Carl Craig - Versus (3LP) [Infiné]

Format: 3x12" in gatefold sleeve + MP3.
CAT: IF1042LPX

Monumental symphonic versions of Carl Craig's classic material, reinforced and amplified by Les Siècles Orchestra. Iconic French conductor François-Xavier Roth leads the symphony, while InFiné's pillar, Francesco Tristano, accompanies on piano.

Starting from an initial recording made in 2010, the project evolved into a full album that was subsequently adjusted in the studio by Craig himself. The new versions reveal the timelessness of “At Les” and “Darkness” through renewed arrangements, tense yet fragile, along with two original compositions by Tristano: “Barcelona Trist” and “The Melody.”

Versus first took shape as a captivating live concert on May 18, 2008, at the Cité de la Musique in Paris, with this same lineup. The hedonism of club culture burst exceptionally into the sacred grounds of more academic traditional music, merging the vocabularies and syntaxes of two genres that seemed to come from distant galaxies but proved to be more permeable than expected when colliding.

A playful Carl Craig recalls that “the audience was almost snapping their fingers to the beat. Literally everyone was on the verge of dancing, and François-Xavier was experiencing for the first time that adrenaline that DJs feel when playing for a room. We were like two kids in a candy store: I guided him through my universe and he showed me his.”

The album's release also coincides with the launch of the Versus Synthesizer Ensemble, a live proposal that returns to the essentials: six synthesizers and a piano, under Craig's direction. The Detroit Movement Festival will be the starting point of the tour, with the possibility of incorporating a full symphony orchestra as the project evolves.

The Versus universe is thus based on transformation, remixing, and reinterpretation; on the creation of new forms of expression, but also on the breaking of hierarchies to confront genres and worlds that seem more distant than they really are. An optimistic, if not idealistic, project whose title perfectly reflects Carl's mantra: “the idea is to change the public's perception, surprise people, and shake off the clichés about music, its place in the world, and its audience, without demagoguery and with fresh and renewed arguments.”

This anticipated new studio album will be available worldwide on May 5 in a double LP gatefold format, in a limited edition triple LP that includes an additional vinyl with minimalist versions (only 2000 copies), and on CD.