The Orchestra Pit Mailing List

The Orchestra Pit has been a busy bee in 2009, no sooner have we drawn breath after the triumphant album launch gig by those Lost Robots when Scaledown once more rears it’s attractive head, at the tail end of this week.

Appearing at the King & Queen on Friday 27th from 7.30pm will be:

Triptik - Formed out of the London Improvisers Orchestra Triptik comprises a varying line-up of experimental musicians. This performance will feature Adrian Northover on saxophone, Catherine Pluygers on Oboe and Eugene Martynex on Laptop.
http://www.triptik.org.uk/

2SquareWhy? - Masonic corporate rock of a variety that your deceased great aunt's best friend could enjoy. Carefully crafted to leave the smallest of boot prints in the listening mind, 2SquareWhy? will take you forward, back to the things you thought you'd left behind.

Gareth Mitchell - Last played at Scaledown in August 2007, Mr Mitchell returns to perform more experimental takes on his songs using effects and loops.
http://www.myspace.com/garethxmitchell

The Orchestra Pit would just like to take a moment of your time to remind you of the Lost Robots Album Launch Party which is to occur next Thursday, 19th February, at the Hope & Anchor in Islington. It promises to be a fine night of excellent music, certainly not one to be missed, full details here:

http://www.theorchestrapit.com/top

If you indulge in the conspiracy that is Facebook there is now an event to which you can RSVP and use to invite all your friends:

http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=47416119429

Likewise there is also a similar event type thing over at myspace:

http://events.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&eventID=489...

Advance tickets can still be purchased from our web shop (http://www.theorchestrapit.com.shop) for a mere £3 (which is £2 cheaper than paying on the door).

In other news the end of the month also looms and that can mean only one thing - Scaledown. This will occur at the usual place at the usual time on Friday the 27th, details of the acts performing will shortly be announced…

The Orchestra Pit kudizes your continuing support.

The Orchestra Pit would just like to take a moment of your precious time to inform you of an exciting Live Musical Concert which is due to occur in the month of February.

To celebrate the release of their new album (which just so happens to be on the Orchestra Pit Recording Company label) those Lost Robots will be performing at a special Album Launch Party at the Hope & Anchor, in London’s fashionable Islington, on Thursday the 19th February.

They will be performing cuts from their new album, “No”, which has been variously described as:

“Off the wall rock combo liable to swap the guitars for accordion and banjo, turning their hand to a spot of ol' time experimentalism. Lost Robots are an exuberant bunch of south London rockin' rulebreakers." – Clive Bell (Wire magazine)

"Whatever these men may lack in youthful ambition though they more than make up for it in wilful experimentation and a knack of what constitutes a good tune when the mood takes them." – David Evans (new-noise.net)

“lots to discover here, this is not an album that’s going to get boring... no dull aches, everything to explore. Fine songs and the recommended art of otherness” – Organ magazine

The Orchestra Pit looks forward to 2009 with barely concealed glee. To start the year off we have the latest in the long line of Scaledown Live Performance Events, which is due to occur this coming Friday 23rd January.

The currently confirmed acts are as follows (with more to be added soon):

Garden City Project - Return of the kitchen born folk folksy soul boss a nova psych quintet. The Garden City project will perform a specially scaled down versions of their set.

Verse Chorus Verse - The latest incarnation built to propel Julian Simon's atmospherically brittle song writing.

Martin White - The Richard Stilgoe of Brechtian accordion classics and leader of the fab Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra.

Roshi - Iranian/Welsh Roshi provides a tantalising mix of exotic electronica, folk and the ethereal which will excite us all here at Scaledown.

This all occurs from 7.30pm at the King & Queen in London’s Fitzrovia, full details can be found on our website (http://www.theorchestrapit.com/scaledown).

The Orchestra Pit would just like to take a moment to seek your assistance in an important matter.

Our first release in the new year will be an album by Marianne Dissard which was recorded in her adopted hometown of Tucson, Arizona with Calexico and our old friend Naim Amor. At that time we are planning to put on a London based album release show accompanied by a selection of UK dates but are having difficulty securing suitable venues. So if you run a club/venue or know anyone who does and are interested in helping us out please get in touch, the time period we are looking at is February 20th – 24th.

You can check out some of Marianne's tunes on her myspace page: www.myspace.com/mariannedissard.

