Journey to the West

by Monkey

Overview

At the height of Blur's popularity, Damon Albarn casually let it be known that he harbored a desire to create musical theater -- a revelation that wasn't exactly a surprise to anybody intimately familiar with the theatricality of Blur's Brit-pop trilogy, particularly portions of The Great Escape which felt as if they were designed for the stage. Albarn abandoned an explicit music hall bent in the aftermath of Blur vs. Oasis, first digging deeply into American indie rock and then getting ever artier, eventually abandoning the very idea of bands themselves in favor of conceptual projects like The Good, the Bad & the Queen. His score for Chen Shi-Zheng's stage production Journey to the West -- based on the ancient Chinese novel Journey to the West -- fits right in with these conceptual works, reuniting him with Gorillaz cohort Jamie Hewlett, who designed the visuals for the opera, while recalling elements of his 2002 Mali Music exploration and traces of his eerie collaborative score with Michael Nyman for Antonia Bird's 1999 film Ravenous. Albarn relies heavily on Chinese instrumentation and harmony on Journey to the West but the score, as a whole, is considerably less explicitly worldbeat than Mali Music, as Albarn weaves in many familiar motifs from his oeuvre, including stiff pre-programmed two-step drum loops, post-punk synths, waves of dreamy textures, circular carnivalesque chords, and the occasional blast of cathartic noise. What he most emphatically does not rely upon is anything remotely pop -- no pop song structures, hooks, or harmonies -- a decision that reads perhaps a bit more bold than it plays, as this is a symphonic suite that is meant to be experienced as a whole, not parsed out in bite-sized bits. This also does mean that Journey to the West is perhaps best experienced on-stage, as it was meant to be heard in tandem with Chen Shi-Zheng and Hewlett's visuals, but heard as its own work, it's hard not to admire, if not exactly embrace, Albarn's achievement here, as his work is not only ambitious, it is serious and understated, the work of a true composer. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	09/23/2008
Label:	Xl
UPC:	0634904038823

Tracks

1. Monkey's World
2. Monkey Travels
3. Into the Eastern Sea
4. The Living Sea
5. The Dragon King
6. Iron Rod
7. Out of the Eastern Sea
8. Heavenly Peach Banquet
9. Battle in Heaven
10. O Mi to Fu
11. Whisper
12. Tripitaka's Curse
13. Confessions of a Pig
14. Sandy the River Demon
15. March of the Volunteers
16. The White Skeleton Demon
17. Monk's Song
18. I Love Buddha
19. March of the Iron Army
20. Pigsy in Space
21. Monkey Bee
22. Disappearing Volcano

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Monkey   Primary Artist
Thomas Bloch   Harmonica (Glass),Harmonica,Cristal Bachet,Ondes Martenot
Wang Weiping   Pipa
Stella Page   Violin
Kate St. John   Cor Anglais
Wayne Urquhart   Cello
Al Mobbs   Bass
Jennifer John   Choir/Chorus
David Coulter   Tamtam,Tom-Tom,Clapping,Omnichord,Jew's-Harp,Percussion,Musical Saw,Synthesizer,Handclapping,Musical Direction,Synthesizer Drums
Antonia Pagulatos   Violin
Wang Wei   Vocals,Vocals,Choir/Chorus
Mike Smith   Piano,Piano,Keyboards,Keyboards
Zeng Li   Vocals
Zeng Zgen   Zhongruan
Zhang Wei   Vocals
Zhou Haolu   Vocals
Zeng-Quang Li   Vocals
Francois Testory   Choir/Chorus
Jonathan John   Choir/Chorus
Guan Wenqing   Choir/Chorus
Shan Lianmeng   Choir/Chorus
Sarah Villaraus   Choir/Chorus
Rosie Bell   Choir/Chorus
Zhao Yulong   Choir/Chorus
Li Limei   Choir/Chorus
Wu Pei   Choir/Chorus
Gao Qi   Choir/Chorus
Gao Xingya   Choir/Chorus
Don Wing   Vocals
Zhen Zeng   Zhongruan
Li Xiang   Choir/Chorus
Zhang Tianpu   Choir/Chorus
Li Yunkuan   Choir/Chorus
Li Chujian   Choir/Chorus
Juliet Russell   Choir/Chorus
Rory McFarlane   Bass
Cheng Yu   Pipa
Liu Shanwen   Choir/Chorus
Fu Jihai   Choir/Chorus
Liu Tang   Choir/Chorus
Li Mingzhu   Choir/Chorus
Tian Hao   Choir/Chorus
Fu Haiyan   Choir/Chorus
Zhao Changjuan   Choir/Chorus
Zhang Yunfei   Choir/Chorus
Liu Chunxi   Choir/Chorus
Cui Hua   Choir/Chorus
Xie Yiman   Choir/Chorus
Sun Shaolan   Choir/Chorus
Song Dong   Choir/Chorus
Cong Ruilin   Choir/Chorus
Paul Gladstone Reid   Choir/Chorus
Song Xuewei   Choir/Chorus
Li Min   Choir/Chorus
Oliver Langford   Violin
Kotono Sato   Violin
Wayne Hernandez   Choir/Chorus
Isabelle Dunn   Cello
Beijing Tianyuan Chorus Choir   Vocals,Choir/Chorus
Chuang Cheng-Ying   Zhongruan
Dou Wing   Vocals
Fan Tongzhou   Vocals
Fan Zhuqing   Vocals
Fei Yang   Vocals
Frederic Marillier   Tuba
Gisele Edwards   Vocals
Guillaume Milliere   Trombone
Hannah Loach   Piano
He Zijun   Vocals
Henri Deleger   Trumpet
Jia Ruhan   Vocals
Josquin Chuffart   Trombone (Bass)
Li Fuhua   Erhu
Miao Village   Vocals
Tang Ling   Vocals
UK Choir   Vocals
Wang Yingsi   Vocals
Xie Qing   Pipa
Xu Keija   Vocals
Xu Xiouxia   Vocals

Technical Credits

Jason Cox   Mixing,Engineer
Damon Albarn   Composer
Mike Smith   Recording Supervision
J.C. Hewlett   Illustrations
John C.F. Davis   Mastering
Kate McLauchlan   Design
Zhen Zeng   Translation,Coordination
Xiao Ran   Zheng
Susie Sun   Coordination
Liao Weitang   Adaptation,Literary Consultant
Adam Gale   Design
Shi-Zheng Chen   Writer,Concept,Composer,Lyricist,Direction
Jamie Hewlett   Design,Animation,Visual Concept
Chen Shi-Zheng   Lyricist
Chuang Cheng-Ying   Translation
Stephen Sedgwick   Programming