Artist: Monkey
Label: XL Recordings
Release: 2008
Duration: 00:48:02
Rating: 3.8/5
It all comes down to the urge to experiment and try out different instruments across different genres, to bridge popular and classical music. That’s exactly what Damon Albarn, frontman of Blur and Gorillaz, is famous for, and he’s still a one-of-a-kind phenomenon today. His latest project is the music he put together for the stage spectacle “Monkey: Journey to the West”, which involved close to five hundred people. All of that just to tell a story more than four hundred years old, by Wu Cheng-en, about an irresponsible Monkey who sets off with his companions on an adventure-packed journey to India to bring stolen religious scriptures back to China. For all its playful, at times slightly bawdy tones and colorful characters, the story carries a very serious message: it’s built on spiritual conversion and growth, something Chinese kids still share to this day. This ancient tale is considered one of the four great novels of Chinese literature.
The latest stage production, in which Albarn teamed up with old acquaintance Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz; set and costume design) and Chinese-born director and actor Chen Shi-zheng, is based on a “circus opera” and stages a triumph of old and new, of the seen and the heard, of East and West. In other words: it links Beijing, Dalian, Paris, London and Manchester on one side with gymnastics, singing, dance, animation and stunning video projection on the other. More than seventy Chinese acrobats and actors take part in the stage show. It premiered on June 28 last year at the Manchester International Festival, and in September the idea was born to release a record featuring this unusual, mystical music.
This album, almost fifty minutes long, was created under Albarn’s baton by a lineup of about a hundred musicians from the Chinese Orchestra of Great Britain. They blended traditional Chinese instruments, like the pipa (a plucked lute, also known as the “plunka”), the guzheng (an instrument similar to a zither) and the zhongruan (similar to the pipa), with classical “Western” instruments. For this project they also used an analog synthesizer to replace the sound of car horns on China’s traffic-choked roads. Chaos without end. The music, cheerful and bouncy one moment and overly creepy and morbid the next, conjures up a strikingly dramatic atmosphere. The wide range of musical styles across all twenty-two tracks adds up to a whole that satisfies even the most demanding listeners’ ears.
Damon Albarn keeps proving that with every new project he can work his way into the different musics of the world. He’s more than obviously left the British pop scene far behind. Goodbye past, welcome future.
Lineup
VOCALS: Fei Yang, Zeng Li, Tang Ling, Wang Wei, Fan Zhunquing, Wang Yingsi, Zhang Wei, Xu Xiouxia, Fan Tongzhou, Dou Wing, Jia Ruhan, He Zijun, Zhou Haolu, Xu Keija, Gisele Edwards, Tang Ling, Mountain Village Choir
ORCHESTRA:
VIOLIN: Oli Langford, Kotono Sato, Stella Page, Antonia Pagulatos
CELLO: Isabelle Dunn, Wayne Urquhart
BASS: Al Mobbs, Rory Mcfarlane
TRUMPET: Henri Deleger
TROMBONE: Guillaume Milliere
BASS TROMBONE: Josquin Chauffart
TUBA: Frederic Marillier
PERCUSSION, HARP, TAM TAM: David Coulter
HARMONICA: Thomas Bloch
PIANO: Hannah Loach
KEYBOARDS, PIANO: Mike Smith
PIPAS: Cheng Yu, Wang Weiping, Zeng Zhen
ZHONGRUAN: Chuang Cheng-Ying, Zeng Zhen
ZHENG: Xiao Ran
ERHU: Li Fuhua
CHOIR: Beijing Tianyuan Chorus Choir, UK Choir
Production
Damon Albarn
Tracklist
1. Monkey’s World
2. Monkey Travels
3. Into the Eastern Sea
4. The Living Sea
5. The Dragon King
6. Iron Rod
7. Out of the Eastern Sea
8. Heavenly Peach Banquet
9. Battle in Heaven
10. O Mi To Fu
11. Whisper
12. Tripitaka’s Curse
13. Confessions of a Pig
14. Sandy the River Demon
15. March of the Volunteers
16. The White Skeleton Demon
17. Monk’s Song
18. I love Buddha
19. March of the Iron Army
20. Pigsy in Space
21. Monkey Bee
22. Disappearing Volcano
