Versus: Vinyl LP Carl Craig

Monumental symphonic versions of Carl Craig’s classic material, reinforced and magnified by Les Siecles Orchestra. Iconic French conductor François-Xavier Roth is at the helm of the symphony whilst InFiné mainstay Francesco Tristano supports on piano.

From an initial recording in 2010, the project evolved into a full album that has been tweaked further in the studio by Craig himself. The re-works reveal the timelessness of ‘At Les’ and ‘Darkness’ through tense yet fragile new arrangements, along with two original compositions by Tristano – ‘Barceloneta Trist’ and ‘The Melody’.

‘Versus’ first took form as a captivating live concert on May 18th, 2008 at Paris’ Cité de la Musique, featuring this very same line-up. The hedonism of club culture made a rare incursion into the hallowed grounds of more serious traditional music, merging the vocabularies and syntaxes of two genres that seem to be from their own faraway galaxies but actually turned out to be more porous than expected as they collided into one another. A bemused Carl Craig recalls that the “audience stopped just short of snapping their fingers to the rhythm. Everyone was literally on the verge of dancing, and François-Xavier was getting his first taste of that thrill that DJs get when they are playing for a room. We were like two kids rummaging through a candy shop – I toured him through my universe and he showed me his.”

This much-awaited new studio album is available on CD and gatefold double vinyl with digital download card.

Press – Reviews in Mixmag, DJ Mag, Uncut, Record Collector. Features in FACT, Mixmag, Resident Advisor, Thump, DJ Mag, Electronic Beats, XLR8R, The Wire.

Radio – 6Music Gilles Peterson interview, Maida Vale live session, Radio 1 Residency mix.

Tracklist
A1 – Darkness
A2 – Sandstorms

B1 – At Les
B2 – Desire

C1 – Barcelona Trist
C2 – Domina

D1 – The Melody
D2 – Technology