I got a few tracks of this cd as a filler up on a tape that a friend recorded for me. I loved what I heard and asked what it was, but the only thing he knew was “The Fire Requiem” so I started to search for this band, but I didn’t have a clue where to look. I guessed the gothic scene would be a good start, but I had no luck. Later this friend told me that the cd was actually called “Flamma Flamma – The Fire Requiem” and was composed by someone called “Nicholas Lens” (he asked the person where he got the tracks from), so I pursued my search in classical corners and found out that this cd is actually pretty easy to get, but very expensive. It has been serveral years since I got my own copy of this cd. I remember to have listened to two other cds of Lens of which I didn’t like one and the other one was too jazzy. Was this a one-time experiment then? For years and years I have tried to find something with even the faintest similarity both in gothic, classical and other corners, but especially in the latter, I’m not an expert and I have had no luck until now (well maybe Philip Glass, but I’m not too fond of his music).
Anyway, the music is a totally impressing new form of opera with mostly electronic music, even with beats. The vocalists are extremely good and are undoubtely from a classical background, so this is not just someone making neo-classical music.
Also I found out that there are more people in the gothic scene who know this cd and I even heard the title track played on a party one time and quite some people knew it.
Anyway, if you can get your hands on this cd and you are not afraid of opera, be sure to buy this classical music masterpiece.
