‘Ray of Light made me, and I didn’t know what I was doing’: William Orbit on Madonna, being sectioned and resurrection

William Orbit is an electronic musician living a jazz life. ‘I like to make it up as I go along,’ he says. ‘It’s one long improv session.’ For most of his 65 years, the music skipped along well enough. In the late Nineties, Orbit was the man with lightning at his fingertips. He co-produced (and co-wrote) Madonna’s best album, Ray of Light, followed in 1999 by Blur’s best album, 13. He created big hits for big movies, including The Beach, which featured his song ‘Pure Shores’. Recorded by All Saints, it became the second most successful British single of 2000.

Orbit worked with U2 and made more records with Madonna, but the tune he was improvising became increasingly jagged and discordant until, for a spell, the music stopped completely. His new album, The Painter, is his first in almost a decade following a period blighted by drug issues and a mental health breakdown.