Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Joan Of Arc / Maid Of Orleans, 1981

taken from their third album Architecture & Morality, released November 1981. A beautiful synth pop record throughout, with OMD’s sound augmented by the mellotron, used to add sweeping atmospheric swatches of string, choir and other sounds. It eventually sold more than 3 million copies with “Maid of Orleans” being the most successful single of 1982 in Germany.

Interestingly enough these two tracks were both originally titled “Joan of Arc”, the name of the latter single being changed at the insistence of the publishers to avoid confusion. It became “Joan of Arc (Maid of Orleans)” and later simply “Maid of Orleans”.

The artwork was produced by Peter Saville and Brett Wickens. Architecture & Morality was released several times with varying artwork, most notably in yellow, blue and grey but even green versions are available. The original cover from 1981 is light yellow/orange in a die-cut sleeve.

And in case you were wondering, OMD is currently rocking facebook and twitter and are pretty active at the moment. Andy McCluskey recently commented on their website about the new OMD album - the first in fourteen years - and tour:

Work on the forthcoming OMD album The History Of Modern continues and a provisional release date is under consideration.

Paul Humphreys has been working on the new OMD album recently and mixing work is also on the schedule. Meanwhile, Andy McCluskey is meeting with Peter Saville this week to discuss sleeve design concepts. The band are also receiving a lot of requests for licensing offers from around the world and it looks likely that a lot of deals are going to be made over the next few months.

“Regarding the album and record label we’re looking at a deal with 100% which is a joint venture deal. It is just for UK. We are talking to an indie in US, and several license or distribution deals in Europe. I am delighted to report that the demos have been so well received in Germany that several labels are in a bidding war! We are still on target for early Sept. album release.

We will tour UK, Ireland and European continent from late October through November. We hope to travel further in 2011.”

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Telegraph, 1983

Dazzle Ships was the fourth album released by OMD, a synth wave band from England who began with a one-off single produced by Martin Hannet on the legendary Factory Records in 1978. The entire album is incredible, conceived around visions of cryptic Cold War tension and the rise of computers in everyday life from European and global references. Dazzle Ships turned meditations of biological science and a technologically advanced future into surprisingly lush, soaring pop songs (the even numbered tracks) next to sudden stop-start instrumental sound collages of time zone recordings and shortwave radio broadcasts (the odd numbered tracks). The title and cover art were based on dazzle camouflage and designed by Factory’s Peter Saville, who’s distinctive graphic style was responsible for OMD’s public image well into the 80’s.