Album preview 10/11 – Orion & J.Shore – The Night After (Brotherhood album OUT NOW) by Orion & J.Shore
ALBUM PREVIEW 10/11
Orion & J.Shore – The Night After
J.Shore: The Night After is my favorite track from the album. The whole creation process was a small, lucky accident. In February 2011 I was listening to Tsuumi’s “Growing Up” album (on Spotify) and I’m sure something got stuck to our piano themes as well. Lauri Kallio brought the track to the next level with his amazing guitar skills and live strings gave the finishing touch. I wish making new tracks would always be this easy.
Orion: The main inspiration for me was the eerie feeling of Gustavo Santaolalla’s amazing track Iguazu (on Youtube). The Silk label guys said The Night After reminds them of Game of Thrones series but I can’t get this wild west feeling out of my head when I listen to this. Even though most of the tracks on “Brotherhood” album include live strings and pianos, this is the only one which was combined of live instruments only. No plug-ins, synths or similar here, only digitally produced parts are a couple of effects.
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Album preview 9/11 – Orion & J.Shore – Brotherhood (Brotherhood album OUT NOW) by Orion & J.Shore
ALBUM PREVIEW 9/11
Orion & J.Shore – Brotherhood
J.Shore: After a surprising success of our debut single “One Sunday” back in 2009, we started making a followup, which turned to be quite a challenging task. I guess the soundtrack style vibe in our tracks originates from this one. One Sunday was pretty minimal, but this brought us to a more orchestral direction – where we’ve been ever since.
Orion: Brotherhood was our second single and gave its name for this album, too. We got the idea for the lonely one-note piano line in the beginning from Global Communication’s classic “14:31” (Listen here ). Ayleon, Flight & Jontey, Taucher and Anton Sonin delivered brilliant remixes for the original release and the slightly altered album edit includes live cellos.
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Album preview 8/11 – Ralphie B – Massive (Orion & J.Shore remix) (Brotherhood album OUT NOW) by Orion & J.Shore
ALBUM PREVIEW 8/11
Ralphie B – Massive (Orion & J.Shore remix)
J.Shore: When Juska suggested to make a remix of Massive, I didn’t believe it could be possible. However, the original had several different themes in it and turning the original into a chill-out version was surprisingly easy in the end. Woodwinds and vocals gave the remix an unique touch and using rather massive drums was an inspiration later when we were making beats for “Departed”.
Orion: Massive remix was our third or fourth track we made together and the first try to bring something trancey (and nearly 140bpm) to the world of chill-out. The original version from 2004 is still one of my all-time favourite trance tracks and getting good words from Ralphie B after finishing this remix as a bootleg was super nice – let alone that Ralphie and his label finally also gave a permission for the official release. This is also the very first track in which we used arpeggiators to simulate the feeling of the original track – you can spot nearly the same arps in “Sun” remix, too.
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Album preview 7/11 – Slusnik Luna – Sun (Orion & J.Shore remix) (Brotherhood album OUT NOW) by Orion & J.Shore
ALBUM PREVIEW 7/11
Slusnik Luna – Sun (Orion & J.Shore remix)
J.Shore: The original chords were already so massive that we decided not to reinvent the wheel but just to make a loooong buildup for the existing theme. When recording live strings for the track, some electric guitars parts were also recorded (hello kitschy 1980’s!). They didn’t end up to the final version, but I wonder what Slusnik boys would have said about them… Listen to the clip of Sun (electric guitar edit).
Orion: We were super excited to make a remix of “Sun” and slightly disappointed when it then finally seemed that it would not end up to the official Anjunabeats release. I kept telling myself it’s no wonder – why would a trance label a release a 10 minute chill-out remix next to banging club versions of the track. Not Anjuna style at all. Therefore it was a big surprise when Allan from Anjunabeats mailed me after two weeks and asked to finish the remix asap. We got the live strings recorded über quick and thanks to very flexible and friendly attitude from both Niko from Slusnik Luna and Allan from Anjunathe track was finally added to our album, too.
