The Song Planner

Orchestral Electronic

tagStarted c. 1974Peak 2010-presentLast big hit active through film scores, art-pop, live ensembles, electronic-classical albums, and ambient/orchestral playlists

Located in 1 route

Electronic / Dance → Cinematic / Classical / Hybrid Electronic

Orchestral Electronic places electronic production and orchestral writing on equal footing. It can be synthetic music shaped like an orchestra, acoustic strings processed like electronics, or beat-driven tracks widened by symphonic arrangement. Compared with orchestral EDM it is less tied to festival drops; compared with neoclassical electronic it is broader, heavier, and more open to drums and cinematic scale.

History

Isao Tomita, Wendy Carlos, Vangelis, and Jean-Michel Jarre opened early synth-orchestral territory, while Hybrid, M83, Daft Punk, Max Richter, Nils Frahm, Olafur Arnalds, Ben Lukas Boysen, Apparat, Jon Hopkins, Woodkid, Rone, Kiasmos, and contemporary film composers made it a flexible modern language. The style grew as laptop production and sample libraries made orchestral color available to electronic artists without separating concert hall from studio.

Defining artists

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Essential listening

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← Explore Electronic / Dance

Sources

  • electronic classical histories
  • orchestral electronic playlists
  • film-score and art-pop reviews
  • artist release catalogs