I woke up one day and realized I want to write a true neo-classical record. I quickly came to the conclusion that neo-classical wasn't yet that popular and that iced it for me. What more reason did I need to do a neo-classical record?!  

I wrote Orchestrate with an orchestra in mind. And now, as I write for Orchestrate II, and just on the heels of my boundary-breaking instrumental jazz fusion album Tranz-Fused, it is my urgent dream to collaborate with a progressive worldview-class orchestra to produce an original, genre-crossing, impactful concert for most diverse orchestral audiences yet.  With the help of my visionary manager I am actively pursuing that dream now!

My original vision for Orchestrate was to go back to my Defense Mechanizms roots (which I did), yet to write a more cohesive record. My previous instrumental records have had some “classical meets metal” compositions, but Orchestrate is focused exclusively on that style. As the record developed, I realized "orchestral" was a more fitting term than "classical", so I consider Orchestrate to be my first neo-orchestral metal record. 

I recorded all of the backing strings (on my Yamaha Motif ES keyboard, because the sounds floored me) and, rather than playing chords, most of the time I treated it like scoring an orchestra, recording one "voice" at a time. Time consuming? Absolutely! And so what! I had invested more than 30,000 hours into my music already, what’s an extra  couple hundred hours to me!? There is still plenty of guitar on the record of course, and Matt Thompson’s drumming gave the compositions the finishing kick!

My focus compositionally was to create strong themes first and foremost, before the musicianship and full arrangements came into play. I didn't intend to write around any particular "culture" of music stylistically, but when I listen to the finished tracks I hear many different styles, including some Russian / Slavic themes. I also wanted to create a record that breathes with a lot of dynamics, at least one tempo ‘descelerondo’, and some free time tempos.

01) Opus Conceptus

02) String Theory

03) The Mad Composer’s Rage

04) Notes From the Kursk

05) Battle At Storm’s Edge

06) Guiprice

07) Mysterioso

08) Octavian II

09) The Anti Shred

10) Schizo Forte

Cover / Layout by John Holland (www.mistymountaingraphics.com)

Composed, Produced, and Mixed by Michael Harris at NOMAD Studio