The new, repackaged Gregorian

Although Gregorian church music has endured through the centuries, no one thought that Gregorian, the group that combines pop sounds with the ancient tradition of the Gregorian chant, would last. It was a fad, they all said then. While the new tack certainly sounds impressive, the music is still old and you know how it is with kids. They only want what is new and cool and those sounds that rock. Well, Gregorian has endured. Not only that; it also continues to evolve. It still imparts the integrity of classical music into pop tunes but by nurturing change, it also presents a sound that is uniquely Gregorian. Come to think of it, Gregorian will stay around as long as there are songs that can be turned into Gregorian chant.

It must have been about five or six years ago when the idea for Gregorian was born. Frank Peterson thought it would be cool to form a group made up of classically-trained singers performing pop songs a cappella when recordings made by the monks of the Benedictine Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain zoomed to the top of the charts in many parts of the world. It was sacred music. It was New Age. It was old. It was new. But best of all, it was relaxing. So the religious, the stressed out, the curious or simply the music lover, made sure they got copies of the albums, plus others of a similar bent as well. So why not come up with a true pop version.

Petersen, musician and record producer, was formerly a member of the group Enigma and has worked with artists of varied persuasions like Sarah Brightman, pop; Andrea Bocelli, classical; and Marky Mark, hip hop. To put together his new group, Petersen assembled 12 male singers trained in the most renowed music schools in England and who have had the experience of performing traditional church music in the greatest cathedrals of the country. Best of all though, he found guys who, despite their staid classical environment, were surprisingly adventurous with their music.

The first album, Gregorian: Masters of Chant, sold over a million copies worldwide and Masters of Chant Chapter II also turned out to be a huge success. Made up of famous pop hits, this album was recently repackaged to include two new cuts, Breathe and Make US One. It also comes with a free VCD featuring a live performance by Gregorian in Ireland, where the group does cuts from Chapter II. The latter tells more about what the Gregorian experience is like than you will learn from any album and you will certainly agree that the music the group creates is quite impressive.

The lead cut in the album is Moment of Peace, an original composition by Amalia Brightman, Sarah Brightman’s younger sister. The rest are old favorites, pop, rock, folk, classical and others that you will surely enjoy listening to again now that they have been arranged the Gregorian way. These are The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, In the Air Tonight, Bonny Portmore, Hymn by Lees, Child in Time, Everybody Gotta Learn Sometimes, Wish You Were Here, Lady D’Arbanville, Heaven Can Wait, Babylon and, definitely the best of the lot, Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven.

Modern Rock

For more cool sounds you might want to check out Modern Rock. Subtitled 18 of the Freshest Hits Today, the album comes with an endorsement by the radio station Magic 89.9. The songs are not only fresh, these are also some of the biggest selling songs in the world today. So there is no need anymore to buy 18 different albums in order to have copies of all these hits in their original versions, not to mention being able to listen to them played one after the other.

The songs included in the Modern Rock collection are Drive by Incubus, Superman by Five for Fighting, Deep by Binocular, Follow Me by Uncle Kracker, Everything You Want by Vertical Horizon, with Arms Wide Open by Creed, Bent by Matchbox Twenty, When It’s Over by Sugar Ray, Crawling by Linkin Park, Imitation of Life by REM, Perfect Day by Collective Soul, Sing by Travis, Take a Picture by Filter, Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus, Absolutely (Story of a Girl) by Nine Days, Hemmorage (In My Hands) by Fuel, I Think God Can Explain and I’m Afraid of Britney Spears by Live on Release.