Formed in Chicago over eighteen years ago, the DJ collective known as Orchard Lounge is made up of Ben Silver, Spencer Lokken and Bethany Lokken. Looking back over an almost two-decade career we start to see some festivals and events that pop up on the radar more often than not. We caught up with Orchard Lounge’s Bethany Lokken to see if we could expect more shows in the coming months, like we’ve seen throughout the year. Well it doesn’t sound like we’ll see a full-fledged tour, it looks like there’s certainly more to come on the horizon, especially after their VIP set at Camp Bisco.
When asked if Orchard Lounge will start to tour again, in the traditional sense, Bethany Lokken had this to say: “It’s just been great to get back out there as a trio over the past year or so. We’ve had spurts of touring and periods of downtime, just like any other project that’s been at it as long as we have. We’re getting back out there, but we’re not forcing anything. We’re not pushing tours because we’re at a point in our careers where we want to focus on quality over quality – 100% of the time. We’ve just been focusing on the rooms that make sense. The sound systems that make sense. And we promise we’ll bring you the music that makes sense. We’re looking forward to the future, and we’re staying focusing on what’s right in front of us to bring you all the best shows possible.”
Orchard Lounge is no stranger to Camp Bisco, and this year marked their tenth performance at The Disco Biscuits annual summer music festival – again returning to Montage Mountain in Moosic, Pennsylvania. A quick review of their 2018 touring schedule and we see two visits to Cervantes’ Masterpiece in Denver. The room is known for cultivating unique lineups and “supergroups” in the jam-rock and electronic music scenes.
Allen Aucoin from The Disco Biscuits makes appearances on both OL bills from this year with Denver’s Tiger Party and again with DJ legend LTJ Bukem. Both times Aucoin joined the trio during their set for live drumming accompaniment. Little did we know these shows were actually giving us a sneak-peak of what went down at Camp Bisco for the late night VIP set, as well as a glimpse at variation of a new project – SilverFameus – that is debuting at Satellite Ranch Music & Arts Festival this coming weekend in Pennsylvania.
The Orchard Lounge VIP set at Camp Bisco was prefaced by some of the most intense downpouring we’ve seen since last year – notably around the same time at Camp Bisco. It’s become sort of tradition there. After thirty to sixty minutes of huddling in the Main Stage tent with five thousand of your closest friends, the fans emerge and diligently trickle back out into the festival grounds to see what remaining music they still can before the night is done.
The window of non-precipitation lasted for about an hour, with Orchard Lounge taking the stage as a trio for the initial third of the set. Moving downtempo tracks textured with high-energy, transient deep house define the mood, Disco Biscuits drummer Aucoin took the stage about half way in, with Ian McGuire joining on the keys shortly after. Aucoin and McGuire are more than familiar with each other’s style – both play in livetronica improv trio CIA, which also includes Particle bassist Clay Parnell. The two click seamlessly with each of the different members of Orchard Lounge, check it out here for yourself:
You can catch Orchard Lounge in their natural state (the trio) next Friday, Sept. 7 in New York City. Their last play in New York was an exclusive show at the Museum of Sex that people are still buzzing about. When they return to play Brooklyn’s Elsewhere next week they’ll be joined by the infamous Doc Martin, who has been DJing since he started in San Francisco back in 1986, as well as Risky Disco’s Greg D.
That new project SilverFameus, featuring Ben Silver and Allen Aucoin, will hit its first sets of ears this Sunday, Sept. 1 at the Satellite Ranch Music and Arts Festival. Attendees will also see Eliot Lipp, Joe Nice, Tweed, Horizon Wireless, Space Bacon, Newpy Hundo, and Bad Leather along with forty other artists total between Saturday’s and Sunday’s performances.
“Just like anything new or old, it’s going to evolve. The music hits on the deeper side of house and techno… we’ll spare you that bio cliché that pitches our music as ‘undefinable, mind-bending crossover of genres X, Y and Z’. The music is growing. It’s electronic and it’s organic – much like people. We’re not putting a label on it. Ben and I have been cultivating this for a while now, and we’re looking forward to the test drive this weekend.”
Orchard Lounge, Ben Silver’s solo project, DrFameus, SilverFameus and CIA share a common thread as part of the artist family at Full Circle Music Productions – stay tuned to their calendar for announcements and upcoming events.
Comments are closed.