Here it comes. Of course, almost everyone's been on this path since
The Da Vinci Code
took off as a runaway bestseller.
The Da Vinci Project
was commissioned by
Sony/BMG Music Entertainment
(Netherlands) to
Jan Kisjes
, a composer, producer, arranger, and studio ace who has done extensive work in television and cinema. While reading the book on holiday he claims he began hearing melodies in his head according with the different episodes in the book. The result is a mess, and not a glorious one. Here, French (thanks to
Frederic Dorfmann
in his best
Serge Gainsbourg
interpretation), English, and Scottish -- ? -- (courtesy
Andrea McNeill
's lovely Scottish brogue) meld with monastic-sounding male and female choirs,
classical
music (strings), and of course tawdry loops in original songs and themes to denote the "sacred feminine" oppressed by Christianity for the past 2000 years. Musically,
Phil Cunningham
's whistles are beautiful. There are many elements here that would be suitable for some project, but this one doesn't get off the ground, let alone stay afloat, unlike the music inspired by
The Passion of the Christ
, which was expertly chosen and assembled by
Mel Gibson
(no matter what you think of the guy he knew exactly what he wanted and has great musical taste). The songs on
the Da Vinci Project
are so bad, in some cases --
"The Sword and the Chalice"
in particular -- it's almost impossible not to laugh. This album was designed to cash in, and maybe it will, but not for its quality; it will because it is linked to something that is a phenomenon. This project reaches the consumer as a positively cynical act, and this music, lacking in quality, vision, and even honest emotion, is proof of that. ~ Thom Jurek