[From Record Collector, June 1994]

In 1992, the Orb's "UFOrb" album became the first chart-topping
ambient house album.  Contractual difficulties have so far prevented a
follow-up, but group member Alex Paterson is happy to discuss how the
Orb arrived at a style that fused house music with the softer sides of
progressive rock.

"It was the David Bowie/Eno albums, 'Low' and 'Heroes', which got me
into all the ambient stuff.  I'd heard of Roxy Music's 'Virginia
Plain', but then Eno did so many off-the-wall albums with so many
people that your average teenage kid couldn't get into it.  You had to
be a certain age for this weird kind of stuff to go in.

I was on this tour with Killing Joke, who were a pretty temperamental
rock band, and it was through them that I met people in EG Records,
who then represented Robert Fripp and Eno.  I was on the 10th floor of
an industrial complex in the Ruhr Valley and I heard 'Music For Films'
and it just struck me dumb.  I played the album for a whole day and I
remember just looking at the Ruhr iron works exploding in the distance
as the music went off in the background.  I'd never heard music like
that before, because the scene was actually taking place in the music
as well.

The Orb was originally myself and Jimmy Cauty back in 1988.  We were
playing the Chill-Out Room at the Land Of Oz and using an eight-track
mixer with four or five record decks on the go.  We started to get
twenty clarinet-like intros from 808 State albums and loop them over
and over again to make an hour-long mix, with no drums at all.  We did
the same thing with a Beloved track which eventually became an Alpen
advert.  What really did it was a two-hour version of 10cc's 'I'm Not
In Love', which really threw a lot of people.

Then we made records even though Jimmy (Cauty) was still in KLF.  We
did 'The Peel Sessions', the 'Kiss EP' and 'Loving You'.  The sound is
basically a natural thing.  Jimmy was always mucking around with drums
and I was always trying to ditch 'em.  We put some sound effects over
the top, put more synths on and then we came up with 'Loving You',
which really launched us.  But Jimmy had KLF, and so because I wanted
the Orb to be independent, I got Thrash in.

Working on the first 'Adventures' album was crazy because I was still
an A&R man at EG.  I like it because it has so many different bits
taken from all over the world.  It was done by taking a week off in
the summer and mixing five tracks in five days.  One weekend, I'd be
in New York getting drum samples, and the next day, I'd be back in EG
and rushing down to the studio in the evening.  1990 was complete
mayhem.

We never saw ourselves as musicians.  What happened between 1988 and
1989 in the British dance explosion was the appearance of the DJs at
the forefront.  People were going to clubs to listen to DJs, not to
bands, which was a complete reversal of what had happened before.
We're proud as DJs that we don't necessarily have to have a face to
pull the crowds.  It's just being someone who is technically aware of
what people want to listen to, and that doesn't necessarily mean
having to be a musician.

I was really interested in natural sounds going through samples rather
than loads of technical stuff.  I liked taking a rhythmic attitude to
things like the sound of a bumble-bee.  But I love the way Steve
Hillage's guitar sounds nothing like the normal heavy rock style,
because of the effects we used.  We got him to learn a steel-guitar
for the 'Blue Room' single, which took about six months to record.
One thing the success of that record showed was that there was a hell
of a lot of people out there who enjoy other things than drink!

After the compactness of 'UFOrb', we're now working on the concept of
the Seven Wonders Of The World for the next album, using different
locations like the Great Wall and the Pyramids, with Russian and
Chinese music integrated in.

One of the great things about working at EG was hearing an alternative
version of Eno/Byrne's 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts' album with
completely different tracks.  I really liked what Eno and Fripp did
together, especially on 'Heroes'.  We've recently worked with Fripp
and the results we hope will go a lot further than what he did on
'Evening Star' or 'No Pussyfooting'."