Ambient masterpiece reimagined & remixed
Metallic Spheres by The Orb and David Gilmour, the guitar and voice of Pink Floyd, has been reimagined and remixed as Metallic Spheres In Colour and will be released on September 29th on CD and LP via Sony’s Legacy Recordings.
“The idea for Metallic Spheres In Colour, was that Alex Paterson (founder of The Orb) could have done more on the first version, and he didn’t really have the opportunity because we had a philosophy of making the music like the Blade Runner soundtrack meets Wish You Were Here. So, I asked him why don’t we remix it and make it like an Orb classic? And in doing that, it’s almost like a completely different album,” says producer Youth.
The original Metallic Spheres album was initially released in 2010 was created almost by accident. In late Spring 2009 David Gilmour entered the studio to record the Graham Nash track “Chicago/Change The World,” originally by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, in aid of the British Hacker Gary McKinnon, who was facing extradition to the USA. The song also featured vocals from Chrissie Hynde, Bob Geldof and Gary himself and the campaign was also supported by Peter Gabriel, Sting and the actress Julie Christie.
Ambient pioneers The Orb and producer Youth also lent their support to the campaign by remixing the track and they asked if David Gilmour would contribute further guitar parts at Youth’s studio, The Dreaming Cave, in Wandsworth. Youth and Orb leader Alex Paterson turned this session into a two ambient suites, the 28 minute Metallic and the 20-minute Spheres and released under the name Metallic Spheres. The album was one of the first major releases to be issued in a version of surround sound called 3D60 Audio and remains to be a favorite among headphone aficionados.
Like the single the proceeds of the album were also donated to the Gary McKinnon campaign and in 2012 it was finally ruled that McKinnon could not be extradited to the USA on human rights grounds and he faced no prosecution in the UK.
