Messiah Remix

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Georg Friedrich Handel's 1742 masterpiece of spiritual rebirth is, itself, reborn in this deep and thoughtful tribute album. Eleven of today's most searching musical minds respond to one of the classic works of Western music, and their responses range from tuneful electronica to craggy modernism; from moody ambience to unbounded joy. An unprecedented collection of some of the brightest lights of composed music, electronica, and, experimental hip-hop has created a rich album with incomparable musical range.

Featuring arrangements by Charles Amirkhanian, Eve Beglarian, Dalek, Luke DuBois, Phil Kline, Paul Lansky, Tod Machover, John Oswald, Scanner, Laetitia Sonami, and Nobukazu Takemura.

For Messiah Remix, Cantaloupe assembled a wide range of composers, across a spectrum of approaches and technologies: It began on the East Coast with electronic pioneers Paul Lansky (Princeton Electronic Music Studio, sampled by Radiohead on their landmark album Kid A) and Tod Machover (MIT Media Lab). It looked West to find Charles Amirkhanian (text/sound pioneer) and performance artist Laetitia Sonami. It looked across the globe for some of the hottest DJ's - up to Canada for John Oswald (inventor of Plunderphonics), to the UK for Scanner, and to Japan for Nobukazu Takemura. It invited NJ-based Dalek, hailed for bringing hip-hop to a new level of artistry. And finally, Cantaloupe artist Phil Kline (Zippo Songs and Unsilent Night) joined in, alongside composer Eve Beglarian (Twisted Tutu) and the up and coming young producer R. Luke DuBois..

Each artist worked in new ways to manipulate the piece. Amirkhanian created a subtle collage of undistorted phrases from the original; Takemura added beats; Dalek added words; and DuBois electronically contracted the entire work into less than five minutes to create a beautiful wash of ambient sound.

Artists

CA21020
Formats: 
CD / Digital
Release Date: 
10/12/2004