Chris Coco Copies Rumsfeld To Reinvent The Classics

Chill-out maestro Chris Coco chatted to Skrufff this week about his high profile classical musical project Remasterpiece and admitted he applied 'brutal but effective' Donald Rumsfeld style editing techniques.

"We approached it with the mind of a DJ/programmer/editor - if a part gets boring or doesn't work, chop it out; simple and brutal but effective," said Chris.

"I had very little knowledge of classical music beforehand except, as Donald Rumsfeld might say, I knew I liked some of the music I knew and I knew I'd like some of the music I didn't know; but I didn't even know what the music I knew was," he admitted.

"These new methods that we take for granted in dance music haven't really been used in the over reverential world of classical."

Chris collaborated on the project with regular collaborator Sacha Puttnam, a classical musical prodigy and former international rock star with Bush and recruited a host of classical players to help realise their vision.

"It's weird working with classical musicians because a lot of them only play or sing exactly what's written in front of them," he continued.

"It's impossible to get them to improvise and hard to get them to even try a new interpretation of a classic, so there is a lot of explaining and directing and cajouling and begging. If that doesn't work we get rid of them and get another one."

The full band showcased tracks from the album at the London ICA this week and received a rapturous and rapt reception from the mainly high-brow audience (one of whom hurled a bouquet flush in Sasha's face as he took a bow at the end of the show.) They're likely to receive a similarly ecstatic reception at this weekend's Big Chill not least for the fantastic opera singer and supermodel like stunningly attractive violinist at the rear of the stage.

"She's called Catherine and she actually plays the viola," Chris corrected, "it's a bit bigger and deeper than a violin."
Tags

• chris coco