- 2026-03-24
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MUSIC
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The Living Orchestra Announces New Album “Last Generation”, Shares New Song “Animal Party”
Vancouver-based 13-piece symphonic rock band The Living Orchestra will release their upcoming album “Last Generation” on May 17, 2026.
The band was formed from the ashes of Canadian symphonic rock group The Living.
While the new album is their fifth full-length release overall, it marks their first as The Living Orchestra, featuring all six original members alongside eight additional instrumentalists and vocalists.
The album is a sweeping, multi-perspective narrative told across past, present, and future timelines.
From the album, the band released the first single “Animal Party” on March 20, 2026.
The song is both playful and pointed, delivering an imaginative post-apocalyptic vision from the animals' perspective.
It was written by Michael Edward Facundo Bell and Elyse Ashley Caroline Jacobson. Produced by David Soutar-Spidel and Mike Bell.- The bandleader Mike Bell said of the song, “This song is a cheeky fantasy of how animal life would flourish in a post-apocalyptic world. In our rock opera, it's set in 2040, where half of humans have wiped themselves out through climate-related disasters and the ensuing fallout—wars over dwindling resources and super pandemics from fatal diseases spreading north through warmer weather. It’s sung from the animals' point of view, who are forgiving humans and inviting them to reconnect, unite, and regenerate the world together through 'rewilding': restoring ecosystems and biodiversity to mitigate climate change.”
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The Living Orchestra is:
Mike Bell – lead vocals, electric guitars, piano
Elyse Jacobson – violin 1, character voices
John Kastelic – viola
Doug Gorkoff – cello
David Soutar-Spidel – bass, electric guitar
Samuel Cartwright – drums
Molly MacKinnon – violin 2
Kyle Axford – trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals, character voices
Mike WT Allen – tenor and baritone sax, flute
Ellen Marple – trombone
Will Broverman – bass trombone
Rebecca Lam – vocals
Jodie Aguinaldo – vocals
Jared Suitor – vocals
Photo by Emily Cooper - source : Apple Music
