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Alex Christensen & The Berlin Orchestra – Classical 90s Dance 3

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Alex Christensen & The Berlin Orchestra - Classical 90s Dance 3

Alex Christensen & The Berlin Orchestra - Classical 90s Dance 3
3.8

Rating

 3.8/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • The 90s in a very different sound
  • Some amazing versions, e.g. Barbie Girl

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Parts 1 and 2 have been better

When I was on social media, the account of a friend reminded me that Alex Christensen. After two amazingly successful parts of Classical 90s Dance, the music multi-talent went for a release to the productive environment.

 

Alex Christensen – About The Artist

Christensen was born in Hamburg in 1967. He originally worked in the logisitcs. His first successful hit was Ritmo De La Noche by the project Chocolate. The lists of songs written or produced by him is just massive. Thereby he was the mastermind behind several music projects. At least in Germany, he became a real celebrity by doing a cover the soundtrack song of the Das Boot move with the project U96. The song topped the German, Swiss and Austrian singles charts and even made it to the British Top 20. U96 stayed active for a couple of years and produced a couple of remarkable chart placements – but none of them came close to Das Boot.

Together with The Berlin Orchestra, Christensen released the first Classical 90s Dance. The CD contained symphonic orchestra-driven versions of 90s dance hits. Das Boot was part of the setlist, but also Nessaja, Rhythm Is A Dancer and other top sellers of that era. The sales were good and the album reached gold status in Germany – even despite some of the critics were rather on the bad side.

There was a sequel in 2018, Classical 90s Dance 2, which even climbed up to place 4 in the album charts in Germany. It is an amazing album to me, some fantastic artists are part of it, like Melanie C., who is doing two songs.

I could hardly find any information about “The Berlin Orchestra”. The major orchestra of the city is the philharmonic one.

 

 

A. Christensen & The Berlin Orchestra – Classical 90s Dance 3 – Track by Track

The third part of Alex Christensen projects is a 17 track album with a duration of 58 minutes. However, two of the tracks are short, purely intstrumental intros for another song. As you know all the originals anyhow, I will focus on the re-interpretation.

1. Gypsy Woman (La-Da-Dee) (+ Linda Teodosiu)

Of course, you listen to the different instrumentation, the interpretation of Gypsy Women feels very close to the original. There are better ones on the album.

2. The Sign (feat. Natasha Bedingfield)

Ace of Base! I like this re-interpretation already much more than Gypsy Women, there is much more classic pop in it. Natasha Bedingfield is a cool voice alternative to the Berggren girls.

3. Everytime We Touch (feat.  Maite Kelly)

Maite Kelly and Alex Christensen turn this song into a pretentious one. The verses are dominated by Kelly’s great voice, backing vocals and the orchestra give a lot of power to it. What I also like is that the drum computer is not that present.

4. Somebody Dance With Me (feat. Asja & Sky)

The songs starts with slow piano play and strings and if you do not look at the display, you just ask yourself what this song could be… Then vocals Somebody dance with me, wind instruments. This one could be so could, also as the chorus is again quite close to D.J. Bobo – but the rap in between spoils it a bit.

5. Into Loneliness

Just a musical part in between to lead to the next track.

6. Lonely (feat. Luca Tarqua)

Luca Tarqua is one of the wisest selections of voices on that album. Though the arrangement is not that far from the original in major parts, there is a lot of new character in that slower interpretation.

7. It’s Alright (feat. Eloy de Jong)

Former Caught In The Act star Eloy de Jong gives a nice arc of suspense to the song, especially at the beginning of the song. One of the better re-interpretations of the whole album, definitely.

8. Missing (feat. Natasha Bedingfield)

Quite massive drum computer in this one again. Natasha Bedingfield gives more softness to this song. Especially towards the end, when the instruments are getting more intense, I like this track.

9. The Rhythm Of The Night (feat.  Yass)

With that song, I really feel a bit split: on the hand, I like the instrumentation and arrangement – on the other hand, it turns a strong-beat dance track to an opener for the next senior home afternoon tea. It is a huge matter of taste, whether you say that Christensen gave this song a new character – or whether he destroyed it.

10. Intro Fantastic

The second purely intstrumental transition.

11. Barbie Girl (feat. Asja Ahatovic & Eniola Falase)

After being that harsh with The Rhythm Of The Night, Alex Christensen gets all my love: turning the Eurodance song into a soft and romantic, soupy ballad is surprising – and quite daring. I love to listen to it and enjoy the lyrics we all know in a very different environment. To me, the best track of the album.

12. Love Religion (feat. Yass)

Starting like gentle piece of classic music, stronger beats but also more orchestral instruments more and more turn into a powerful dance track on philharmonics. Nice!

13. Free (feat. Linda Teodosiu)

I feel that this song is not at all poorly transposed to the classic music world – but it still does not touch me at all.

14. Believe (feat. Giovanni Zarella)

Giovanni Zarella gives a soft touch to the Cher classic – and it works perfectly to me. Like it!

15. Heaven (feat. Polina Vita)

So far, I majorly gave best ratings to softer versions of the dance tracks. Christensens interpretation of Heaven by DJ Sammy is quite much of a dance track. Lovely voice!

16. Meet Her At The Loveparade

This one is likely the most experimental song of the whole album. Trying to fully move an electric dance track into classic intstrumentation unfortunately fails in my point of view. On the one hand, the instruments really add value – on the other one, in major parts it s the drum computer and electric music which does the sound.

17. Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming) (feat. Thomas Anders)

Thomas Anders is overwhelming on this final track of the album. The christmas song is of course a perfect selection for the “Gentleman of Music”.

 

A. Christensen & The Berlin Orchestra – Spotify

Spotify allows you to pre-listen to the album:

A. Christensen & The Berlin Orchestra – My View

The 1990s are back – for the third time. It is likely not an album you have longed and waited for – but Alex Christensen did what he can do best: producing just a good music. Unfortunately, I have to say that the album was on straight route to high ratings to me – but there are just some too weak spots in here – some of them, you might even  recognize quite late. Such a shame, as the first two albums, especially the second one, is excellent.

 

A. Christensen & The Berlin Orchestra – Tour

In late April 2020, Alex Christensen and the Berlin Orchestra will perform their music live on stage for the very first time:

We 22.04.2020 Hamburg, Barclaycard Arena
Th 23.04.2020 Rostock, Stadthalle Rostock
Fr 24.04.2020 Chemnitz, Stadthalle
Sa 25.04.2020 Berlin, Tempodrom
Su 26.04.2020 Munich, Gasteig
Tu 28.04.2020 Stuttgart, Liederhalle
We 29.04.2020 Münster, Halle Münsterland
Fr 01.05.2020 Nuremberg, Meistersingerhalle
Sa 02.05.2020 Dortmund, Westfallenhalle 2
Su 03.05.2020 Hanover, Swiss Life Hall

 

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