Legendary producer Dave Lee returns as AC Soul Symphony with the “Metamorphosis” LP – his most ambitious production project in his 35-year career.
With an inimitable CV and discography that includes over a thousand production credits to his name, hundreds of singles under renowned pseudonyms including Joey Negro, and three UK top 40 hits as Jakatta, Dave Lee is one of the UK’s most revered producers of disco and house music, defining each genre with a signature sound. Always looking to push the boundaries of what it means to make music, his latest project sees Dave return to one of his lesser-known pseudonyms – AC Soul Symphony – to deliver an epic disco record that takes the sound back to its roots in every way possible.
“A few years ago, I produced a remake of David Shire’s orchestral disco masterpiece Manhattan Skyline under the alias of AC Soul Symphony. I really enjoyed reworking that classic track in a way that retained my favourite parts of the original but also writing new musical sections that gave it more my own flavour.”
Comprising 15 beautifully arranged disco tracks that effortlessly span almost two hours, “Metamorphosis” is an album by definition, but at its core, much more than that – it is a labour of love, meticulously composed, arranged and crafted through a very tangible and human creative process which is unmatched by many modern producers.
“I do it because I love the process of creating something. My aim is to come up with an end result I genuinely think I’d want to buy, play and listen to if it wasn’t me.”
Inspired by happy memories from the golden era of TV and the soundtracks of his favourite childhood shows, “Metamorphosis” was borne of a desire to put the strings center stage and recreate the same analogue sounds that brought instrumental albums by Love Unlimited, MFSB and Salsoul Orchestra to life.
“I thought making a whole album of this mainly instrumental, string heavy, tv theme like music would be a really enjoyable project and one that would play to my strengths as a producer. It was also slightly new territory musically and a bit of challenge.”
Taking disco back to a physical place, “Metamorphosis” was an organic writing process that saw Dave lay down his ideas digitally, before reshaping the MIDI strings into a proper arrangement and recording them live with a 20-piece orchestra at RAK Studios. By his own admission, it is an album of pure indulgence, but by relying on digital production methods, it can be easy to lose sight of the soul that makes music such a unifying entity. Backing up the immaculate strings with catchy vocals and enough groove to level a discotheque, it’s this soulful energy that Dave has captured and expertly delivered with “Metamorphosis”.