To get in touch with any ideas, thoughts or suggestions please contact Shaun on vacilando68@hotmail.com

The Orchestra Pit thanks you for your continuing support.

Greetings Scaledown and Orchestra Pit subscribees.

Another year comes to an end and rather than hibernate through the winter months The Orchestra Pit continues to strive to bring you interesting and unusual music. To that end we have decided, in the spirit of seasonal giving, to release the new full length album, “No” by Lost Robots, early.

Lost Robots are a London based avant-rock band who fuse exciting, compact rock structures with free improvisation and abstract sound. "No" is a restless explosion of concepts and ideas with roots in post-punk, free improvisation and 70's German experimentalism - a layered album of hidden depths that rewards repeated playing - its obliquities balanced by solid song writing and adventurous musicianship.

Full details and an audio sample can be found here: http://www.theorchestrapit.com/op6

The album, packaged in a tastefully handsome digipak, is available to buy now from our shop: http://www.theorchestrapit.com/shop

We would just like to take this moment to wish you all a pleasant end of year family or religion based celebration and look forward to seeing what we can all do in 2009.

Yes, it’s that time of the month again – Scaledown.

On Friday 28th November a disparate bands of musical entertainers will gather once more to delight and amuse, here they are listed:

The Richwoods - Naked pyrotechnic exploding ukulele originals from this trio, who will in fact be scaling up to a quintet for this appearance.

Timothy C Holehouse - The latest subtly shifting eponymous incarnation of Mr Holehouse. When asked to describe his act in three word he came up with the following: noise, drone, weird. Excellent.

Glistening Cogs Of Greenland - A welcome return to Scaledown for this experimental combo which offers smatterings of moog, dictaphone, and oddness.

Jail - Another act from the 'welcome return' department; Jail serve up punk pop a la Pavement and Half Man Half Biscuit. Fronted, as always, by the boisterous Mr Jon Leone.

The Devil - Let's face it. All the acts are making welcome returns tonight and this act is no exception. The Devil are James Sedwards (Nought) on bass, The Rebel (Country Teasers) on guitar and vocals, and Sophie P from Wet Dog on the drums.

As part of this years London Jazz Festival The Orchestra Pit presents an evening of distinctly unique and interesting music at the Arts Theatre Club in Soho, featuring:

Led Bib - Abrasive, sax led new jazz fronted by ace drummer Mark Holub.

Outhouse - Part of the Loop Collective, Outhouse spin jazz with experimental sounds.

Trombone Poetry - A veteran performer on Afro-Cuban and jazz circuits, trombonist Paul Taylor brings his stand-up poetry to jazz, literary and acoustic events: free jazz meets free verse.

This will all occur on Thursday 20th November at The Arts Theatre Club, 50 Frith Street, London, W1D 4SQ from 7pm. Tickets are £6 on the door and £4 in advance (from our web shop: http://www.theorchestrapit.com/shop).

The Orchestra Pit applauds your continuing support.

After a grudgingly enforced summer hiatus Scaledown returns to Fitzrovia next Friday 31st October. It will occur in the usual venue (The King & Queen) at the usual time (from 7pm) with the usual high standard of alternative musical entertainment.

Appearing for your edification will be:

Liz Segal - After a period of abstinence from live performing Liz returns to the fray with vim and vigour. Cutting an original path across acoustic territory and writing in an eclectic style she produces poetic songs of rare depth and imagination. We're certainly glad she's back.

Adrian Northover - Adrian has a rare talent for coaxing unusual sounds out of his saxophone, often enlisting props such as foil cake tins. A truly original improviser who will amaze and delight in equal measure.

Ramblin' Sid Squelch - Tragic folk tales from virtuoso spoons player Ramblin' Sid. Perhaps we can persuade him to scale down to a pair of teaspoons for tonight...

Hong Kong In The 60's - take their cue from old Oriental pop, classic AM radio, and baroque melancholia. Scaledown welcomes HKIT60's return.

The next Orchestra Pit Live Musical Concert will occur next Friday, 26th September, at the Arts Theatre Club in Soho’s Frith Street. This is to be a special event to celebrate the fourth release by the Orchestra Pit Recording Company - a 7” vinyl single by Terry Edwards and the Scapegoats featuring their unique takes on two nursery rhymes, “Three Blind Mice” and “Hark! Hark! The Dogs Do Bark”.