The music of Jeff Mills, one of the best known musicians and techno DJ’s, adapted to the stage and interpreted by the National Orchestra of Montpellier - this was the insane bet laid by this album and DVD entitled “Blue Potential”. The energetic and “dancefloor” tracks composed by the American star, as well as his more atmospheric anthems, his synthesized ballads and his dream-like pieces composed for film and arranged by the young composer Thomas Roussel, are all given new adaptations for the stage, ones which you would not have imagined from listening to the originals.
 
The adventure started in 2000 when, after scouring the world’s rave parties with his energetic techno sound, Jeff Mills embarked upon a new stage in his career. Fascinated by the world of science-fiction, he put together a new electronic soundtrack for the Fritz Lang classic, “Metropolis”. The different screenings of this film that were organised proved to the public as well as the critics that Mills had a talent for musical writing that went beyond the techno scene. It was his German editor who then gave him the idea of transcribing his work into an orchestra version and it was a meeting with the team from the UWe music label that finally enabled him to fulfil his dream. This historically techno music label already had experience of fusing electronic with classical music. Encouraged on by René Koering, Director of the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra, he was the creative force behind the concert and the DVD entitled, “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”, a year 2000 collaboration between the Montpellier Orchestra and the DJs Manu Le Malin and Torgull.

The idea, according to Arnaud Frisch, co-founder of Uwe, was to fulfil Jeff’s dream, as he had imagined it to be one day”. The albums recorded by this American DJ, known for their frenetic mixes, in fact have an orchestral dimension that many electronic producers envy. However, transposing such music, composed as it is in the confined space of a home studio, demands technical skill and knowledge that go beyond Mills’ capabilities. This is where the young composer and arranger, Thomas Roussel, came in. He took this work and brought to it a sense of dramaturgy, magnitude and orchestral power. Despite their widely differing backgrounds, Roussel and Mills both share common influences. Roussel has always been struck by film soundtracks, and especially the work of John Williams (“Stars Wars”) and Mills has always been fascinated by cinema and science-fiction. As Roussel reminds us, “Jeff often thought about some of his tracks in an orchestral sense. So it was very easy to adapt these pieces. For other more minimalist pieces, we needed to go beyond the arrangements and actually work on the compositions”.
 
And it works - on stage as well as on recordings, firstly because according to Mills, “these two musical forms share common emotions and expressive elements”: their sense of atmosphere and immersion, power and energy, the characteristics that fire the imagination. In real terms, as Altinoglu, the orchestra conductor reminds us, “Jeff set himself the task of providing the rhythmical electronic parts and some of the percussion, working a lot in free form, at times improvising, as we might imagine a jazz chorus would do”. On top of this rhythmic baseline, explains Koering, were then added “all the harmonics and colours of the orchestra that no machine or technology is capable of reproducing”. In this dialogue of opposites, this encounter between two elements that until now were thought to be incompatible, there is a certain magic at work. We might imagine that the musicians of the Montpellier Orchestra would be reticent about working on such a project, but nothing could be further from the truth. This is by no means a first “crossover” experience for these interpreters working under Koering. As Koering himself reminds us, “they were not at all opposed to this experience, whereas many others would probably have gone on strike over a lot less. One of the main aims of our orchestra is to attract new audiences to classical music”. It has been undeniably successful in this case, given audience numbers and the success of the first concert. As for whether classical music-lovers have now discovered the universe of techno, that’s quite another story…
 
Concert recorded at the Pont du Gard on the 2nd July 2005, for the 10th anniversary of the Pont du Gard's inclusion in the world heritage list by UNESCO.  
Film shown on Mezzo to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the classical and jazz music channel.

 

JEFF MILLS / www.axisrecords.com

Jeff Mills requires no introduction, as we are used to hearing about him in the numerous articles around the world.  He’s one of our planetary superstars of techno, an unwearied hero of mega-raves and an ace of the three-deck mix. Let’s not forget that he’s also produced influential singles like ‘Sonic Destroyer’, ‘The Bells’ and the heroic ‘Purpose Maker’ series. However, the man is more complex than he first appears, embodying an artistic ambition, which reaches far beyond simple techno music and is leagues ahead of his fellow DJs.

