Acclaimed Electronic Artist William Orbit Disconnects at 69
by John Diliberto
William Orbit
December 15, 1956 – July 23, 2026
Acclaimed, Grammy-winning and Echoes favorite, William Orbit, has left the planet, departing on July 23 at the age of 69.
William Orbit was one of those shadowy figures in contemporary music. His credits turn up on albums by Madonna, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Kraftwerk and Prince. He made dance music under the names Torch Song and Bass-O-Matic, and recorded five albums of techno-impressionistic music under the series name Strange Cargo, the title of an old Joan Crawford movie.
Orbit made music between worlds, tottering on a faultline between dance and ambient music. He even released electronic renditions of classical works. He grew up on progressive rock but found himself working as a remix artist, turning tunes by Sting and Prince into new variations. That, along with his evolutionary step on Strange Cargo III led to Madonna’s Ray of Light, which he co-produced and partly wrote. That recording was a landmark Madonna release and one of my favorite albums, period. And it’s all because of William Orbit. That said, I think it’s wrong to reduce his career to Madonna and his other productions. His solo discography is even more impressive.
He continued creating, recording two more Strange Cargo albums, ending with Strange Cargo 5 in 2014, which was never conventionally released. You could stream and download it on Soundcloud and Musicbrainz, but none of that seems functional at this time. In 2006, he released the brilliant Hello Waveforms under his own name, an album that stood out for me with its ambient-noir moods while continuing the sonic delights of Ray of Light.. His final album, in 2022, was a beautiful swan song called The Painter. It had all those Orbit elements that made us love him: sensual melodies, seductive grooves and great, sultry singers like Beth Orton, Natalie Walker and Polly Scattergood. He created songs that floated your mind on wisps of incense smoke, but carried you out the window into an urban landscape.
William Orbit ended his final trip around the Sun on July 23, although his death wasn’t reported until nearly two weeks later. He appeared on Echoes twice in interviews and his music has been a mainstay of the show and his loss is deeply felt. We remember William Orbit on Echoes.