Bruce Gilbert - London Orbital - 1LP on Black Vinyl. With A5 booklet by Iain Sinclair & Chris Petit. To Be Released 27th November.
• Bruce Gilbert's sound work for the 2002 experimental documentary film London Orbital, pressed on vinyl for the first time.
• London Orbital was directed by Chris Petit and based on the book of the same name by Iain Sinclair.
• Bruce Gilbert was a founding member of WIRE and the experimental group DOME.
The Hotel is proud to present a first-time edition of London Orbital, Bruce Gilbert’s visionary sound work for the 2002 film, directed by Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair. London Orbital is a film about the M25, the circular motorway that surrounds London in its outer edges. Commissioned by Channel 4.
The film is loosely based on Iain Sinclair’s work, published two years prior, which saw the author walk the entire length of the Orbital motorway over a two-year period. Chris Petit took this concept slightly quicker by electing to drive around the motorway, using nascent digital techniques and CCTV footage to reveal the uncanny atmospherics, beauty and oddly terrifying nature of the endless motorway. The film expertly deploys the outer-ring motorway as a metaphor for the outer orbits of the mind, driving as an exercise in forward projection, the liminal space of the motorway as a vessel towards a feeling of extreme impersonality.
As Petit puts it, “a quest for transcendental boredom”. The Hotel presents London Orbital not as a soundtrack record, but as a sound film – with Bruce Gilbert’s rich tapestry of electronics, field recordings and electric guitar edited to create a listening experience that is just as if not more evocative than the theatrical viewing experience.
The LP’s accompanying A5 booklet offers extensive stills from the film alongside newly-commissioned essays by Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair.
TRACKLISTING 1. Side A 2. Side B
The Hotel Cat. No. TH05 2026
Bruce Gilbert - London Orbital - 1LP on Black Vinyl. With A5 booklet by Iain Sinclair & Chris Petit. To Be Released 27th November.
• Bruce Gilbert's sound work for the 2002 experimental documentary film London Orbital, pressed on vinyl for the first time.
• London Orbital was directed by Chris Petit and based on the book of the same name by Iain Sinclair.
• Bruce Gilbert was a founding member of WIRE and the experimental group DOME.
The Hotel is proud to present a first-time edition of London Orbital, Bruce Gilbert’s visionary sound work for the 2002 film, directed by Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair. London Orbital is a film about the M25, the circular motorway that surrounds London in its outer edges. Commissioned by Channel 4.
The film is loosely based on Iain Sinclair’s work, published two years prior, which saw the author walk the entire length of the Orbital motorway over a two-year period. Chris Petit took this concept slightly quicker by electing to drive around the motorway, using nascent digital techniques and CCTV footage to reveal the uncanny atmospherics, beauty and oddly terrifying nature of the endless motorway. The film expertly deploys the outer-ring motorway as a metaphor for the outer orbits of the mind, driving as an exercise in forward projection, the liminal space of the motorway as a vessel towards a feeling of extreme impersonality.
As Petit puts it, “a quest for transcendental boredom”. The Hotel presents London Orbital not as a soundtrack record, but as a sound film – with Bruce Gilbert’s rich tapestry of electronics, field recordings and electric guitar edited to create a listening experience that is just as if not more evocative than the theatrical viewing experience.
The LP’s accompanying A5 booklet offers extensive stills from the film alongside newly-commissioned essays by Chris Petit and Iain Sinclair.
TRACKLISTING 1. Side A 2. Side B
The Hotel Cat. No. TH05 2026
