The Heritage Orchestra

The Heritage Orchestra is a forward-thinking orchestra linked with a wide variety of high-profile artists, alongside its involvement in a number of projects that demonstrated its capacity for crossover between electronic and classical music. However, the Orchestra began its journey in 2004, focusing exclusively on jazz music. Early success came after meeting Gilles Peterson at a performance at Cargo, London. Peterson signed them to his label, Brownswood, for the release of their debut self-titled album. By 2007, the 30- to 60-piece orchestra began branching out, seeing an opportunity, and shared passion, for reinterpretations of electronic music. The new direction took form when they reinterpreted Amon Tobin’s Foley Room, which succeeded, in part, due to the acoustic-leaning nature of the original record. The following year, Massive Attack invited them to appear at their edition of Meltdown Festival, where the orchestra performed their interpretation of Vangelis’ Blade Runner Soundtrack, receiving heavy praise from critics. By 2009, the orchestra was starting to see high demand for collaborations; the same year they were invited to perform with Dizzee Rascal at the BBC Radio Two Electric Proms. Over the next five years they would work with an impressive array of high-profile artists, including Spiritualized, John Cale, Arctic Monkeys, Aphex Twin, Björk, and Goldie. Their interpretation of Goldie’s Timeless prompted DJ and Radio personality Pete Tong to approach the orchestra in 2015 for a performance at the BBC Proms, this time reworking Ibiza dance classics; the show was so well-received that they recorded a full-length album titled Classic House. In 2017, they continued to celebrate the dance history of the Balearic white isle Ibiza, with Ibiza Classics, which featured reworkings of tracks by the likes of the Prodigy, Adamski, and the Chemical Brothers. ~ Liam Martin