Pet Shop Boys have announced a new album for next month titled A Man From The Future. It was created in collaboration with Andrew Hodges, author of Alan Turing's biography, and mixes electronics, orchestral music and spoken word. The Quietus ↗
The album has eight pieces and each one corresponds to one significant chapter of Turing's life and death. The British mathematician and computing pioneer was arrested and convicted in 1952 under laws that criminalized homosexuality at the time; two years later he took his own life. The Quietus ↗
In addition to the music and lyrics by the Tennant–Lowe duo, the recording features the narrating voice of actress Juliet Stevenson, drawn directly from Hodges's book. The string arrangements were written by Sven Helbig and performed by the eight-member ensemble Manchester Camerata Octet. On four pieces, boys from Manchester Grammar School choir also sing. The Quietus ↗
The work is not entirely new. Tennant and Lowe wrote it together with Hodges between 2012 and 2013 and in July 2014 premiered it with the BBC Concert Orchestra and BBC Singers at a late-night concert as part of BBC Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall. After more than a decade, they decided to rework the piece with greater emphasis on electronics, Helbig rearranged the orchestral parts so that eight strings could perform them, and Hodges also revised the spoken text. The Quietus ↗
"Our motivation in creating this work was to create a musical monument to Alan Turing, who gave so much to his country and to the world and was repaid with persecution for his sexuality," the duo stated in a statement. They recalled that Turing made a decisive contribution to Germany's defeat in World War II and was a computing pioneer who envisioned a world with intelligent computers. The Quietus ↗
Pet Shop Boys were formed in London in 1981 and are among the most successful British electronic pop projects ever. In the SuperMusic.cz lyrics and chords database they are represented by almost two hundred songs, including Go West and It's A Sin.
Illustration photo: The Sound Stage / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Pet Shop Boys Release Album About Alan Turing. A Man From The Future Has Eight Chapters and a Narrator
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