Imitation is the best form of flattery, am I right? So what could be more exciting for local Halifax DJ CRaymak than having his track “Saviour” covered by Kaleidoscope Orchestra. “Saviour” was a collaborative effort that features UK famous DJ/producer Flux Pavilion, South African singer Tasha Baxter and now Kaleidoscope Orchestra.
“I was working on another project that I was pretty excited about at the time and then got a text from my manager saying, ‘You’re going to shit,’ with a YouTube link attached,” says Christien Raymakers aka CRaymak. “It was the private link to the video to check out, probably a month to two months before they released it.”
“I’ve been dreaming of the day this would happen ever since I got into music production about 7 years ago, but never thought it would happen so soon. But, because Flux has worked with the orchestra in the past, it seems they like to keep up his work. So, it’s thanks to him and the orchestra that it came together.”
Kaleidoscope Orchestra is based out of the UK and aims to bridge the gap between classical and electronic music. They play a big role in supporting mental health for musicians and have even written and performed tributes to Aviccii and Keith Flint. Using classical instruments to play non-classical music they figured out an amazing alternative way to showcase these EDM artists.
It is fascinating to hear how the orchestra can imitate each bass drop and sound and replace it with strings and percussion to bring it to life.
CRaymak is also no stranger to orchestral arrangements, having played trumpet for a number of years himself.
“I played trumpet for about 15 years and during that time I’ve played in multiple bands and ensembles. Some bands being directly involved with schools I attended while others were provincial based wind ensembles,” says Raymakers.
“Midway through high school is when I realized that I wanted to do something with music as a career and I took private theory lessons outside of school and spent a ton of time working through books. Once I graduated from high school I went on to study a Bachelor of Arts and Major in Music. I spent 4 years at that and throughout it, music production slowly took over and that all led to everything I do now.”
Christien worked on “Saviour” alongside Flux Pavilion for almost two years. It turned into a long process that delivered us an energetic beat which we can’t wait to hear at music festivals this summer.
“It was about 2 years! Kind of crazy, it doesn’t really feel like it took that long,” says Raymakers, “We were sharing music back and forth and eventually got talking about working on something together.
“I ended up sending over an idea that we could later get a vocal on. So he worked on it and sent it back, then we got talking about who we would want to sing on it and I suggested Tasha Baxter because she was a vocalist I’ve wanted to work with for a while. Turns out he had already been wanting to work with her too so he introduced me over email and we all got talking and furthered the track.
“All in all, we kept trading back and forth and it kept changing (for the greater good) and it eventually became the track we put out together, which we were all pretty pleased with. It was an awesome process to see it all come together and it was an honour to have worked with both extremely talented musicians.”
Tour Dates:
07.19.19 – Moncton, NB @ Evolve Festival
07.26.29 – Fredericton, NB @ Future Forest Festival