Edinburgh, UK · electronic · jazz · instrumental

Hidden Orchestra

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Edinburgh's studio project turned live band — two drummers, layered strings and field recordings built into something cinematic.

Hidden Orchestra is the solo studio project of Edinburgh-based composer and producer Joe Acheson, who builds his pieces from recorded fragments rather than writing for a standing ensemble. He records musicians individually, then combines the takes in the studio as though they were playing together as an orchestra, layering in field recordings, bass, drums and percussion. Violinist and pianist Poppy Ackroyd has been a long-running presence, alongside regular live drummers Tim Lane and Jamie Graham.

The debut album, Night Walks, came out on the Brighton label Tru Thoughts in September 2010, mixing jazz, classical music, drum and bass, rock and hip hop with natural sounds run through electronic effects. BBC Radio 1 named it Album of the Month, and Denovali issued a deluxe vinyl edition in January 2011.

Archipelago followed, drawing on Sufi music, modal jazz and progressive rock alongside recordings of birds and wind, and proved popular enough to generate two full albums of remixes. Dawn Chorus, the record after that, leaned even more heavily on birdsong, which Acheson wove through the arrangements rather than using it as background texture.

Onstage the material is rebuilt with a percussion-heavy line-up, closer to a rhythm section with strings over it than to a jazz group. Acheson has also written outside the album format, composing the soundtrack to Creaks, a video game by the Czech studio Amanita Design released in July 2020.

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electronicjazzinstrumental