Bach, Haydn — and Carl Craig?

Bach, Haydn — and Carl Craig?

10 January, 2008 | 12.02PM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: carl craig, classical

In what is becoming an increasingly employed resource by classically trained musicians, Detroit’s Carl Craig is the latest electronic artist to have his material featured in classical fashion, this time as part of a recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

Carl Craig’s ‘Technology’ will be adapted and performed on piano by Francesco Tristano Schlimé on Friday, February 1st inside the Weill Recital Hall.

The cut was originally released on Craig’s Blanco y Negro album ‘Landcruising’ in 1995, and an alternate version was issued on the ‘Landcruising’ licensing bypass reissue ‘The Album Formerly Known As...’ a decade later in 2005.

The music of electronic musicians by classical artists has been performed primarily in the studio, and more infrequently in the live setting.

1997 saw the release of several tracks on the Blast First CD ‘Acid Brass’ by The Williams Fairey Brass Band, with a repertoire including A Guy Called Gerald, Derrick May’s Rhythm is Rhythm, Kevin Saunderson, 808 State and The KLF.

In 1999, a quintet of classical musicians called Instrumental performed an assortment of electronic tracks by artists such as The Orb, Brian Eno, The Sabres of Paradise, Orbital, Plastikman, The Shamen and Moby on ‘Acoustek’.

Matthew Herbert formed the Matthew Herbert Big Band in 2003, for which he composed original material on the Accidental album ‘Goodbye, Swingtime’, but reserved reinterpretation of some of his Herbert classics for the stage only.

2006 found Jeff Mills himself reinterpret many of his Axis classics in full orchestra form with ‘Blue Potential’ — with Mills as conductor for classics such as ‘The Bells’ and ‘Gamma Player’; the album originated when Mills took his music to the stage with full orchestra in France, and later edited that performance for release.

Rock artists such as Radiohead have often been featured on a more prominent level by classically trained artists, particularly within jazz, but recognition for the compositional nature of electronic music does appear to be slowly gaining ground — hopefully more and more often in the live stage setting.

Do you have any favorites that would work well in the classical arena? Shout it out with a comment!

Also, let everyone know if you’ve ever heard an electronic track performed live in the classical setting.

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