the village orchestra

New updated website at http://ruaridh.marciablaine.com featuring Max patches, lots of mixes to download, live sets, press archive and links to buy records online.
---------that mix is me, linked from the Numbers myspace site . Im a resident at it, its the greatest club in the world
I'm a musician. I'm in a group called the Marcia Blaine School For Girls ( http://marciablaine.com , or for full News Corp soul-selling action http://www.myspace.com/marciablaineindustries ) who have released some records here and there. A couple of EPs, a curated compilation, some spilt singles. there was an album out a few months ago - reviews and press below or on the above Marcia sites.
I also record solo as The Village Orchestra - ive released an album under that name which people seemed to like quite a bit - and with collaborators as Accrual (one lathe cut 7" and two cd-r albums). Oh and sometimes as Rose and Sandy as well. (a big sprawling pretentious dvd release one day soon).
Out Now:
The Marcia Blaine School For Girls - Halfway Into The Woods cd album (Highpoint Lowlife)
The Village Orchestra - Et In Arcadia Ego (Highpoint Lowlife)
Accrual - Cheophiori cdr album (Diesel Combustible)
Accrual - Kirkville Blue cdr album (Unlabel)
Coming Soon:
The Village Orchestra - The Dark Is Rising 12"/cd-r album (Stuff Records) (out Spring 07)
Rose and Sandy - Mapping Closure dvd video/album (Highpoint Lowlife) (somewhere in the dim future)
dj mixes here - click
and two live sets here - click II
Some links to interviews:
Interview from last year with UK music magazine Undercover
Album of the month review in German magazine De:Bug
And a link to the english translation of an interview (in german) from a different De:Bug issue
Some press comments
textura.org rated Et In Arcadia Ego their number 8 album of the year for 2005, as well as our 'Some Paths...' compilation their number 1 compilation for the year.
The Milk Factory rated the same album 11th best of the year.
Uk Rock magazine 'Rock Sound' said this...
“Should Ridley Scott ever wish to rework his visionary sci-fi picture, Blade Runner, he need look no further than Glasgow-based Ruardih Law to score the flight of his cameras over futuristic skylines. As the Village Orchestra, Law has crafted a debut varied in hue and texturally rich, where sound transcends invisible waves to send one spiralling into their imagination’s deepest recesses. It’s perfect silver screen fodder, it’s glitch-afflicted tangents a thoroughly modern update on Vangelis, et al. Technically accomplished but absolutely organic in its song-to-song sequencing. ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’ is a triumph of bedroom experimentation over big-budget orchestration, and the wonderful melancholy of ‘Many Rooms In My Fathers House’ and ‘Sunken’ is worthy of any directors investigation, immediately. Cue the final fade: the credits scroll, the audience leave, their dumbfounded silence defeaning: Law should afford himself a deserved bow.” 8/10
Nice review here from Stylus Magazine
...and a really nice one from SomewhereCold.com
and lastly heres one from UK hiphop magazine (??) Undercover
Et In Arcadia Ego
(Highpoint Lowlife Records)
9/10
"While a certain Scottish duo has been stealing the headlines in the electronica sections of all the most knowledgeable publications, fellow Scot Ruaridh Law, in his Village Orchestra guise, has released one of the albums of the year. As Boards Of Canada have moved towards a more pastoral sound, it is refreshing to hear that Law’s bucolic offering remains firmly anchored in electronica. One of the key aspects to the success of Et In Arcadia Ego is the sheer scale of the sound. Where too many electronic artists are afraid to fill the space between their listener’s ears, Law is keen to pack it full. Law is at his best when creating an all-immersing whirligig of electronic sound, as in the truly remarkable Jacob/Bad Hand At Cards v2, a glorious electronic carousel with a curious melody at its epicentre that sounds remarkably like a snippet of Wicked Game by Chris Isaac - but in a good way. Put together with some crashing beats and marvellous chopped up vocals, it is a thing of intense beauty. It’s difficult to pick out the best tracks, as there is something great in each one. However, it is impossible to ignore the magnificent, jubilant All The Little Lights Going Out, which has everything from strings, a gloriously uplifting beat and a plaintive vocal hidden far away to a myriad of gentle cracks, whistles and twinkles. In short, if this doesn’t make you feel good, then nothing will. It must be tiresome indeed for any electronica act coming out of Scotland to be constantly compared to Boards Of Canada. With such a strong scene developing north of the border, it is time that other artists came out from beneath their shadow. Awesome - and a sign of great things to come."
heres what im into at the moment musically