Reggae jazz, reggae blues, reggae country… examples of genre-blending are not rare in reggae. Crossing dub with opera, however, is less common.
We may well remember Bounty Killer and the Fugees with their Hip Hopera, or Buccaneer's sonatas, but lyric art remains an exception in Jamaican music.
That is precisely the work of tenor Uly Neuens, who has a prestigious background (Opéra Garnier and Opéra Comique in Paris, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Grand Theatre in Shanghai). A reggae enthusiast, Uly Neuens blends dub and Gregorian chant in Latin, surrounding himself with numerous collaborators, under the name Audio Art.
The track Pax, with English MC Speng Bond and Hornsman Coyote, was the first glimpse of this work, released last year on the German label Irie Ites Music (not to be confused with their French namesakes).
An album, "Op'ra Dub Style", is thus planned for mid-November. Dubmatix, Dub Spencer & Trance Hill and the French outfit Tune In Crew are among the producers. Always on the lookout for a new path to explore, Tune In Crew threw themselves into this project by delivering a dubstep track, Te Lucis, which heightens the contrast between the modern and the ancient, the sacred and the profane.