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BT Brings His Orchestral Fantasy "Electronic Opus" To Kickstarter

The dance music icon needs your help to build a unique concert experience for true music listeners.

Kickstarter has rapidly become the go-to platform to help businesses and projects come to fruition. The community driven fund-raising website hasn't only attracted wannabe entrepreneurs, but also musicians searching for investors to back their ideas and talents.

Legendary electronic musician, BT has an extensive resume that includes producing movie scores, heartfelt trance classics and a rich background in classical music. But BT is also one of nearly 200,000 people turning to Kickstarter to make his dream a reality―that dream, being his Electronic Opus project.

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"This is unrelated to DJing. Throughout the course of the show I will be playing everything from piano, modular synthesizers, drum machines, propriety music software, iZotope and live music software," he said. "So I won't just be hitting the space bar on a CD player."

The Electronic Opus project has been on BT's mind for years. Unusually, he has found it difficult to gather enough people who share his vision in order to make this event happen.

His dream event would feature a live orchestra that combines the basic elements of electronic music production, like LED lights and other visuals that make dance music festivals what they are. One thing is clear, there will be no DJing at this event. BT is aiming to create a concert style format and wants to attract an audience devoted to listening to the music attentively.

"I think people dressing up, wearing black ties [and] sitting down attentively listening to music is a different experience. The festival environment is a little disheartening; I don't think much of the audience cares about who's playing," he said. "I know a lot of DJs who prepare a set on USB drives and CDs then do aerobics and calisthenics and the audience doesn't care."

It's obvious that BT is unhappy with the current state of electronic music and how it is being consumed by mainstream audiences. But a recent tour as his side project All Hail the Silence with Richard Burns and Erasure, reminded him that he's foremost a musician and not just a superstar DJ.

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"We played live electronic music. It reminded me that more than anything [that] I'm a musician, and a lot of what you see in this DJ culture isn't any of that," he said. "This is my respite for the proliferation of electronic music and at the heart of it all I'm a musician. Music has incredible power to communicate emotion and I want to actually play music for people who attentively want to hear it."

The KickStarter campaign has raised $100,000 in three days. Despite his disappointment in dance music, this proves to BT that there are people who are interested in a fusion of electronic music and a live orchestra. BT is determined to make this event happen.

"I remember watching Tony Tallarico's video games live show. The viewers were a plethora of different age groups and they had an incredible reaction to an orchestra performing video game music. It was in front of 10,000 people in a sold out Hollywood Bowl show, and I felt all the nay sayers to my idea were wrong," he said.

As of recently, BT's Electronic Opus campaign was a success. The funds currently sit at $208,652, beating their minimum goal of $200,000. But BT specifies that this as the minimum, and with the Kickstarter campaign's lifespan nearly 48 hours left―it could still use an extra push. So, if your heart beats for re-invented classics and orchestral arrangements, then head over to their page to complete your holiday good deed. It is Christmastime, after all.

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Ani Hajderaj blasts "Flaming June" and has been doing so religiously for the past eight years, follow him on Twitter: @AniHajderaj.