Stefan Zeniuk & Gato Loco - The Enchanted Messa (2013) [Hi-Res]

Stefan Zeniuk's studio is located in Manhattan, not far from the meatpacking district. When you enter his space, you get the impression that you're in the studio of a painter or a sculptor; art objects are all over the place, canvases and paint scattered on what few flat surfaces exist, with drawings and images tacked on every inch of wall space (including the ceiling). Almost nothing tells you that this is the work space of a composer and saxophonist. In his head, Zeniuk creates sound installations for the world, ranging from the laser-sharp dance clubs with Gato Loco to flash-mobs of 15 baritone saxophones in a Starbucks playing free-jazz. His symphony for 100 tenor saxophones will manage to become reality, slowly, like the dozens of dreams he has. Interaction, the place where fantasy meets reality and where regular life meets hallucination, is where these sounds rise, up, over New York City or Munich or Bordeaux, (where he recorded his first album with the group Gato Loco for Winter&Winter). Stefan Zeniuk is full of ideas. In 2012 he told producer Stefan Winter about his concept to prepare an adaptation of Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem with Gato Loco. Though the idea had been hatched a decade earlier, at the time Zeniuk did not know that in the year 2013, classical fans would be celebrating Verdi's 200th birthday. But there are no such things as coincidences, and Gato Loco brought their arrangement to life, bringing their foreign sounds to meld with Giuseppe Verdi for The Enchanted Messa.

Gato Loco was born in 2006 from the streets of New York City. Their live show delivers an instant party filled with celebration and joy; like a decadent latin mambo ballroom, thrown in the midst of a 21st century rock show. The musicians take their cues from scratchy pre-war Cuban records and vintage Betty Boop cartoons, while freely incorporating equal parts latin, rock, and jazz. Gato Loco is not genre music. It is tightly written, thrilling and confusing, killing boredom with thought, with passion, with power. Leader Stefan Zeniuk had long dreamed of arranging and interpreting Verdi's Requiem. The piece revels in an ambiguity that seems to be at odds with itself. Verdi wasn't dealing with the simplicity and purity of a love and belief in God, but with the conflict of true morality that lies within ourselves. The dramatic intensity of the Dies Irae does not reflect the emotional power of a devout Catholic believer. This attitude of juxtapositions, contradictions and dichotomies, is very much what Gato Loco takes as its fundamentals: bombastic and delicate, spiritual and agnostic, operatic and poetic. The insufferable aggression and the theatrical grandeur, while mixed with delicate and passionate melodies, seemed to make perfect sense for this band. Gato Loco had no interest in merely playing through the melodies of this world-acknowledged classic. Instead they have reinterpreted, chopped and screwed together sections while writing a slew of new music based around the original piece. Engaging the epic power of the Dies Irae, the spacial theatricality of the Tuba Mirum, or the aching sadness of the Quid Sum Miser, Gato Loco searches for the crux of Verdi's emotional journey, while filtering it through 21st-century New York City.

Stefan Zeniuk (*1980, New York) grew up in a creative household, his parents being artists, and he was exposed early on to jazz, blues, and experimental music. Family friends included composer Steve Reich and saxophonist Tim Berne. In college he studied composition and anthropology. After graduating, he formed his first group, Los Vinos. Short lived, Stefan Zeniuk quickly became a prolific and in-demand freelancer in New York City, as well as leading Gato Loco and numerous other groups.

Stefan Zeniuk, alto, tenor and bass saxophones, clarinet and contra-bass clarinet
Jackie Coleman, trumpet
Jesse Selengut, trumpet
Ric Becker, trombone, bass trombone, euphonium
Tim Vaughn, trombone
Joe Exley, tuba
Clifton Hyde, acoustic and electric guitars, bass
Ari Folman-Cohen, electric bass
Kevin Garcia, drums, percussion
Rich Stein, percussion

Tracklist:
01. Stefan Zeniuk & Gato Loco - The Big Sleep (9:04)
02. Stefan Zeniuk & Gato Loco - Die, You Sucka! (3:41)
03. Stefan Zeniuk & Gato Loco - The Sound and the Fury (4:08)
04. Stefan Zeniuk & Gato Loco - Orphans of the Storm (4:32)
05. Stefan Zeniuk & Gato Loco - The Lower Depths (6:26)
06. Stefan Zeniuk & Gato Loco - Seconds (3:36)
07. Stefan Zeniuk & Gato Loco - The Whispering Chorus (3:02)
08. Stefan Zeniuk & Gato Loco - Kind Hearts and Coronets (8:25)
09. Stefan Zeniuk & Gato Loco - Wild At Heart (3:11)