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MILES_GURTU Robert Miles & Trilok Gurtu Guide Price: £11.99 Audio CD (23 February, 2004) Number of Discs:1 Label: Salt ASIN: B00016W8AI Click here to buy this CD today!

TRACK LISTINGS

INTRODUCTION

Robert Miles and Trilok Gurtu are two of modern music's true pioneers, confounding convention and defying easy categorisation.

The "black sheep"" of a famous family of Indian classical musicians, Trilok embodies the world of virtuosic Indo-Jazz fusion and is godfather to the UK's dynamic Asian-Underground scene, lauded and remixed by artists such as Talvin Singh, Asian Dub Foundation and Fun'Da'Mental. Playing an appropriately hybrid East/West electro/acoustic drum and percussions set-up, Trilok carried off Jazz-bible Downbeat's 'Best Percussionist Award' five times in the last eight years and his Indo-African CD explorations 'African Fantasy and 'The Beat of Love' were nominated for the BBC Radio 3 World Music Award.

Robert's ground breaking single 'Children' defined 'Dream_House', topped the charts in 18 countries simultaneously and opened the door for European chill-out. As might be expected of a man who's sold more than 14 million records, he's lifted a few awards himself along the way, including no less than 51 Platinum and Gold Discs and a Brit Award.

Rather less well-known is Robert's prior history as the radio mogul who brought Stockhausen to the Milanese club crowd, his previous pan-global collaborations will Bill Laswell, Nina Miranda and FSOL, his legal fights to win back his artistic freedom and his burgeoning career in edgy Hollywood soundtracks. Since his 'Children' days and before, Robert has been steadily exploring markedly more leftfield musical areas. While this has been noted and much appreciated by fellow musicians (not least Trilok and Bill Laswell), it is fair to say that most people are yet to discover Robert Miles 'Mk2'.

As one might expect given the protagonists, extensive use is made on Miles-Gurtu of the latest technology, but the heart and soul of the project is the classic jazz-trio: Keys (Robert), Double Bass (Lamb's Jon Thorne) and Drums (Trilok); each musician playing, interacting and improvising live so that the feel of the music is retained throughout the entire recording and production process. By rooting everything in live playing, the electronics remain audibly at the service of the music and musicians rather than vice versa! The result is a kind of "hyper-real" jazz trio, a phantasmagoria of its aural possibilities.

Adding a further, cinematic dimension to things if the liberal use of a live string orchestra, as resonant of Bollywood as John Barry. A geography that also locates guest guitarist and long-time collaborator of both musicians, compose Nitin Sawhney.

With a project so grounded in live playing it shouldn't come as a surprise that the musicians will be taking to the stage and the road in the very near future. Robert and Trilok are preparing the live band (which will also feature Nitin) for a comprehensive European tour.

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