The Cinematic Orchestra

Few British groups sit as comfortably between live improvisation and studio construction as The Cinematic Orchestra. Jason Swinscoe founded the project in 1999, and Dominic Smith later became a collaborator. The band pairs a live ensemble with a turntablist and electronic samples supplied by Swinscoe, who often reworks the live recordings in the studio until it is hard to say where the playing ends and the production begins. Their sound draws on nu jazz and downtempo, and the group is signed to the independent label Ninja Tune.

Their debut, Motion, came out in 1999, and its critical success led to an invitation to perform at the Director's Guild Awards ceremony, where Stanley Kubrick received a Lifetime Achievement Award. A commission from the Porto European City of Culture 2001 festival produced a live score for Dziga Vertov's 1929 film Man with a Movie Camera, which the band toured and later released as an album. Material from that project was reworked for Every Day, which reached number 54 in the UK Albums Chart in May 2002. Ma Fleur followed in 2007, and To Believe, their fourth studio album, arrived in March 2019.