Arakatak [VINYL]

The Metropole Orchestra is celebrating its 80th anniversary with the release of its new album Arakatak, which will be released on 6 March 2026. For this anniversary album, the orchestra asked eight leading composers to write new works especially for the occasion: music that represents the Metropole Orchestra of the future. Arakatak is an album full of new orchestral jazz, with influences from jazz and film music. The title track was composed by horn player Morris Kliphuis. In addition, honorary conductor and master arranger Vince Mendoza, saxophonist and producer Donny McCaslin, regular guest conductor Miho Hazama, saxophonist Tineke Postma, drummer Mark Guiliana, pianist Shai Maestro and composer Louis Cole have contributed new compositions. The album is performed by the Metropole Orchestra conducted by Miho Hazama, the Tokyo-born composer and arranger who works in New York. With Arakatak, the Metropole Orchestra underlines its original mission: to take light music to a higher level and constantly explore new musical avenues. Eighty years after the first telegram that led to the orchestra's founding, Arakatak looks emphatically ahead. The album release will be celebrated on 6 March 2026 with an exclusive live presentation at De Hallen in Amsterdam, where the audience will sit in the middle of the orchestra and experience the music up close through headphones. During this evening, the audience will also be treated to the premiere of a video clip created especially for the Metropole Orchestra by cartoonist Typex.