Pete Tong with Jules Buckley and the Heritage Orchestra to Release New Album - 'Ibiza Classics'

Release Date - December 1st, 2017

Pete Tong Ibiza Classics is now available for preorder, with the track “Sing It Back” immediately available: https://ume.lnk.to/PeteTongIbizaClassics

Los Angeles – October 23, 2017 - Pete Tong Ibiza Classics with The Heritage Orchestra, directed by Chris Wheeler and conducted by Jules Buckley, will be released December 1 by UMe on CD, vinyl LP, and digital audio. Ibiza Classics is the follow-up to the 2016 UK Number One album, Pete Tong Classic House, a landmark record that saw the dance pioneer rework classic Ibiza dance tunes with an orchestra. A collaboration with arranger and conductor Jules Buckley, Classic House was the UK’s bestselling debut in 2016, with more than 270,000 copies sold to date. For Ibiza Classics, Tong combines the euphoric experience of touring Classic House alongside Buckley and the Heritage Orchestra with knowledge accrued over four decades immersed in dance music culture. Following last year’s sold out UK arena tour, a run of international arena shows is upcoming, including the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on Thursday, November 9, two Australian dates, and two December dates at The O2 in London.

“Watching Jules and these fantastically classically-trained musicians and this arena full of people partying, I was thinking, ‘We need to do this again’,” says Tong. “The question was: how could we do it again, but differently?”

The answer is Ibiza Classics. The Classic House album sought to capture something that had already taken place – kickstarted by the celebrated one-off show at London’s Royal Albert Hall to mark 20 years of BBC Radio 1 Ibiza coverage. From a clean slate, Tong could draw on his prestigious contact book for Ibiza Classics, reaching out to the likes of Seal, Craig David, Candi Staton, and Jessie Ware, as well as rising stars Becky Hill and Raye, to name but a few, giving the new album a more featured-artists feel, as well.

The bulk of the Ibiza Classics album was recorded at producer Mark Ralph’s studio in west London and programmer Dennis White’s studio in Putney. “They were like the Creative Control Centres of the thing,” says Tong. “Last time it was performance first, record second, but this time I started the project from a programming and arrangement perspective with Mark and Dennis. Then we had the Heritage Orchestra’s band going into the studio and playing on top of what we did and adding in the live elements.” For the final piece of the puzzle, Buckley arranged the tracks for the wider, 65-piece Heritage Orchestra, recording with them over five days in London’s Air Studios.

Never one to rest on past achievements, Pete Tong is making music as exhilarating as anything he’s done before. “It feels appropriate to be celebrating the legacy of dance music,” he says. “This is the soundtrack to so many people’s lives.”

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Pete Tong Ibiza Classics with The Heritage Orchestra

1. Clubbed To Death

2. Galvanize feat. Reggie Snow

3. Body Language feat. Raye

4. Killer feat. Seal

5. Sing It Back feat. Becky Hill

6. You Don’t Know Me feat. Craig David

7. Medley: Running / Finally feat. Jessie Ware

8. Unfinished Sympathy feat. Samm Henshaw

9. Medley: Rej / The Man With The Red Face / Yeke Yeke

10. La Ritournelle feat. Will Heard

11. Promised Land feat. Disciples

12. Grey

13. Out Of Space feat. Assassin

14. One

15. You Got The Love feat. Candi Staton

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Contact

Jennifer Ballantyne, UMe: (310) 865-2350 / [email protected]

Alastair Duncan, INFAMOUS: (310) 270-3499 / [email protected]

About Pete Tong

There are few individuals in the world of dance music who can claim the kind of influence Pete Tong has had over the last twenty years. As the voice of Radio 1’s prestigious dance programming, Pete has held a commanding presence over the industry for more than two decades. With an unparalleled ear for new talent, Tong has become the leading tastemaker of the electronic generation. While he’s known publicly as Pete Tong the DJ, behind the scenes, he’s an industry icon.

The last 18 months have seen him ramp up an already-stacked schedule. In 2015, to celebrate BBC’s 20-year presence in Ibiza, he brought electronic music to BBC’s Proms concert series by having a live orchestra perform dance classics. This December Tong, Jules Buckley and The Heritage Orchestra will host a follow up performance at London’s iconic O2 Arena which sold out in hours, and will be accompanied by a December album entitled Classic House on UMC/UMOD/Polydor. In 2016, Tong brought his Essential Mix series stateside with live broadcasts in Los Angeles, Miami and Brooklyn; he took the IMS to Shanghai for its first ever China edition; and he served as producer and music supervisor for Netflix original film XOXO. Presently, he is embarking on his first-ever All Gone Pete Tong North American tour.

Having spent the majority of his life in England, Pete has recently resettled in Los Angeles to begin a new chapter in his life. He’s wasted little time establishing himself in the US, having helped inaugurate Clear Channel Entertainment’s Evolution dance brand in 2013 and recently expanding the programming to the extended two-hour segment, The Evolution Beatport Show with Pete Tong, broadcasting on 90 different Top 40 stations in the US. Meanwhile, his world famous BBC Radio 1 shows, the Essential Mix and Essential Selection, are only growing in popularity: the former continues to be the Holy Grail of mix shows, while the latter is still the best place to premiere a new record.

On the DJing front, Tong is currently championing three premier All Gone Pete Tong residencies in the US. Once a month, you can find him bridging the gap to the underground at Sound Nightclub in Los Angeles, while in Miami, he’s keeping the integrity of club culture alive at Story. His residency at the SLS Las Vegas sees him performing regularly at the brand new LiFE club, where he’s introducing a whole new palette of underground sounds to the party mecca. Finally, the All Gone Pete Tong brand has achieved global renown through world-class parties in Miami during WMC and Ibiza as well as dedicated stages at festivals like Creamfields, TomorrowWorld, Electric Zoo and SW4.

As a music producer, Tong has led an esteemed career over the years with notable releases on Pets Recordings, Ministry of Sound, Toolroom Records, Suara and more. His compilations have garnered critical acclaim--most notably 2013’s 60-track anthology, The Pete Tong Collection. Most recently, he debuted on Beesemyer Music with tech-house anthem “Aurora” alongside John Monkman, while also curating All Gone Ibiza 2016 alongside Andrea Oliva as part of his All Gone Pete Tong compilation series.

On the business side, Tong continues to be a prominent force in both the booking and A&R worlds. In 2008, he co-founded WME’s electronic music division alongside Joel Zimmerman, helping to turn the venture into one of the most powerful booking agencies in the world. He’s also relaunched his label FFRR, reclaiming his reputation for A&R and signing acts like Oliver Heldens, The Magician, Blonde and The Disciples. On top of this, Tong is responsible for founding the International Music Summit, which holds major events in Ibiza, Los Angeles and Singapore. Now in its 6th year, the event is viewed in the industry as The Premier Platform for Thought Leadership in Electronic Music.

When all is said and done, one shudders to think what dance music would have been like without Pete Tong’s influence. Over the years, he’s played a crucial role in breaking new artists and changing the way people think about electronic music. With his new found home in Los Angeles, the British icon is looking to revolutionize the perception of dance music in America. If there’s anyone up for the task, it’s Pete Tong.