“Over the last 20 years, Pete Tong has established himself as one of the few true global ambassadors of electronic music through his decades-long career at BBC Radio 1 in the U.K.,” writes John Ochoa in Tuesday’s (11/7) LA Weekly. “This week, at the Hollywood Bowl, Tong sets his sights on a growing trend: orchestral EDM [Electronic Dance Music], a musical movement that … melds electronic music and dance beats with live instrumentation and ambitious, full-on orchestration. Teaming with English conductor-composer Jules Buckley and the Heritage Orchestra … a symphonic collective … Tong and his orchestral collaborators will re-create and reinterpret historic tracks that defined dance music in the ’80s and ’90s, as well as newer cuts…. The result, Tong says, will be … ‘a grown-up rave—with an orchestra.’ … Tong [says] the sound dates back to the ’70s, when entities like the Salsoul Orchestra, TK Records and Barry White & Love Unlimited Orchestra helped shape the early sounds of the disco era.” Says Tong, “This music that we’re playing is a soundtrack to many people’s lives all over the world…. To be able to go and re-perform them with an orchestra, I think, adds importance to the music.”
Posted November 9, 2017
