Active Child & Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra
Patrick Grossi, or 'Active Child' as he's better known, is probably more familiar to US audiences than to UK ones but everyone will know his song 'Hanging On' which Ellie Goulding covered on her second album. They've worked together since but his blend of ambient, electronic and soul influences – all tied together by his own harp playing – has resulted in three stunning albums. For this project I worked with Joe Duddell to transcribe and arrange twenty or so tracks from his 2011 debut 'You Are All I See' and his (at that point unreleased) second album 'Mercy'.
Each of these projects has its tricky parts. I'd scored the whole set before Joe had to go to Chicago for rehearsals so we were all ready to go. Unfortunately, Joe found out on the plane that the instrumentation we'd received was wrong. So, he had to spend the rest of the flight rearranging the songs for this smaller setup and getting parts finished once on the ground. The gig was at Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavilion at Millenium Park, Chicago, but I can't find any videos of it anywhere!
Each of these projects has its tricky parts. I'd scored the whole set before Joe had to go to Chicago for rehearsals so we were all ready to go. Unfortunately, Joe found out on the plane that the instrumentation we'd received was wrong. So, he had to spend the rest of the flight rearranging the songs for this smaller setup and getting parts finished once on the ground. The gig was at Frank Gehry's Pritzker Pavilion at Millenium Park, Chicago, but I can't find any videos of it anywhere!
