Addictive TV: Orchestra Of Samples

The Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove, Saturday, September 19

FOR the last ten years Graham Daniels and Mark Vidler have been touring the world playing audio-visual mash-ups of classic television, movie and music video clips.

But for their latest project Orchestra Of Samples the pair sourced their own material, spending five years collecting improvisations from musicians across the world.

The live show, which is coming to The Old Market as part of the Brighton Digital Festival, features more than 200 musicians from 20 different countries across Africa, South America and Europe.

“We were travelling quite a lot, and thought it would be quite a good idea to take a camera and recording equipment with us,” says Daniels of the origins of the project.

“We wanted to create a group of musicians from all around the world, which would be impossible in the real world, but possible in the world of digital sampling.”

The pair would hook up with musicians playing their favoured instruments and record ten to 15 minutes of improvisations at different rhythms, tempos and keys.

“All our music is based on loops,” says Daniels, who grew up in Brighton and was among the first wave of boys to enrol at the former girls school Varndean.

“We were always looking for short loops in the same key and tempo as each other – it was like building a huge jigsaw puzzle without knowing what the picture was.

“The portability of everything made this possible – we couldn’t have done this ten or 20 years ago.”

To create the resulting music they trawled through hours of recordings to “sort the wheat from the chaff”.

“If you’re a DJ or producer making music you have to do the same thing,” says Daniels, playing down the enormity of the task.

“We might have a recording of a Turkish tanbur we made in Istanbul which was a bit all over the place, but suddenly we would get a tune that we could take out and make into a loop. We would then have to find percussion which fits that vibe.

“It can be frustrating – you can get a piano sample which is good, but lacking a fourth note.

“What we’re doing is painting a picture, but instead of having a palate of 16 colours we only have 12. When people hear the results they wouldn’t know.”

The resulting tracks feature sampled loops ranging from classical cello, rock drums, guitars and vocals, mixed with lesser-known instruments including the Khazakstan dombyra, the French Epinette de Vosges, goatskin bagpipes and the Swiss percussive hang.

Among the big names who have lent their talents to the project are former Stereolab singer Laetitia Sadier, 1980s favourites Wang Chung, original Motorhead drummer Lucas Fox and Bjork collaborator Henry Dagg on his two-and-a-half ton pin barrel harp the Sharpsichord.

“We never rejected anything,” says Daniels. “A lot of the time we didn’t know what instruments we were recording until we got there.

“In the back of our minds we had ideas of some instruments we wanted to record – but sometimes you had to find the right sample to match them up. It could take years.”

One such case was a recording session with Brazilian Grammy award-winner Mazinho Quevedo who played a ten-string folk guitar called the viola capaira.

“What he did was incredible, but it didn’t fit with anything else we had recorded,” says Daniels.

“Two years later, after recording 50 to 60 musicians, we recorded some material in France using a Cristal Bachet – this incredible glass instrument invented by the Bachet brothers in the 1950s. We met them and went to their studio – and found it fitted perfectly with the guitar from Brazil.”

Another crucial element to the Orchestra Of Samples was the visual side. As well as capturing the sound of the instruments the pair wanted to create interesting visuals.

“We were filming close-up trying to get the instrument and the musician’s face in shot,” says Daniels.

“With some you get a real sense of place – in Bhutan we filmed in the mountains, in Istanbul we filmed on a roof in the middle of the city. You can see the Bosporus behind the musician.”

The project is still continuing, as the pair add to their collection of audio-visual samples.

And at their shows they are adding an extra element to the performance – with Stomp percussionist Paul Gunter playing live at The Old Market.

“We didn’t want it to be just two guys with laptops,” says Daniels. “It’s like a digital AV hybrid live band meets a DJ set.”

Starts 7.30pm, tickets £10. Call 01273 201801.