Viva ELVIS - The Album available
Everywhere November 2010.
Legacy
Recordings, in cooperation with Elvis
Presley Enterprises, Inc. and Viva
ELVIS by Cirque du Soleil at ARIA Resort & Casino in
Las Vegas, proudly announces the release of Viva ELVIS - The Album,
a 21st century celebration of Elvis and his music, featuring the voice of the
King in a whole new context. Viva ELVIS - The Album will be available everywhere this November. For more information, please visit projects.45press.com/elvis-2/vivaelvis.
The undisputed King of Rock 'n'
Roll, Elvis Presley remains one of the most iconic and powerful forces in
popular culture. "Before
Elvis," said John Lennon, "there was nothing."
After Elvis, the world looked and
sounded different. With a swivel of his
hips and the power of his voice, Elvis broke down barriers and shattered the
status quo, revolutionizing the worlds of music, film and fashion while
signaling a seismic shift in gender, class, race, and generational
relationships.
The Elvis revolution continues with Viva ELVIS - The Album.
The postmodern studio masterwork
invokes the spirit and essence of Elvis from a contemporary perspective while
furthering the revolutionary impulses of Elvis' sound. Viva ELVIS - The Album re-imagines the king's own vocal
performances in a broad variety of new musical settings. This new sound echoes
Elvis' own versatility and ability to master all music genres, from Delta blues
to rockabilly, from raw soul to gospel, from Southern folk to Vegas pop, while
incorporating elements of garage rock, punk, urban and hip-hop.
"Viva
ELVIS is a tantalizing
musical experience," said Adam Block, Senior Vice President/General
Manager, Legacy Recordings. "It's so creative and so contemporary, it
effortlessly places Elvis in a current context that appeals to fans of all ages
and all kinds of music. There's a freshness, a newness to these songs
that grabs you and shakes you and ultimately testifies to the remarkable artist
Elvis remains to this very day."
"What would the songs of Elvis
be like if he were doing them for the first time today?," asks the album's
producer and arranger Erich van Tourneau, Musical Director and Arranger for
Viva ELVIS by Cirque
du Soleil. "We set out to evoke the soul and spirit
of Elvis Presley while building a bridge between his music and future
generations of fans."
When working on the music for Viva
ELVIS, van Tourneau -- aided by Hugo Bombardier, Assistant Producer and
Assistant Arranger on Viva
ELVIS - The Album -- spent
more than 3,000 hours reviewing countless albums, films, concert recordings,
interviews and home recordings of Elvis. More than 17,000 samples of Elvis' songs – the raw material for the show
– were made during the process.
Working with tens of thousands of
samples of Elvis' voice, van Tourneau and Bombardier often wove several
sequences and sounds into the same songs, sometimes changing details such as
the key and tempo. In creating Viva
ELVIS - The Album, van
Tourneau was looking to accentuate and boost the emotional charge of the songs
with the incorporation of ragga, punk or hip-hop elements into classic
recordings. In all cases, however, the goal was to respect and understand the
essence of the original recordings.
In celebration of all eras of Elvis'
musical genius, Viva
ELVIS - The Album includes
songs from Elvis' rise to fame in the '50s, his movie soundtracks, his
triumphant return to the stage in the "'68 Special," and his ground-breaking
appearances in Las Vegas. "Burning
Love," "Suspicious Minds," "Blue Suede Shoes" and
"It's Now or Never" are among the songs that have been re-imagined
and transformed for Viva
ELVIS - The Album.
The first opportunity to hear a
sample from this ground-breaking album will take place during Elvis Week in Memphis on Saturday, August 14, during the event
"Conversations on Elvis."
Viva ELVIS by Cirque du Soleil, a harmonious fusion of dance,
acrobatics and live music, opened earlier this year in a specially designed
1,800 seat theater at ARIA Resort & Casino in
Las Vegas.
A tribute to the life and music of Elvis Presley, Viva ELVIS focuses on
the essential humanity of the one superstar whose name will forever be linked
with the history of
Las Vegas:
Elvis Presley. Significant moments in
his life – intimate, playful and grandiose – blend with timeless songs that
remain as relevant today as when they first hit the top of the charts.
Viva ELVIS - The Album is a 21st century venue for rock's first
and biggest superstar. The King's Music
Lives!
* * * * *
About
Elvis Presley Enterprises
Elvis
Presley Enterprises, Inc. is based in
Memphis,
with additional offices in
Los Angeles.
In addition to Graceland and its related attractions in
Memphis, including the Heartbreak Hotel, EPE
is aggressively involved in a worldwide licensing program, merchandising, music
publishing, and television, film, video and Internet projects. For more
information on EPE and
Graceland, visit
www.elvis.com. EPE is a subsidiary of CKX, Inc. (www.ckx.com), a publicly
traded company listed on the NASDAQ Global Market® under the ticker symbol
CKXE.
About
Cirque du Soleil
From a
group of 20 street performers at its beginnings in 1984, Cirque du Soleil is
now a major international organization providing high-quality artistic
entertainment. Since its founding, Cirque du Soleil has thrilled over 100
million spectators in close to 300 cities on five continents. In
Las Vegas, Cirque du
Soleil has a privileged partnership with MGM Resorts International to create
and present unique and innovative productions. In addition to Viva ELVIS,
these productions include Mystère™ at Treasure Island, "O™" at Bellagio,
Zumanity™ the Sensual Side of Cirque du Soleil at New York-New York Hotel &
Casino™, KÀ™ at MGM Grand, The Beatles™ LOVE™ and CRISS ANGEL Believe™ at
Luxor. For more information, visit the Cirque du Soleil website at www.cirquedusoleil.com/lasvegas.
About
Legacy Recordings
The
multiple Grammy-winning Legacy Recordings, Sony Music Entertainment's catalog
division, produces and maintains the world's foremost catalog of historic
reissues, an unparalleled compendium of thousands of digitally re-mastered
archival titles representing virtually every musical genre including popular, rock,
jazz, blues, R&B, folk, country, gospel, Broadway musicals, movie
soundtracks, ethnic, world music, classical, comedy and more.