The Cinematic Orchestra have announced a 20th anniversary tour & audio reissue of their seminal
2003 album “Man With A Movie Camera.” The live shows will feature songs from the album with all
new visuals, celebrating the release across Europe. The 2LP limited edition comes in ashen and
pewter grey coloured vinyl, housed in a rigid tip-on foiled, embossed and debossed detail
gatefolded sleeve with updated artwork and new liner notes. This reissue will include 12” double
sided art card insert of unseen session photography from the time.
As part of the film festival celebrations of Porto being the European City of Culture in 2001, Jason
Swinscoe of The Cinematic Orchestra was commissioned to score a soundtrack to a silent movie
as a one-off performance. The film was Dziga Vertov’s ‘Man With A Movie Camera,’ a
1929 early documentary cinema film from the Soviet Union, and hailed by many including The
British Film Institute to be one of the greatest films of all time, nearly 100 years on from its creation.
The performance took place in the historic Coliseu Porto, and ended with a standing ovation of
3,500 people. The Cinematic Orchestra have since toured the show internationally over the years,
including performances at The Barbican in London, NYC’s Winter Garden at WTC, and Sydney
Opera House.
The band was in the process of writing ‘Every Day’ when the film commission occurred, which had a formative influence on ‘Man With A Movie Camera’. Certain tracks that made it onto “Every Day” in other forms were written specifically for the score or were already in development, which allowed Swinscoe and the band to remold motifs to the film’s unfolding narrative. The title ‘Every Day’ was based on the narrative in the film, which portrays a day in the life of an idealised Soviet society, beginning with people waking up, moving through various workplace environments, and into leisure time & activities.
“Man With A Movie Camera” was eventually recorded and released in 2003. it was met with much acclaim. The Guardian gave it 4/5 and saying “You can perform an autopsy on the jazz instruments, DJ Shadow-like grooves and repeating chord sequences, yet come away scratching your head as to how, in such simple combinations, they make such heartfelt music.” The Independent on Sunday continued, “It stands alone, proud and complete.” And dance magazines also showered it with praise such as DJ Magazine, “The genius, a word not to be used lightly, of The Cinematic Orchestra seemingly knows no bounds.”
Since debuting with “Motion”, in 1999, The Cinematic Orchestra have sold hundreds of thousands
of albums, generated over a billion streams and enjoyed critical support from the likes of Pitchfork,
The Guardian, New York Times, Le Monde, Resident Advisor, Fader, Crack, Rolling Stone, Gilles
Peterson, Benji B, Jason Bentley and Mary Anne Hobbs. In 2007, The “Ma Fleur” album was
recognised for its bold departure from the group’s sonic traditions; in the years since, it’s been
continuously celebrated, with tracks like ‘To Build A Home’ reaching huge audiences. The band
have performed to larger and larger audiences and sold out the likes of London’s Royal Albert Hall,
Philharmonie de Paris, Rome’s Auditorium Park Della and the Sydney Opera House. Coachella,
Glastonbury, Fuji Rock, Montreux and Sonar have all played host to the band’s much loved live
performances. They have also appeared at the Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Awards for
Stanley Kubrick and New York’s Summerstage with the legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra with
John McLaughlin. Their original score for “The Crimson Wing”, included the track ‘Arrival of the
Birds’ which featured in the Oscar Winning Stephen Hawking biopic “The Theory of Everything”.
Their last album “To Believe,” charted in the Top 20 of the UK albums chart and #1 in the album
vinyl chart.
