William Orbit, a musician and remixer whose mastery of late 1990s electronica — house, trance, ambient, trip-hop — made him one of the hottest producers of his generation, turning out hit records for Madonna, Blur and All Saints, died at his home in London on July 23. He was 69.
His death was announced on his website and Instagram page on Friday. No cause was provided.
Mr. Orbit, whose real name was William Wainwright, spent nearly two decades toiling in obscure fields of electronic music, developing a small following and contributing to the occasional, forgettable movie. “White Night,” which he recorded with his band Torch Song, was featured in “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” (1986).
In the 1990s, he became known in club circles for his dance remixes of artists like Peter Gabriel and Depeche Mode — but doing remixes is not exactly a ticket to stardom.
His fortunes turned in his late 30s, when he got a call from Madonna. She had been struggling herself, with two mediocre albums — “Erotica” (1992) and “Bedtime Stories” (1994) — and a creeping reputation as a has-been.
She was looking for a new, edgier sound. Could Mr. Orbit help? They met at her New York apartment to share ideas. They clicked. The result, after months of work, was “Ray of Light,” released in 1998 and widely considered her finest album.
Mr. Orbit worked on every track, infusing each one with lush synthesizers and complex beats that recalled the London club scene. The album generated several hits, including “Frozen,” “The Power of Good-Bye” and the title track, and received six Grammy nominations.
It won four, two of which Mr. Orbit shared in, for best pop album and best dance recording. He and Madonna won another Grammy, for best song written for visual media, in 2000 with “Beautiful Stranger,” which they recorded for the 1999 movie “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.”
They also collaborated on three songs for her next album, “Music” (2000), and six songs for her 2012 album, “MDNA.”
Following his success with Madonna, Mr. Orbit produced another critically acclaimed album, “13” (1999), for the British band Blur. But most of his subsequent work was for individual tracks — he was the guy whom bands or executive producers called if they wanted a song to have a luxuriant but danceable sound.
Among his singles were “Making Out,” by No Doubt, from the album “Rock Steady” (2001); “Don’t Wake Me Up,” by Chris Brown, from his album “Fortune” (2012); and “Alien,” by Britney Spears, from her album “Britney Jean” (2013).
Many of his songs appeared on soundtracks: “Pure Shores,” by All Saints, for “The Beach” (2000); “Feel Good Time,” by Pink, for “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” (2003); and “The Hands That Built America,” by U2, which was featured in the 2002 movie “Gangs of New York” and the band’s 2002 collection, “The Best of 1990-2000.”
All along, Mr. Orbit was making his own music. After recording three electronic albums in the 1980s with Torch Song, he released five solo works under the series title “Strange Cargo,” wildly divergent in style but united by his unique tonal vocabulary.
In the mid-1990s he began to incorporate classical influences, especially from minimalist and avant-garde composers like Henryk Gorecki, Arvo Part and Erik Satie. Mr. Orbit’s synthesizer cover of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” on his 1995 album, “Pieces in a Modern Style,” became a surprise hit when the Dutch D.J. Ferry Corsten gave it a dance remix in 1999.
William Mark Wainwright was born on Dec. 15, 1956, in London. His parents were teachers.
He left school at 16 and, he often said in interviews, spent much of the 1970s as a “post-hippie,” working odd jobs — picking fruit, moving furniture — and squatting in a run-down corner of London. His daily diet consisted of a “Mars bar and a tab of acid.”
He acquired the name Orbit, he said, because of his love of rocketry and astronomy, though he sometimes added that it was also because friends found him a bit spacey.
When a roommate began collecting recording equipment and albums to set up a studio, Mr. Orbit discovered his calling. He learned to play the synthesizer, and in 1980 teamed up with Laurie Mayer and Grant Gilbert to form Torch Song.
They released three albums in the 1980s, broke up around 1987 and then reunited in 1995 to release a fourth.
Mr. Orbit was married briefly and had a daughter. He also had a relationship with the electronica singer Beth Orton. A complete list of survivors was not immediately available.
Around 1990, Mr. Orbit helped found Guerilla Records, which became an incubator for new talent and for side projects like Bassomatic, a band that had a minor hit with the 1990 single “Fascinating Rhythm.”
After working on “Ray of Light,” Mr. Orbit moved to Los Angeles, where he tried to get work as an à la carte producer and songwriter. But he discovered that it was hard to find his footing in the American music industry. He grew depressed and began using drugs.
He returned to London in 2017, but his drug habit continued, leading to two psychotic episodes. He was briefly hospitalized.
Once released, he cleaned up and refocused on his own music. In 2022, he released “The Painter,” which included a collaboration with Ms. Orton, “I Paint What I See.”
The album title reflected Mr. Orbit’s newfound interest in painting, a late-life avocation that, he said, helped him center himself and re-approach his creative side.
“Both the painting and music come from the same creative source — me,” he told the website Clash in 2022. “A lot of the creative processes that you’re using relate to the other one. Thinking about color, and form, and texture, and repetition, for example. You’re applying them to both media.”
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