The Blackheart Orchestra

Mesmerising music from an award winning duo.

Award-winning British songwriters, composers and multi-instrumentalists, Chrissy Mostyn and Rick Pilkington are The Blackheart Orchestra.

If you want to cite influences, you could credit Mike Oldfield, Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson, Tori Amos or Michael Nyman but, the fact is, The Blackheart Orchestra is unique, with a sound and style all of its own.

The latter part of 2019 saw The Blackheart Orchestra support the amazing Hawkwind on an arena tour, also taking in the Royal Albert Hall, and playing alongside the supergroup’s guest star Mark Knopfler. It was at that time that the Blackheart Orchestra also brought out their new album Mesmeranto, launched at their 2019 appearance at the St Austell Arts Centre.

The tour and album launch brought Rick and Chrissy’s music to a huge, new audience and the album garnered fantastic reviews. The album, Mesmeranto, made Top Twenty in the charts and Chrissy was voted one of the 2019 Top Ten female vocalists in the world, by Prog magazine.

The Blackheart Orchestra concerts have been described as: “A life-enhancing listening event” and “An avant-garde musical utopia” Chrissy has been described as having “One of the most extraordinary, ethereal, voices singing anywhere today” and together with the incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist Rick Pilkington the pair combine classical influences with vintage synthesisers and ultra-contemporary electronica to create music that takes over the senses.

As emotionally charged as it is musically accomplished, audiences are treated to sublime harmonies, virtuoso guitar, piano and synthesiser playing and songwriting and arrangements that take the audience ”from heartbreaking to uplifting in a single song”.

A treat for the eyes as well as the ears: to witness two people become an “orchestra”,
seemlessly, almost invisibly, switching vocals and instruments between them is as mesmeric to watch as their music is hypnotic to hear.