| CD REVIEW Gregorian |
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Band : Gregorian ‘t Was in the year 1999 that Frank Peterson (creator of the project) brought forth the first in a series of albums that would be celebrated by music fans the world over. The concept was simple, but daring : mix Gregorian chants with popular music. The combination found admires in a cross-section of genres, and has proven quite commercially viable (over 3 million copies sold of the first 6 editions of this series, that gives an avarage of ½ million a piece…and that ain’t bad at all). Eventually, Peterson was even “forced” into gathering a band to bring his music on stages everywhere…to the greater delight of all whom were able to attend. So now this is the 10th year of the project’s existence, and Peterson comes back with a further selection of songs which he “Gregorianized” (the 7th in this series, but then there’s been additional recordings, like The Dark Side, the Special Rock Edition album, and even a Christmas Chants album) these being Nightwish’s “Meadows Of Heaven”, U2’s “One”, a Gregorian original titled “It Will Be Forgiven”, Gins N Roses’ “Sweet Child Of Mine”, Lionel Richie’s “Face In The Crowd”, Genesis’ “Carpet Crawlers”, Abba’s “Arrival”, Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy The Silence”, Procol Harum’s world hit “Whiter Shade Of Pale”, Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”, the Irish traditional “Molly Ban”, Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” (a version reflecting the heaviness of the original, and with female lead vocals which moved me to tears from pure awe and exhaltation), Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars”, and Supertramp’s “Don’t Leave Me Now”. The possibilities for future releases seem almost inexhaustible, what with more than 40 years of hit songs waiting to be covered…and so the question is only, what will be the top line for this project? When and where will they hit the million-per-album sales? At any rate, Peterson’s fortune seems made already. In these days of crisis, one can only hope he spends/ invests it wisely. Anyhow, to get an earful of how Gregorian chants can change or add a song you’ve heard that many times on the radio (or have in your record collection, for that matter), you can listen to a couple of samples (none from the new album though) at myspace.com/gregorianmastersofchant. Alternally, there’s a chance to get a good aural idea of Gregorian’s first 4 albums at earbooks.net (just enter “gregorian” in the search box, and click on the animated preview, go towards the end of the booklet where you can select music off each from the 4 CDs in the package). At first, I was somewhat apprehensive towards this project, but after hearing what they do to some of the tracks they take under re-construction, I can only admire what’s being and been done. Hence, a well-deserved nomination into my year-lists. I’m just trying to figure out in which category I would be able to put it. Oh well, why not create an “Hors-Catégorie” especially for this? It would solve my problems with a couple other of this year’s releases, you know! 98/100 Tony. |
