Later this month Emika will release new album Melanfonie alongside conductor Paul Batson and The Prague Metropolitan Orchestra.
The album naturally sees Emika exploring orchestral arrangements as can be heard and seen in the video above for ‘Greif (Prelude)’ which also features soprano Michaela Srůmová. The video captures the orchestra in action performing the piece in a live setting.
Melanfonie is Emika’s first orchestral album and has been some four years in the making following a successful Kickstarter campaign to put the project together, with Emika forming the idea in 2012 after enlisting Srůmová to contribute to her second album, DVA. "It seemed to be the one traditional structure where composers and audiences alike were willing to be open-minded and experiment," Emika says of the symphony format. "Some symphonies have three movements; some five; some have soloists; others are purely orchestral. I always had the feeling that within the world of symphonies, there is a special form of freedom to explore."
She focused on Srůmová as the centrepiece to the album saying that in recording the album, she wanted to place her in the midst of the orchestra rather than in front of them so as to put her at the heart of the sound. Paul Batson, who conducted the orchestra, is also Emika’s former music teacher, with Emika hoping to reshape what we expected from classical music in producing this new album alongside him. The album is out on January 31 and can be pre-ordered here.
