Considering its legendary status, it's hard to believe the Cirque du Soleil is celebrating only its twentieth anniversary with this deluxe double-disc release based on the musical repertoire of the shows. For those unfortunate souls not familiar with the work of the "Circus Of the Sun," it's an avant-garde mélange of circus arts and street performance brought to life by talented athletes, dancers, musicians, singers and yes, clowns.
The Solaruim is comprised of 10 remixes of Cirque music reflecting the serene side of the show - it's the "Chill" disc. Ibizzare's interpretation of "Ombra" leads off with a mystical feel - the same track is also the penultimate tune as remixed with a much more lively feel by Afterlife. That's actually a pretty good encapsulation of the progress of the disc from a more or less ambient feel to something more on the downtempo tip - the two versions of "Africa" in the fifth and final tenth spots (by Cottonbelly and Banzai Republic respectively) illustrate this shift of emphasis as well. Another standout track on this disc is the Thievery Corportation's interpretation of "Le Rêvuer," blending vocals that sweep in off the Sahara with progressive trip-hop beats.
The Delerium disc is a continuous dance remix that features yet another version of "Africa," this one by Quicksound and Alain Vinet, a house-y that somewhat incongruously features a digeridoo. No matter, it's all part of the global sound evidenced throughout both discs, but particularly noticeable as Delerium opens with the fiery Spanish sound of "Emballa" from Louie Vega and "Querer" from Julien Jabre, and then moves to the African rhythms of Roger Sanchez's remix of "Kumbalawé." That's followed by "Aborgine's Jam," a thumping vocal mix from François K and Eric Kupper. Sasha's inspired
"Pokinoï" is up next in the sixth spot and vies with Tiesto's closing remix of "Mer Noire" for the "most likely to end up in Ibiza this summer" honors. Carmen Rizzo's brilliant "Spiritual Spiral" remix is also noteworthy, one of 7 tracks on Solarium Delerium originally written or co-written by Violane Corradi. (We should also give a nod to Benoit Jutras, Hélène Dorion and René Dupéré who each have several compositions to their credit on this project.)
Don't download this one - you'll miss the beautiful packaging, including liners that unfold from the center of the case as gracefully as a Cirque du Soleil acrobat. Truly a gift worth giving, truly a beautiful way to mark two marvelous decades of the essence of the human spirit expressed in motion.
