Deconstructing Debussy

Marc Romboy edits, remixes and reconstruct several works of his favorite French composer, Claude Debussy

It’s not too often electronica pairs up with the orchestra, but when it does, a deep movement of composition and harmony is enhanced. Merging up two greats in their respective fields, Claude Debussy and Marc Romboy, have created a symbiotic line of music in ‘Prélude à l´après-midi d´un faune’ (Excerpt/Reconstructing Debussy).

Debussy was one of the most popular composers associated with impressionist music. He worked with innovative ways to compose music with non traditional scales and chromaticism. German composer, DJ and producer Romboy is known for his boundary pushing electric field of techno. Remarkable attributes of Debussy’s music were the usage of parallel chords, bitonality and many compositions of whole-tone and pentatonic scales. This reminds us of contemporary electronic music, where you hardly find limits or boundaries when it comes to traditional, harmonic sounding scale tone music.

After studying countless composers of the last centuries, Romboy decided to edit, remix and reconstruct several works of his favorite French composer, ranging from ‘La mer to ‘Prélude à l´après-midi d´un faune’.

Debussy’s original version is based on a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé and was first performed in 1894. The poem describes the dreams of a faun, a mythical half-human, half-goat figure, in the afternoon heat.

This album was recorded live in one take at Konzerthaus, Dortmund, Germany and went out as a Boiler Room special.