William Ørbit* ‎– Pieces In A Modern Style

Very tasteless on the entire lenght. Boring, flat, no ideas at all. If one is after classical transcriptions on synthesizer: Isao Tomita 1974-1979 's works can't even be approached. Those are far the most exciting pieces man could have recorded. This one is one of the weakest I've ever heard. Cheap almost crappy new-age background thing...

Withdrawn from sale almost immediately when Arvo Pärt objected to its inclusion of his compositions.

Hi,
for info, this album was actually orginally released in 1995 through N-GRAM recordings via WEA/Warner. (Cat no: WE833 0630 10722 2). It featured the following tracks..

The Electric Chamber / PiecesInAModernStyle

1. Adagio / Samuel Barber (9:32)
2. Ogive / Erik Satie (6:45)
3. Cantus / Avro Part (8:50)
4. Pavane / Maurice Ravel (7:09)
5. Fratres / Avro Part (11:13)
6. Piece in the Old Style 1 / Henryk Gorecki (5:00)
7. Piece in the Old Style 3 / Henryk Gorecki (5:50)

The Cover art featured a painting by Raphael - Madonna and child with infant baptist

As you can see it features two tracks 3 and 5 which are not on the 2000 release. I managed to buy it on the day of release as I'd been eagerly awaiting it but i believe it was withdrawn soon after due to copyright issues with these tracks and did not see the light of day again until this newer release.

Hope that's of interest :-)

in fact it gets a mention here

http://www.discogs.com/release/307829

so i'm not sure why its not listed on the main list..guess its' the naming... oh well.

cheers.

Classical music done in electronic instruments: it's been done before, but not quite with the sophistication as William Orbit has done on PIECES IN A MODERN STYLE. So while "Adagio for Strings" would sound good played with kazoos, the more surprising selections on here are the ones worth investigating, like the modern minimalism of John Cage's "In a Landscape" or the Ravel's delicate "Pavane Pour Une Infante Defunte." It's fascinating to hear Beethoven's "Triple Concerto" as modulated trip-hop, but hey, whatever. The revisions of Gorecki's "Pieces in the Old Style" are more intriguing, however, with the electronics successfully conveying the mood of the originals. The mixes of "Adagio for Strings" on the bonus disc are fun, but fluff. While, generally, the end result is pleasant, the concept of the album as a whole makes me wonder, "And?" The conversion of classical music to electronic music should be more transformative, I feel, to justify the switch. And William Orbit hasn't quite convinced me yet.

Equal parts beautiful and a welcome around the house and cheeky drek that should get one punched or thanked for owning. What's definetly drek is the stupid Adagio remix. As before, collect the originals if and where possible and compile accordingly. Some surprises will be found in these interpertations and the going back and forth. At worst you'll find some more people to get into musically.

My Australian release is as per the German one described above. The Ferry Corsten remix of Adagio for Strings received a reasonable amount of airplay on national TripleJ FM radio here at the time of its release. I personally think that mix is rather cheap & nasty - But I suppose that equates to being radio friendly.

As for the full length Album disc; Quite pleasant and dreamy in a fairly bleepy bloopy kind of way. I have a friend with an extensive collection of and was a staff member at a Classical recordings store. I lent her this album and she's collected for me the tracks in so much as could be found in close to their original, instrumental (or choral) arrangements. It's my intention to recompile Orbits collection in this form, and throw out the second disc with the Corsten remix. I think it wastes the 2c worth of plastic its pressed on.

nb. for those who don't know Barbers Adagio for strings, as it's become famous (for being in the Platoon soundtrack etc) was actually arranged originally for choir and is well worth checking out in that form. It's haunting beauty is only deepened.