Late last year we reviewed In Love With a Ghost–the debut solo album by Manchester’s Daniel Land. Following up on his collaborative shoegaze and dreampop efforts as The Modern Painters and Engineers, Ghost is a lush, dreamy album that incorporates elements of downtempo, jazz, and pop. Simultaneously mature and delicate, we described it as “fusion dining for the ears.”
That description is apt for Land’s latest project as well. Teaming up with international travel conglomerate Expedia (Editor’s note: Expedia did not pay us to write this, though perhaps we should have asked), Land reached out to a diverse group of artists around the globe to participate in a pretty radical musical experiment: Each musician would be given a key and some basic guidelines, then record “blind” a small composition with their instrument of choice. That recording would then be posted online, embedded onto a website next to 15 others, allowing a visitor to “mash up” the recordings and create a composition of their own.
They call it The World In Tune.
“Each clip is one performance with no looping,” explained Land. “I didn’t want to specify an exact time, as the whole point (for me) was that the clips should be incommensurable, and naturally fall into different combinations.”
Featuring accomplished musicians like Nigerian pianist Benafa David Zitu, Canada’s Carlos Martinez, Portugal’s Margarida Neves, and Sri Lankan sitarist Chitrinie Nirupama, the project has a distinct political and humanitarian mission. The promo material explains:
“The inspiration behind the project was to bring people together at a time when others are building walls and marking out boundaries. Music is a universal language which is understood by everyone and transcends borders.”
We’re into it.
Check out the fully functional embed below and create your own symphony. NOTE: Information about all of the artists can be found by going to the main page and clicking the little “i” info button on the bottom right corner of the screen.
Daniel Land is currently in the studio working on his second solo album, and you’re sure to find a write-up of it here when it lands.
