The Cinematic Orchestra

Billboard

The aptly named Cinematic Orchestra (TCO) were formed by 30 year old J. Swinscoe back in 1999. At the time Jay was still an employee at Ninja Tune in South London, where he was responsible for export sales at the long-standing independent record label. Swinscoe arrived at London Bridge from Scotland via Yorkshire and Cardiff with a background playing bass and guitar in bands and DJing, as well as a head full of ideas and influences, such as his love of jazz bass players, rhythm sections and film soundtracks. So while he knocked out Mr. Scruff and Coldcut records to Spain and Scandinavia by day, he began putting together the TCO album 'Motion' in his downtime.

In 2004, Swinscoe relocated to Paris, which slightly altered the balance of work between himself and France during the making of “Ma Fleur” (and was also responsible for its French title). Then in 2006 he moved again, this time to Brooklyn, New York. Jason is the first to acknowledge that this has had a direct impact on his creativity: “I think the cities I’ve lived in have had an effect on my perspective both personally and musically. The dynamics of a city changes the energy and pace of all things, but particularly music.”

‘Ma Fleur’: In Paris, Jason began work on the instrumentals, which would form the basis of his new record. Having completed a rough version by early 2005, he gave this to a friend who disappeared for 3 weeks and came back with short story scripts in which each track represented a scene. Jason then took this and worked some more on the tracks, and in turn gave this back to his scriptwriter, the two aspects of the project developing alongside one another. This yet-to-be-made movie gave Jason the emotional and narrative impetus he needed to develop the pieces and, in particular, led him even further into his exploration of song than he had previously gone. “For me, I think it became a natural evolution to enquire into that whole new world of the song form,” he says. “Also I think the ‘sceenplay’ experiment led to a need for a much more direct relationship to words and stories. So it still has links with film and narrative, in fact was driven by it.”

The Current Band: Over the years, the membership of Cinematic Orchestra has gradually evolved. Alongside core members Swinscoe and Phil France is Tom Chant, a fixture at left of centre jazz gigs all over the world, saxophonist Chant is known as one of the UK’s top free jazz players. For ‘Every Day’ young drumming legend Luke Flowers was recruited, who had played together with France for a number of years as youthful stars on the northern jazz circuit. New members for the current incarnation of TCO are Nick Ramm - a pianist from London who has played with Matthew Herbert amongst many others – and Stuart McCallum, a guitarist from Manchester, whose subtle, six string antics have slightly changed the dynamics of TCO’s sound on their new record. The shows will also feature vocals from Patrick Watson and special guests on selected dates.

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The Cinematic Orchestra - Live At The Royal Albert Hall Feb 14

The Royal Albert Hall is the kind of venue where history is made. Now think of a band who live to perform live. Beyond Jason Swinscoe's scintillating recordings the Cinematic Orchestra's ability to reinvent their material in the live arena has always made them stand out from their peers..