The Orb — Little fluffy clouds. Story behind the track

Before telling the story of the recording of Little fluffy clouds, a little preface about how everyone got together. Paterson, Cauty and Glover had been hanging out together since the early eighties. Paterson worked as a tour manager for the band of the other two. House music from overseas forced them to leave their guitars for a while. Cauty bought a synthesiser, but couldn’t figure out how it worked. Paterson had been chasing this synthesiser for the last five years and, seeing a puzzled Cauty, offered to record music. Thus, in the summer of 1988, The Orb was created.

The three of them organised the first white room in the raving UK, located in a corner of the huge Heaven club, where the well-known Paul Oakenfold played acid house. At first, the trio was watched by only a few, but, after a couple of months, the white room was filled. No one danced; everyone was just lying there. Paterson and Cauty played music for those who could no longer dance. They had three turntables, a cassette player, a compact disc player and tons of material that they mixed into one canvas: Brian Eno’s ambient with Strauss waltzes, Hotel California with film soundtracks, and birdsong with samples from science fiction series. And at some point, they thought, Why don’t we do the same in the studio?