Tettix's Rites, free electronic album "remodeling" Stravinsky

One of my favorite chiptune* musicians, Tettix, has released a new album for download. (I used one of his tracks as the background music to my LEGO Millennium Falcon time-lapse video.) It's called "Rites", and it's ambitious. He explains:

I'm hoping this album will be a bit of a surprise to most of you, it's unlike anything I've done before. The entire album is a remodeling of Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" - a ballet that caused riots at its 1913 debut because of a brazen use of dissonance and polyrythms. It was a symphony that changed the very definition of music and I hope I've done it at least some justice. If you're unfamiliar with the original, I highly recommend you check it out (there's full videos on Youtube of the symphony).

The artwork for the album was done by a close friend, Kymia Nawabi. There's a link to her work on the album page, I swear you won't regret clicking it. There are also four wallpapers of the artwork available to download on the album page!

* Or at least chiptunes-inspired; I think he uses Reason, not gaming hardware, and this particular album isn't very chippy at all.

[#1 posted by musicalwoods , January 27, 2009 12:05 AM]

Thank you! That was an amazing 35 minutes.

[#2 posted by Bloo , January 27, 2009 4:30 AM]

I hope you mean Reason and not Reason!

[#3 posted by Anonymous , January 27, 2009 9:32 AM]

I gave this a fair shot, but it is a pretty uninspired remix of an uncredited recording of "Le Sacre du Printemps." I realize using the French title already makes this post pretentious, but if you want a great listening experience, I recommend listening to the original. Better yet, watch the Joffrey Ballet's recreation of the original Nijinsky choreography or Pina Bausch's version with the stage covered in dirt.

This remix takes all those interesting mixed meters and polyrhythms and traps them in a 4/4 box of stock house beats. This project had a lot of potential to reinterpret the original score, but in my opinion it did not deliver.

[#4 posted by therevengor , January 27, 2009 11:12 AM]

Not very chippy. Gimme a square wave!

[#5 posted by NorrinRazael , February 16, 2009 6:00 PM]

Chippy? No. What I was looking for? Nope.

But some amazing soundtrack to late-night bike-riding to stick in my pocket and blare out from my surprisingly loud phone? Oh my god, yes yes yes.