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Album preview 6/11 – Orion & J.Shore – White Birds (Brotherhood album OUT NOW) by Orion & J.Shore
ALBUM PREVIEW 6/11
Orion & J.Shore – White Birds
J.Shore: Departed is one of those “epic tracks in E minor” on the album in addition to Brotherhood and White Birds. The drums and arrangement break apart the otherwise a bit too obvious soundtrackish soundscape. Before we started making this, we got some inspiration from the almighty (and slightly corny;) Braveheart soundtrack. Or how about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcxfrL4UjQ4
Orion: Yes, I remember we listened to the Braveheart soundtrack and while making the arrangement I can recall having an image in my head of super slow-motion William Wallace running over the field. How corny is that?! Live recorded strings work really well here (thanks to our amazing players) and the title was inspired by a classic movie quote: “Heaven holds the faithful departed”. Remember the film?
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Album preview 5/11 – Orion & J.Shore – Departed (Brotherhood album OUT NOW) by Orion & J.Shore
ALBUM PREVIEW 5/11
Orion & J.Shore – Departed
J.Shore: Departed is one of those “epic tracks in E minor” on the album in addition to Brotherhood and White Birds. The drums and arrangement break apart the otherwise a bit too obvious soundtrackish soundscape. Before we started making this, we got some inspiration from the almighty (and slightly corny;) Braveheart soundtrack. Or how about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcxfrL4UjQ4
Orion: Yes, I remember we listened to the Braveheart soundtrack and while making the arrangement I can recall having an image in my head of super slow-motion William Wallace running over the field. How corny is that?! Live recorded strings work really well here (thanks to our amazing players) and the title was inspired by a classic movie quote: “Heaven holds the faithful departed”. Remember the film?
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Album preview 4/11 – Orion & J.Shore – Nails (Brotherhood album OUT NOW) by Orion & J.Shore
ALBUM PREVIEW 4/11
Orion & J.Shore – Nails
J.Shore: For me it’s always been hard to understand the monotonic feel of electronic music – and especially hard to compose anything like it. Maybe my own taste of music has developed during this album making process because now Nails is definitely among my favorite tracks of the album. That kid laughing reminds me of the face of Richard D. James.
Orion: The voice says: “deru kugi wa utareru” which means “The nail that sticks up will be hammered down”. The first version sounded a bit lame, but after adding some japanese throat singing as a layer to the bottom we started to reach the ethnic touch we were hoping in the first place. But hey, doesn’t any proper chill-out track need an old throat-singer, kids laughing and some Japanese guy chanting weird stuff?
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Album preview 3/11 – Orion & J.Shore – Oasis (Brotherhood album OUT NOW) by Orion & J.Shore
ALBUM PREVIEW 3/11
Orion & J.Shore – Oasis
J.Shore: “The chord progression was born after watching too many episodes of “The Street”. Compare it to the main theme in the beginning of each episode and you’ll get why. The hard part was to find a good fitting melody which runs well together with the chords, but after a session or two we had it there. Looking forward to see this as the theme of “The Street” on the next season.”
Orion: “The idea was to create something nature-themed, peaceful and beautiful, but we ended up with a track which is probably the most haunting on the whole album. The arped bells which little by little mess up the main melody and the ever-growing, murmuring bass-pad give the feeling of uneasiness. Ending the track like that was actually an accident – we were already starting to build the second part, but after listening to the second breakdown we were like ‘why wouldn’t we just leave it here’?.”
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Album preview 2/11 – Orion & J.Shore – Architect’s Dream (Brotherhood album OUT NOW) by Orion & J.Shore
ALBUM PREVIEW 2/11
Orion & J.Shore – Architect’s Dream
J.Shore: “Architect’s Dream got started from an old draft which I kept on my computer. Building the track was a very architectural process for us – having just the melody and adding layers and layers on it. For the album version we added the piano theme after the breakdown, which also includes one of the most cliche jazz phrases. Cliche or not – it works here brilliantly.”
