Cinerama 'Va Va Voom 25' 2xLP

Cinerama release Va Va Voom 25 – a twenty-fifth anniversary re-recording of the band’s remarkable debut album. 

David Gedge says: “In 1997, I took a break from being in The Wedding Present and began exploring the idea of writing songs on my own at home, using new technology that had recently become available. That gave me the freedom to explore writing in the style of different kinds of music, such as the classic pop records of the 1960s and 1970s and the work of film composers like John Barry and Ennio Morricone. I used samplers and sequencers for the demos and session musicians in the studio, so there wasn’t a Cinerama ‘band’, as such, until we started playing live after Va Va Voom had been released. Last year, I decided to mark the 25th anniversary of that release by playing the album in full at my annual Brighton festival, ‘At The Edge Of The Sea’. I was struck by how different Va Va Voom sounded, being played by a live band as opposed to those studio session musicians – there’s more vibrancy and energy – and so I decided to re-record it!”

Cinerama were originally a duo consisting of David alongside Sally Murrell, his then partner. Va Va Voom was the start of something new for David, and Cinerama became his main musical focus over the next six years.

David continues: “We went on to record two further albums as Cinerama and, during that time, I learnt much more about how to arrange and record this type of music. For example, on Va Va Voom, I originally wrote just two parts for strings, which I naively called ‘high strings’ and ‘low strings’! But, now that I know more, I rearranged those parts for a full string quartet for Va Va Voom 25.”