A leap into new territory for Metheny, this project merges a musical idea from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries – a large mechanical multi-instrument device that imitates the sound of an orchestra, called an ‘orchestrion’ – with the technologies of today.

‘Orchestrionics’ is the term that Metheny uses to describe his method of performing a roomful of robotically-controlled musical instruments simultaneously on his own, using one-of-a-kind software programs and solenoid switches to control each of them via his guitar and an array of pedals.