve Hillage's A-Wave label in 2003.
Metallic Spheres is the tenth studio album released by ambient techno group the Orb in October 2010 and features the Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and the Killing Joke bassist Youth. It spent three weeks on the UK charts, reaching number 12.
Moonbuilding 2703 AD is the thirteenth studio album from ambient house duo The Orb. It is the first album they released through the Kompakt label since the 2005 release of Okie Dokie It's The Orb on Kompakt. It was released on 22 June 2015.
COW / Chill Out, World! is the fourteenth studio album by ambient house group The Orb. The album was released on 14 October 2016 via the Kompakt label.
