Mitten, Clive - Suite Cryptique: Recomposing Twelfth Night 1978-1983 : 2 x CDs
SKU
23-Bum 004
“Mitten’s ‘post-minimal’ style is inspired by everyone from Wagner to Reich, and these grandly cinematic pieces are rich with pizzicato strings, sweeping violins, blaring trumpets and burbling modern woodwinds. His clever programming ensures you’re only occasionally reminded you’re not listening to a real, 100-piece orchestra.”-PROG MAGAZINE – March 2021
“The two-hour album comprises cinematic orchestral recompositions of all of the material contained on Twelfth Night's three seminal albums plus a few live favourites, reworking them in a classical style to produce something entirely new. The dynamic range is quite stunning!”
Here’s what Clive himself is saying about it...
“I had for some forty years wanted to revisit the early years of Twelfth Night. I had it in my head that I could do strange and wonderful things with the music. Then on 23 March 2020 the first lockdown occurred and I was off. From the outset I planned this as a "cinematic orchestral" album, a style that I had been developing for the last five years. Musical influences? Reich, Glass, Adams, Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, Mahler. That makes me a "post-minimalist" or "need to get over myself". This is not a covers album. Re-composed means taking fragments or larger pieces of tunes and rethinking their purpose from the most basic notes. Some tunes are more or less aligned to their original structures - some confuse the structures. Things move around.”
“The CD booklet contains comprehensive sleeve notes explaining the concept of the album, and fascinating details of the new structures and instrumentation used. The cover painting is one of a number of sketches former vocalist Geoff Mann made in 1982 while Twelfth Night were recording the Fact & Fiction album.
The album was written, arranged, recorded and produced by Clive, with some help from two ‘old' friends, violinist extraordinaire Jane Mann (strings consultant), and Twelfth Night guitarist Andy Revell (unravelling guitar parts and general feedback).
Twelfth Night guitarist Andy Revell says “Clive’s Suite Cryptique is absolutely wonderful and an incredible achievement. While the album is true to its origins, its DNA if you like, Clive has taken it to an entirely new level through his arrangements and extraordinary use of classical instrumentation.
What I love most about it, however, is how Clive has captured so much of the spirit, the emotion of our music and then given it new life. Some of our melodies seem to me only now to have finally found their voice, to achieve their full emotive potential. Music that is now re-incarnated in such a wonderful new form.”
- LabelBumNote
- UPC5060288463152