Aphex Twin’s Remote Orchestra
Richard D. James came up with the idea of controlling a 48 piece string section and a 24 strong choir by remote control, using MIDI controllers, headphones and visual cues.
Remote Orchestra was developed for the European Culture Congress in Poland and premiered Sept 10, 2011 at Centennial Hall, Wroclaw.
needs more synth.
needs more cow bell.
Needs more knife stabs
Needs more music.
Needs more creepy Richard D James kids.
Well, that was terrible. The piece was a sonic mess. The close-ups of the players suggested they were both bored and uninspired. I am going to pretend I never saw this and just go put Drukqs in the player.
that’s AUKSO orchestra, and half of its musicians are my friends from Music Academy in Katowice, Poland. I spoke to them, because I was really, really jealous, that the get to play with Aphex Twin AND Johnny Greenwood (I’m a theoretist and composer with main instrument being piano). And after first rehearsal, all of them were nearly deaf and exhausted, and no one really liked what they were participating to (although with Johnny Greenwood they were quite satisfied).
James’ piece was based on Penderecki’s works, so that’s why it sounds how it sounds, but everyone I know had been really disappointed that there was so little Aphex-like elements.
If this was something in the middle between Aphex Twin and Krzysztof Penderecki, it might have been quite interesting.
Even though it turned out as it did, your inside account makes a lot of sense. I think it just is what it is but it is sad that the musicians at hand weren’t given anything more challenging or more thrilling to interoperate given their eagerness.
As a fan of Aphex Twin I was disappointed by the results, encouraged by the adventurous premise of the project but ultimately not very surprised to learn that this took place nearly one year ago yet only heard it now. I do really hope to see more contemporary artists utilizing techy tools to integrate and produce many more orchestral one-off concerts though.
You should keep an eye on AUKSO orchestra then, because they seem to be doing more and more of this kind of collaborations. I think there is an album with Johnny Greenwood and his take on Penderecki’s “Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima” (which is, by the way, amazing piece of not so contemporary music 🙂 ).
Wonderful! I’d like to see the same thing now using Control Voltage instead of MIDI. It’s the volts that jolts!
Richard James is the man, never afraid of new sonic territory, never one to worry too much about a new idea falling on its face. This may be more hit than miss, but it’s that same sort of fearlessness that made Aphex legendary. He could make a fine living just phoning in dj sets every night, but he’s not and I definitely respect that.
How it should have been done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axNCWpM1fQk
From “Classic Goldie” on BBC … if you havent seen the entire documentary, do it. NOW. Words can not express how much admiration I have for this man.
I bought some tickets to see this on the Barbican Theater of London at the beggining of October.
Do you think that it is worth to go to England for this?? I dont want to spend a lot of money for something that it is not good.
http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=13672
Althought it was sold out in less than 3 hours.