the orb
orbus terrarum

island, 1995

Released in 1995, The Orb’s brilliant Orbus Terrarum is both the pinnacle of the fashionable early 90s ambient-electronic scene, and yet also a timeless album that manages to transcend most of the stereotypical tags that came with that scene.

Much more organic sounding than most of their earlier work, the album certainly requires a fair dollop of attention and effort to appreciate, in contrast to other ambient albums that some may regard as purely “background music”. However, after a few listens, the intricacies of each track, and the delightful flow from one track to another, will weave their magic.

Opening tracks Valley and Plateau span 20 minutes, and introduce the album beautifully and leisurely. Filled with fascinating sound effects and samples, these tracks gently prepare the listener for the more diverse sounds that follow.

Oxbow Lakes opens with a stark piano riff, which slowly melts into the background behind a swarming mix of beats and effects – at seven and a half minutes, it’s the album’s shortest track!

Starting with an eerie vocal sample, Montagne D’Or begins as the album’s most patient track, meandering almost five minutes before any percussion kicks in. After some vocal samples – including what sounds like “I love you Thomas and want to have your children” (?!?) -the track suddenly explodes into life, with a furious drum and bass climax.

White River Junction begins with a sample from a self-help recording, before travelling from a pastoral, happy field of ambience to a sinister extraterrestrial sound; it almost sounds like a soundtrack to UFOs descending upon a peaceful planet, before suddenly whisking themselves away again.

With a chugging industrial sound subtly mutating throughout, Occidental is most similar to earlier work Pomme Fritz, and is also possibly the weakest track on the album, yet it is never uninteresting.

Proceedings end with Slug Dub, a fascinating mash-up of an apparent children’s story recording about slugs devouring a family’s vegetable garden (with the magical quote “I know… I’ll shoot the bastards!“) interspersed with a bass-heavy dub track. A fun way to end a surprisingly fun album.

As mentioned previously, it will likely take a few listens before the album starts to come together, like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Just like a jigsaw puzzle, however, the effort is extremely rewarding – Orbus Terrarum is arguably the most interesting chillout album you’ll ever hear; to be honest, it is much closer in scope to the great classical music of centuries past, than any other ambient music it is likely to get lumped with.

Forget Dark Side of the Moon, Orbus Terrarum is the best trip music can take you on. Two thumbs up, way up!