Orbital: Torch Songs

Two pioneering albums, a classical music voiceover, a safari, an imposter, encounters with Blondie, Eddie & The Hots Rods and Devo and, in the midst of a bleak Berlin winter, an ill-fated film, David Bowie had reached almost terminal velocity by December 1977…

With the imminent release of a bumper box set of his solo work, one-time Can man Irmin Schmidt looks back over his illustrious career and talks about fleeing war-torn Berlin as a child, learning his trade under Stockhausen, and his sonic adventures in the worlds of classical music, experimental electronics, film soundtracks and fantasy operatics

From The Shedio, his Kingston-Upon-Hull home studio, Steve Cobby runs a cottage industry that, via his own Declassé imprint, pings near-perfect musical salvos into the world with a very pleasing regularity