(Check the jazz phrase: listen to the clip of Architect’s Dream here: http://soundcloud.com/orion-jshore/orion-j-shore-architects-dream and compare it to the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krDxhnaKD7Q )
Orion: “Rich (Solarstone) was compiling his Electronic Architecture 2 compilation and asked if we would have any ambient/chill-out tune ready. Architect’s Dream was just a very nasty sounding draft at that time but Rich heard the potential and asked us to finish it. It became the closing track of Electronic Architecture 2 and got really nice reviews. The album version is slightly altered with a new piano theme, mixing and the intro vocal.”
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Album preview 1/11 – Orion & J.Shore – One Sunday (Brotherhood album OUT NOW) by Orion & J.Shore
ALBUM PREVIEW 1/11
Orion & J.Shore – One Sunday
J.Shore: “I still remember that Sunday morning in autumn 2008. We were partying the whole previous night and the session next morning didn’t look too good. Even though it was our first time making music together, the track was finished only in a couple of hours. Magical session.”
Orion: “One Sunday is our very first single. It was highly supported by DJ Orkidea who introduced us and our music to Solarstone while he was on a gig in Tampere. Solarstone signed the track to his label Solaris and Beetseekers, Cid Inc, Sami Saari, Syna and Ville Lope delivered superb and very Finnish sounding remixes. It was a clear choice to open our debut album.”
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I’m super happy to jump on the plane and join DJ Orkidea’s Album Release Tour this weekend. On Friday it’s Seinäjoki time – the latest parties at Karma have been nothing but amazing: sold-out venue, brilliant crowd and Pohojammaa-vibe which is non-describable (because afterwards you don’t remember a thing). Lahti, the Chicago of Finland is up on Saturday and equally exciting. I’ll be closing the night after Orkidea’s performance so the music should go to a pretty uplifting direction this time. Can’t wait!
And yes – you can buy Orion & J.Shore’s new album “Brotherhood” both in Seinäjoki and Lahti. It’s out on Friday so you’ll be among the very first to get a copy. Besides, I have a feeling that a chill-out record will be handy after these tour nights ;)
Massive respect to Orkidea, big thumbs up for his new album and making it possible for us to join “20” tour.
See the events on Facebook:
Seinäjoki Facebook event
Lahti Facebook event
Seinäjoki was off the hook in April 2011. Here’s a short video:
Orkidea’s Metaverse Tour in 2008 was a blast, too:
Brotherhood out on Dec 16th, digital release (Beatport, iTunes) Dec 19th.
Order CD at Street Beat: http://www.streetbeat.ac/store/product_info.php?products_id=11055
More info, sound clips etc: http://bit.ly/orionjshore-brotherhood
Cover by Jonathan Ben-Ami.
Orion & J.Shore – Brotherhood – The Album Preview by Orion & J.Shore
CD release OUT NOW – Street Beat
Digital Release OUT NOW – Beatport, Juno Download, iTunes
(NOTE: Due to licensing issues, some of the album tracks are no longer available on iTunes. Please use JunoDownload or Beatport instead or order the record from Street Beat or directly from us.)
Very limited amount of CD’s available exclusively on Street Beat.
Orion & J.Shore – Brotherhood
Genre: Downtempo, chill-out
Release Date: Dec 16 2011
Label: Silk Sofa Music
Cat: SILKA002
Tracklist: Read More
Here’s a preview of our upcoming Orion & J.Shore debut album. Short clips of all the tracks + some extra info on Soundcloud page. We sincerely hope you like it.
P.S. You can check Orion & J.Shore on Facebook, too.
Orion & J.Shore – Brotherhood – The Album Preview by Orion & J.Shore
I got a mail from Norwegian artist called Xerxes, who had made an unofficial remix of my last year’s Lost Language release “Brotherhood”. Not only am I sincerely happy of someone finding Brotherhood that nice track that he could make an unofficial version of it, but I’m also totally blown away by the quality of the remix. I think this is aga
Nice guys at Musicritics wrote a review of Brotherhood single. Check it out below.
Also, Flight & Jontey’s remix was chosen as a “featured track” on Trackitdown.net and the original version has now climbed to TOP50 on Audiojelly’s chill-out charts.
Here’s the review – however, I recommend checking it at Musicritics website.
