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Like Carl Craig & Moritz Von Oswald’s Recomposed, French composer Iko concept was to re-arrange the top classical composers (Bach, Schubert, Mozart et al) from the Baroque period with the help of some of electronic music’s more imaginative producers.

She’s got together the Murcof from Mexico who we know from his experimentation on The Versailles Sessions that came out on Leaf last October, Marc Collin (the French pop revisionist behind Nouvelle Vague), electro producer Para One (aka Jean-Baptiste de Laubier) and Émilie Simon, the girl they call the “French Björk” due to own world original composition.

Where this album stands alone from others is that on all the tracks there’s a ‘pop’ vocals which, to be honest, takes a bit of getting used to. Iko says, “The idea was fro contemporary musicians to breathe their own ideas into the tempo of the chosen work” and the choice of early Baroque period was based on repeated bass lines of four or eight bars; now where have I heard of that idea before?

It took more than 60 musicians and singers to record all music as Iko invited choral and baroque music ensembles to join in but does it work? Well, the tracks do seem to switch from one extreme to the other; the opener with vocals from Paul et Louise sounds rather 60s pop, ‘Remember Me’ is more ‘experimental’ whilst the Mozart piece, is fairly classical.

Iko / Emilie Simon “Remember me”

‘Amor’ is the Murcof track and it’s sort of a French version of The Long Lost in a mournful way and is the best mix of old/new vocal and string/electronic instrumentation along with the other Murcof track, ‘Death And Maiden’.

You’ve got to be in a right frame of this one but ‘Addio’ is a step too far into Classic FM of for me showing off Iko’s love of opera/choir; as does ‘Septième’.

The album ends on a big one from J. S. Bach called ‘Passion’, you’ve got the idea already I know and you might be thinking that this will be snapped up be the producer of the next cinematic In Bruges or similar. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing and I know of people that wouldn’t go near this CD on the strength of what Collin has done to punk/new wave classics as Nouvelle Vogue but call me naive if you will, this is a great album and is worth investing some time with (quite a few listens in my case).

The album is a bit of a departure to what we’re used to from Naïve, the magnificent Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band and shortly Jamie Woon, but they have released an album by Michael Nyman so this isn’t entirely new ground for them; worth investigation without a doubt.

Reviewed: Private Domain - Private Domain (Naïve) Cat. No: NV814611 Release date: 29th June 2009
Tracklisting:
1 Here In This Place (3:57) - Rameau / Marc Collin , Paul Et Louise, Iko
2 Remember Me (4:18) Purcell / Emilie Simon, Iko
3 Requien Fragment (3:02) - Mozart / Para One, Iko
4 Amor (5:23) - Monteverdi / Murcof, Iko featuring Piana
5 Death And Maiden (6:23) - Shubert / Murcof, Iko
6 Addio (3:47) - Verdi , Marc Collin, Iko featuring Jenia
7 Septième (6:18) - Beethoven/ Para One, Iko
8 Un Rêve (2:24) - Faure / Emilie Simon, Iko
9 Passion (4:52) - Bach / Para One, Iko Featuring - André Wilms

Links:
www.myspace.com/privatedomainofficial
www.naive.fr
www.murcof.com
www.myspace.com/murcof
www.nouvellesvagues.com
www.myspace.com/nouvellevague
www.emiliesimon.com
www.myspace.com/emiliesimonmusic
www.myspace.com/para1
www.myspace.com/paraone
Gilles Peterson :: 22nd January 2009 :: Original Soundtrack Material
There Will Be Blood : Jonny Greenwood - Open Spaces (Atlantic)
Benjamin Button : Alexandre Desplat - Love In Murmansk (Concord Records)
In Bruges : Carter Bellwell - Thugs Passing In The Night (Lakeshore Records)