Playing House parties, dance parties, DIY shows and opera houses, Orchestra Of Spheres have built a reputation for creating innovative, boundary-pushing music and performances.
Now their cosmic dancing sound, pieced together on homemade instruments,
is
available on record as ‘Nonagonic Now’, allowing everyone to ride on the
psychedelic primary school disco delight that is Orchestra Of Spheres in the
comfort of your own universe. Just watch out for the coffee table.
Although distinctly their own, the band's sound draws on influences far and
wide, with echoes of African rhythms, free jazz textures, electronic dance
music, krautrock and Indonesian gamelan music. ‘Nonagonic Now’ was recorded
at the fittingly named Frederick Street Sound and Light Exploration Society, a
venue run
collectively by the band and others in the Wellington creative music scene.
Creative and exploratory it certainly is, to a dazzling level matched only by
the sequins and shine of their radiating costumes.
If Orchestra Of Spheres illuminate themselves as a stellar, cosmic form, this
record is grounded to this earth by a strong rhythmic force, which pumps
continually from the opener ‘Hypercube’. Setting a subconscious canon for
the rest of the album that weaves in and out of tracks, it emerges in hypnotic
guise on ‘Rotate’ and as space funk on ‘Hypersphere’. Orchestra Of
Spheres are clearly not afraid to experiment with ‘Ulululu’ mixing homemade
snare heavy beats
with the classic psych sound only New Zealand can produce. The biscuit tin
guitar, electric bass carillon and sexomouse marimba all feature on ‘Nonagonic
Now’ a stunning piece of New Zealand music.