DJ Orion returns to our hallowed blogs, with a follow-up to his debut on Solaris, this time taking the sister label Lost Language for a spin. Brotherhood is a collaboration between himself and one J. Shore, both of whom combined forces with Russian progressive hotshot Mango, to create Raining In Osaka. Along for the ride are Ayelon, Flight and Jontey (New names to me), DJ Taucher (A German veteran of the scene), and Anton Sonin. Read on!
Brotherhood (Original Mix)
This is a simple tune, but it’s simply effective. We steadily slide through, being guided by a piano through waves of strings and french horn. Some barely tangible percussion gives a bit of atmosphere, but really the centerpieces are the piano, strings, and horn. And, ringing in at eight minutes, it is apparent that there is a story to be told (Most chill-out tracks I’ve seen usually clock in at no more than five minutes). It’s earmarked with all the elements of a good organic soundtrack, while being distinctly and synthetically chill-out…On a final note, it’s nice to see dynamics in the waveform, something not too common within electronic music, and even without nowadays.
Brotherhood (Ayleon Remix)
Ayleon appears on on the roster to once again drive us into Finnish goodness. Driving beats and toothed basslines guide us in, but the break reveals the original’s determination, as the bassline unravels and ushers in a breakbeat, which subsequently unravels into piano and strings [guitar(both kinds) and pads alike]…Yes, I just used math syntax. Anyways, the breakbeat winds back in to build us up into that gnarly groove. While Ayleon really does not take this one to the level of atmosphere that the original has, they certainly knock it out of the park on the energy front!
Brotherhood (Flight and Jontey Remix)
These guys are taking the progressive route, judging by their swarthy intro. We are guided forward by the original’s piano and a bleeping arp, which is eventually joined by warm rhythm synths and pads. This one just flutters about, being guided by that arp, which is rather well-programmed; it starts as something bleepy, and morphs into something full and rich. If you are looking for a driving rhythm-based slice of progressive, with atmosphere, look no further!
Brotherhood (DJ Taucher Adult Mix)
DJ Taucher, you say? I say! This mix has a lovely moody intro, complete with an excerpt of spoken-word…No idea where it’s from though. And with that, we plug forward into the darker depths of Taucher’s sound. It starts out with some vocoded rhythm synths and the layers are gelled on gradually, as a riff of acid wolps into the mix. This one is for the darker progressive/techno lovers!
Brotherhood (DJ Taucher Genetic Mix)
The Genetic Mix is quite similar in structure to the Adult Mix, what with the intro with monologue. However, things really take change with the addition of a kick. The bassline is wobblier this time around, bells echo through the fields of stereo, and in general this one is more atmospheric and melody-driven. You still get your daily allotted dose of darker Brotherhood, though.
Brotherhood (Anton Sonin Remix)
Anton turns in a trance remix, but it’s a little broodier than its Ayelon counterpart. We build from the start and casually find ourselves in the piano-driven break. It’s a pretty casual mix, something to wind down to, but it really could use some more energy…But maybe it’s just me.
[Insert “Fins win” comment here]You’ve heard what we have to say with regards to those Fins, so I need not say it again! I’m offering my nod to the Ayelon remix and the original mix…I love them both! 8/10.
DJ Orion’s podcast is a one hour show, casted twice a month from Helsinki, Finland.
Hosted by DJ Orion (Radio 1 Finland, Lost Language, Solaris), the podcast features one Finnish or international guest on each show. For tracklists and more info, see: http://www.djorion.fi
Solaris International Guest Mix: Dj Orion
01. DJ Orion & J.Shore – Brotherhood (intro edit) (Lost Language)
02. DJ Orion – One Sunday (Beetseekers remix) (Solaris)
03. Underworld – Two Months Off (Grayarea’s 4 Years Off remix) (CDr)
04. Freefall – Skydive (Ad Brown remix) (CDr)
05. Allende – Anxiety (Sedna)
06. DJ Orion & J.Shore – Brotherhood (Ayleon remix) (Lost Language)
07. Phonky Asses – Blue Pills (Finity)
Orion’s podcast on iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=129522914
Feed address:
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/orionpodcast