William Orbit, the electronic musician and producer whose credits include Madonna's Ray of Light and Blur's 13, has announced The Painter, which will be out August 26 via Warner Records. The album features vocals from Beth Orton, Georgia, Lido Pimienta, Katie Melua, Natalie Walker, Polly Scattergood, Ali Love, Gloria Kaba and Laurie Myer. “I’m so incredibly happy with it,” Orbit says. “The last year has been the most creative time I can think of. New toys, new collaborators, new relationships; there are tracks on this album that are up there with my best.”
The album is his first in eight years and follows a period of his life where, entering his 60s, he took up painting...and drugs. “I’d always been quite drug-averse,” he recalls. “Then one day I was at a New Year’s party, and I thought I’d try some cocaine. I recall joking to everyone: ‘Remember this in a year, when I’m in rehab!’ And then I thought: ‘Hmm, this is rather nice.” Orbit suffered a psychotic break at a festival and bottomed out later when, according to his official biography for this album, he barricaded himself in his home while "convinced he was working for the royal family and in danger of being assassinated by the Church of England."