A career-spanning, 2CD & limited-edition quadruple vinyl octagonal set including new and rare mixes, compiled by Dr. Alex Paterson.
Orboretum: The Orb Collection goes way back, but also focusses on recent highlights from albums such as Abolition Of The Royal Familia (2020) and Prism (2023) – which were cited by the media as some of their greatest work – up there with the bonafide gold of yesteryear.
But that’s not the only reason why the world needs this uniquely packaged, beautiful octagon-shaped set, which folds out into a huge flower. Put simply; this is The Orb: Stop and pause to think about what that means to the culture. Alex is a living legend who’s travelled a clear path through one of the most important journeys of music in recent times; starting with punk, heavily influenced by Jamaican/Windrush generation UK dub and reggae, growing with acid house, inventing chill out, topping the charts, then becoming one of the first arena-sized live electronic acts. This national treasure deserves to be celebrated.
With his boundless appetite for recording and collaboration, The Orb is happening right now, still new, still striving; not resting on past laurels or dining out on the Dad rave nostalgia circuit, instead seeing from the stage multi-generational crowds losing their minds, from fresh faced teenagers to war-torn rave fossils, and everyone in between.
Each disc of the limited edition octagonal 4lp set will be pressed on a different colour, green, lilac, orange and blue, with sleeve notes by Kris Needs. Each side of vinyl is grouped by Alex to represent the 4 seasons, hence its botanical title. The comp’s “roots and more recent shoots” traverses their work for Universal across discs A and B, whilst discs C and D explore their music for indie labels Cooking Vinyl, Kompakt, Malicious Damage, and Liquid Sound Design. In addition, Orboretum will also be available on a 6 panel 2CD with 20 page booklet.
“I don’t want The Orb to end up milking it like Roxy Music, who were always cranking out another best-of, although we did release the ‘History Of The Future’ best-of in 2013, and its part 2 in 2015 to be fair. We have such a gigantic catalogue though, that sometimes even I need a reminder of what I’ve done, especially these days. This is a sort of director’s cut, reframing our output, making new neuro pathways, and new juxtapositions. Some of these tracks are 30 years apart, but there are clear through lines, a continuum.” – Alex Paterson.
Orboretum: The Orb Collection is set for release on October 25th and is available to pre-order now.
