William Orbit, the producer of Madonna acclaimed Ray of Light album has pondered if the trove of unreleased tracks from the album’s session, and follow up record Music will ever see the light of day.
Madonna recently announced that Veronica Electronica a companion remix album to her landmark seventh studio album from 1997 would finally be released after almost three decades. The new album will include one previously unreleased song Gone, Gone, Gone which was written with producer Rock Nowells.
On his Facebook page Orbit posted an image of a CD full of unreleased tracks and said “We need to talk about this.”
After remixing many Madonna tracks over the years, the British producer collaborated with Madonna on her 1997 album. The album came after one of Madonna’s longest breaks from making music after she filmed the movie Evita and gave birth to her first child.
Madonna developed a distinctive sound while she worked with Orbit leading to some of her most acclaimed work. She continued working with him for Beautiful Stranger her song for the Austin Powers movie and her cover of Don McLean’s American Pie.
Madonna continued working with Orbit on her follow up album Music, but only three of their collaborations made it onto the final album as she moved on to working more with French producer Mirwais Ahmadzai.
The disc posted by Orbit includes Time Stood Still, which Madonna would later released on the soundtrack to her movie The Next Best Thing, and Cyber Ragga, written with Talvin Singh, was included as a b-side on Music era track Don’t Tell Me.
There’s also Madonna’s cover of the ABBA song Like an Angel Passing Through My Room, which along with many of the tracks on this disc have previously leaked online.
Liquid Love had Orbit’s distinctive electronic sound, while leaked versions Run have a big guitar sound. While Orbit’s disc included a song called Mysore Style, fans think the track is also called My Sore Smile – instrumental versions of the song have previously appeared online.
When Madonna resigned to Warner Bros music it was suggested that curated new version of her former albums might be released including bonus tracks and remixes, but nothing has ever emerged.
Throughout her career Madonna has often passed unused tracks on to other artists. A song called Like a Flower from the Ray of Light sessions was later released by Italian singer Laura Pausini under the name Resta In Ascolto.
Kylie Minogue, Gary Barlow, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Donna Delory, Nick Scotti, Nick Kamen and rock band Tilt have all recorded unused Madonna songs.
Orbit who also worked with Blur, All Saints, Finley Quaye, Katie Melua and Pink in the wake of his success with Madonna also revealed that’s he’s heading into the studio to work with Pink Pantheress on some new material.
