The formation OREGON has surely been well-known to most jazz and classical music enthusiasts. During the past 50+ years of band history, OREGON has become a synonym for genre-crossing music of the finest. Emerging in 1970 from the legendary Paul Winter Consort, OREGON combined elements of jazz with those of symphonic classical music and what is known today under the makeshift term world music. Despite their music defying classification OREGON has not only persevered until today but has also long become a legend of its own. In the late 1990s, the core trio set out to realize an ambitious project which they had often thought about, but not yet put to action: an OREGON album accompanied by a symphony orchestra. After a long search and several dead-end plans the Great Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio in the Name of Tchaikovsky was finally chosen, and the musically exemplary State Recording House of the GDRZ. Here, in June 1999, the 15 tracks of this double-album were recorded in just six days of recording. These tracks represent excerpts from the entire musical history of the band OREGON. This album was recorded strictly simultaneously, meaning that the band and the orchestra faced each other in the recording room and played the songs together. No overdubbing each other, no faking a relationship that wasn't there; just recording and mixing with the highest standards of quality. In this respect, OREGON in Moscow combines the best qualities of a live recording with those of a studio production. OREGON and the Tchaikovsky Orchestra, directed by George Garanian, joined forces to take this exceptional formation's repertoire (which is exceptionally beautiful to begin with) to new dimensions; to cinemascope, in a way. A lush, lavish celebration of music, full of beauty, grace and finesse, which all those involved can be very proud of. We definitely are. The legendary double-album has now been remastered and will be released as a double vinyl (180 gr) in gatefold.
