Culture
Watch the World's First Turntable Orchestra Reconstruct Classical Music
The Philharmonic Turntable Orchestra is pushing past jump-cuts and scratches.
Scratching has always sounded cool, but how far can turntablism really go? Leave it to a full-sized orchestra armed with only Technics turntables and mixers—and featuring the legendary DJ Qbert —to showcase how relevant the technique still is. At a time when vinyl records and turntables are slowly becoming outdated, the Philharmonic Turntable Orchestra is effectively blowing all the medium’s expectations out of the water.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=JGWuyMKT8wU
Pushing the capabilities of their humble setups, the group turns Mendelssohn’s Concerto In E Minor into something that sounds closer to twisted hip-hop and musique concrète. Live-sampling and manipulating snippets of the work while playing the turntables themselves like instruments—and even bouncing needles and intentionally scratching records—the group transforms the piece into something new with mind-bending technical proficiency and style.
Check out the video above, and visit their website to watch an interactive version where you can remix the piece yourself.
