Ravel and Mussorgsky: classics plugged in

Finding an electronic release under the umbrella of Deutsche Grammophon is no news. Although they must have been among the last ones to open up their vaults to sampling and deconstructing in the hands of fashionable and marketable producers, they have always been supportive of avantgarde and experimental escapades. In that sense, the launch of a series called Deutsche Grammophon Recomposed is, once again, a wise combination of musical challenge with merchandising. A happy alliance as long as the result means intelligent music, such as the three volumes produced so far.

After the first volume, commissioned to the German producer Matthias Arfmann with an interesting shakedown of classic into dub, the series moved to the unpredictable territories of the amazing Jimi Tenor, to reach another dimension with the lastest volume, in the hands of the techno apostles Carl Craig and Moritz von Oswald. Their mission: an electronic deconstruction of the affinities between Maurice Ravel's Bolero and Mussorgsky's impressionism in Bilder einer Austellung. The project is presented as a continous suite of 65 minutes with a very annoying (call it minimal) beginning emulating the brass crescendo in Bolero that lasts for 15 minutes with not much happening. Once the percussive synths are incorporated and the brass loops fade out the mood lands the familar scene of ambient techno and clubbing smokes: they cue is precisely at 20 minutes from the start. The new crescendo is one made of uplifting laser beeps and ascending beats (a new bolero) to reach a third movement (just around half ot the trip) where floating electronic strings must refer to Mussorgsky. This leads to a dramatic interlude of terror cinema harmonies (think Sweeney Todd), to enter again clubland pulsating around minute 41. And so on. The end, like any standard thriller, must be discovered only by the interested audience. The remaining taste, after such oscillating and compulsive up and downs, is one similar to some of these hollywood made suspense flicks. Good entertaining, nice ideas, but maybe easy to forget.