Championed for his music's relentless pursuit of hardness and his stripped-down, almost industrial DJ sets, Mills is the latest in a long line of Detroit-bred talent to take on an international reputation. A founding member of noted Motor City institution Underground Resistance, Mills helped build the artist roster and label ideology (as well as much of its back catalog) with partners "Mad" Mike Banks and Robert "Noise" Hood before moving to New York in 1992 to pursue more vigorously his solo and DJ career. He then created his label: Axis Records. He rapidly conquested the global techno planet, thanks to a mixing technique as fast as its genious.

Minimal, obsessive, and percussive, his music is also atmospheric and melodious, with the voluntarily symphonic and mysterius attributes of film music. The former architecture student is also a film buff, ‘2001, A Space Odyssey’ remains for Mills a model of the total work of art. He also composed a new score for Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’ screened around the world at venues including the Museum of Music in Paris, London's Royal Albert Hall, and the Vienna International Film Festival. He released in 2004 ‘The Exhibitionist’, and in 2005 a new soundtrack for ‘Three Ages’ (Buster Keaton) with MK2.

Always receptive to new experiences, Jeff took part in a unique concert alongside the Montpellier National Orchestra. An entire orchestra which was at the service of the electronic musician, to play the sixteen titles that were totally re-written for 70 symphonic musicians. With Mills on stage with his machines, his most beautiful tracks will be interpreted at a free concert, on the 20th anniversary of Unesco’s classification of the Pont de Gard as part of Humanity’s World Heritage.

The CD and DVD of this concert: ‘Blue Potential’ will be released in the USA and Canada in Spring 2006.

Selecive DISCOGRAPHY

Albums and compilations
1992 “Waveform Transmission vol.1 “ (Tresor)
1994 “Waveform Transmission vol.3” (Tresor)
1995 “Mix Up vol.2 Live at Liquid Room) (Sony/React)
1996 “The Other Day” (Sony/React/Labels)
1997 “Purpose Maker Compilation) (React/Labels/NEWS/Neuton/Energy/Watts)
1998 “From the 21st” (Sony)
2000 “Lifelike” (Sony/Labels/NEWS)
2000 “Art Of Connecting” (Next Era/Hardware)
2000 “Metropolis” (Tresor)
2001 “Time Machine” (Tomorrow)
2001 “Every Dog Has Its Day CD” (Sony/Labels/NEWS)
2002 “Actual” (AX-009CD) (Axis)
2002 “At First Sight” (Sony/React/NEWS/Energy/Intergroove)
2003 “Medium” (AX-009EF) (Axis)
2004 “Exhibitionist” (Axis/React/NEWS/Sonar)
2004 “Choice” (Azuli) (Jeff Mills selection)
2004 “Three Ages” (MK2)
2005 “Contact Special” (Cisco/Soundscape)

Blue potentioal

Watch the trailer in Windows Media Format, Click here to download the player

For the release of his new DVD 'Blue Potential', Jeff Mills tells us why and how he got to compose 16 of his best tracks, re written for this concert with the National orchestra of Montpeller. 2 video clips will be available each week

2nd of January : “Imagine”
9th of January : “Man from Tomorow” and “The March ”
16th of January : “Time Machine Blue Potential Version” and “Eclipse”
23th of january : “Entrance to Metropolis” and “Keaton’s Theme”
30th of january: “Daylight” and “The Bells”
6th of February : “Gamma Player” et “4 art”
13th of February : “Medium C: The urge to swirl alone in a pool of ridicule” et “ “Amazon”



to come ...

20th of February : “See This Way” et “Sonic Destroyer”


Last July, Jeff Mills performed live at a one-off concert at Pont du Gard, a World Heritage-classified site. A symphonic version of his greatest numbers was performed live for the first time with the Orchestre National de Montpellier, conducted by Alain Altinoglu.

An exceptional concert blending 2 worlds of music, which lent extra power and magic to the most mythical songs of the master of techno from Detroit. An incredible musical result in the shape of music selected by Jeff Mills from his 15-year repertoire and arranged for the orchestra by composer Thomas Roussel.




There were full, melodic pieces to be enjoyed (the superb “Imagine” and “The March”), as well as deep, classy techno (“Gamma Player”), songs taken from his original tapes (“Entrance to Metropolis”, “Keaton’s Theme”), avant-garde compositions (the 14 minutes of “Medium C”, the haunting “Man From Tomorrow”) or, last but not least, dancefloor hymns (“The Bells”, and the unforgettable “Amazon” and “Sonic Destroyer”, from the Underground Resistance era).