The Orchestra Pit is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of adventurous and experimental new music. Initially this was achieved through the staging of Live Musical Concerts but has since expanded into Live Radio Broadcasts.
Mr Mark Braby inaugurated The Orchestra Pit in May of 2003 with the first of an ongoing series of quarterly Live Musical Concert at the Arts Cafe in Londons picturesque East End. Inspired by other left-field clubs such as Baggage Reclaim Mr Braby set out to see if he could promote and host a club featuring alternative and interesting new music. Mr Braby is ably assisted in his endeavours by Mr Andy Coules who provides a wide range of support in the areas of sound engineering, production, graphic design and webmastery.
At the beginning of 2004 Mr Braby came up with an idea for a radio show based on the concept of musicians digging out their earliest composition or recording then talking about their subsequent music making before revisiting their earliest recording or composition in the form of a cover version or treatment, thus coming Full Circle. Full Circle (as the show was to be known) ran for two series on Resonance 104.4 FM, from February 2004 until May 2005, and featured a wide range of guests.
Later in 2004 Mr Braby collaborated with Richard Sanderson (of Baggage Reclaim fame) to create a monthly Live Performance Event called Scaledown. The idea behind it was simple - to provide a scaled-down environment for musicians and performers to present short sets, typically 15 minutes each, in a small room above a pub with no entrance fee. Most of the performers found that scaling down their act was a liberating rather than restricting experience and the evening remains popular to this day with performers and audience alike.
Around the beginning of 2005 Mr Coules noticed that there were a lot of unique performances occurring at Scaledown which were ultimately disappearing into the ether and fading out of memory. Therefore he started recording all subsequent performances which lead to the idea that a perfect outlet for these recordings would be a radio show. Thus the Scaledown Radio Show was born, broadcasting on Resonance 104.4 FM on a bi-weekly basis, and co-presented by Mr Braby and Mr Coules. The show has been running since July 2005 and has featured a wide range of musical guests, many of whom perform live sessions in the studio.
In 2007 the ranks of The Orchestra Pit were swelled by the addition of Shaun Hendry and Leonie Biggenden who came on board to form The Orchestra Pit Recording Company and develop Vacilando 68 Publishing Co. (the publishing arm of the Orchestra Pit). The Orchestra Pit Recording Company is a recording company like no other - designed as a logical extension of the sterling work The Orchestra Pit has done in terms of finding and championing adventurous and experimental new music. The simple aim being to bring to the attention of the record buying public gems of music that they might otherwise never hear or be aware the existence of.
For full details of all releases, radio shows, a large archive of audio and photos and details of all our upcoming events please visit the website at www.theorchestrapit.com
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