As we have written about it before, the Silver Lake Chorus, a large musical ensemble founded in 2010 through word of mouth and Facebook, is currently recording songs written for them by many artists including Beck, Bon Iver, Of Montreal, Sia, Tegan and Sara, Aimee Mann, Ben Lee, The Bird and the Bee… They recently posted a behind-the scenes video about their recording of ‘Heavy Star Movin’, a song by the Flaming Lips!
The very short video (only 1 minute long) starts with slow and solemn strings and the chorus uplifting and airy vocal harmonies. However, this song was actually recorded by the Flaming Lips before, as it comes from their collaboration with produced Scott Heren, aka Prefuse 73. But the Silver Lake Chorus didn’t take the easy road with this one, this song is not for your average NPR-listener/Lips-fan, as we are not in ‘Yoshimi vs the Pink Robots’ territory there. Rather the track comes from the most experimental side of the band, an electronic futuristic soundscape from another planet or another galaxy as a matter of fact, slowly floating in space. I can see why the Chorus chose it, these slowly expanding sonic swirls may fit their ethereal harmonies very well, despite the fact it was probably not easy to adapt such a song for a 25-person chorus!
Australian singer/songwriter Ben Lee has become their executive producer, and he asked them to make a dream list of the top artists they wanted to collaborate with, and I guess the Flaming Lips were one of them. The Chorus has already released an EP ‘Wreckage’ with two original tracks by Bon Iver and The New Pornographers, and their full-length debut album should be out sometimes this year.