* En anglais uniquement
At least since 1966, when a staff producer and arranger at Elektra Records named
Joshua Rifkin took advantage of the then-current revival of interest in 17th century music to create
The Baroque Beatles Book, the idea of classical musicians playing rock & roll has generally been treated as a novelty. Even when
the Kronos Quartet used to encore their recitals of 20th century music with a reconstruction of
Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" back in the 1980s, it was done with a nod and wink. However, there have occasionally been more serious crossovers from classical into pop, such as classical pianist
Christopher O'Riley's CD of solo piano reinterpretations of
Radiohead and
Elliott Smith songs, or
Philip Glass' 1986 song cycle
Songs from Liquid Days. The Los Angeles-based
Section Quartet work from a similar aesthetic, blurring the demarcations between pop and "serious" music even further. The
Section Quartet formed in 1998, composed of violinists
Eric Gorfain and
Daphne Chen, violist
Leah Katz, and cellist
Richard Dodd. While maintaining a career as a classically-oriented string quartet, the four also worked as session musicians, performing on soundtracks including I Heart Huckabees and Saw and working on pop albums like
Christina Aguilera's Stripped.
Gorfain and
Dodd's work on that album's 2002 smash "Beautiful" brought the
Section Quartet to the attention of the song's writer and producer
Linda Perry. Following two self-released efforts, 2004's No Electricity Required and 2006's Lizards Like Us, as well as a pair of well-received performances at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, the
Section Quartet were signed to Universal Music Group's revived Decca imprint for their
Perry-produced major-label debut
Fuzz Box, including new versions of songs by artists ranging from
the Strokes and
the Postal Service to
Led Zeppelin and
David Bowie. ~ Stewart Mason