The Harlequin, the Robot, and the Ballet Dancer is a 1995 album by DJ and electronic musician Sven Väth. It is best thought of as a concept album, as the piece is split into three parts, each one representing an aspect of Sven Väth's character: the harlequin, robot and ballet dancer of the title.
It's a long album at 73 minutes, and repetitive in parts. That's probably due to the 'techno' influence, although it would be a mistake to simply label this as techno; really it spans a number of genres. The harlequin, representing Väth's sense of fun, his playful side if you will, is tinged with techno and trance, and features slowly evolving pieces; techno but minimalist, a combination which appeals to me. 'Harlequin's Meditation', however, slips way over into ambient territory, making the album a little too mellow to deserve the techno label. Underworld produced a most amazing twelve minute remix of The Beauty And The Beast, by the way, which featured on the single and on the later remix album.
The robot, Robby (what else?), allows pulsing electronics to enter the mix, but the track 'The Birth of Robby' also manages to be a curious mixture of ambient techno and trance. The track Robot, though, is techno through and through. And then there's the ballet dancer: Väth's romantic side. Almost classical, but slowly evolving into techno as we move from 'Ballet: Fusion' to 'Ballet: Dancer'.
The Harlequin, the Robot, and the Ballet Dancer is a delightful journey, right from the track 'Intro' through to the last notes of the final track. I love the way each character gets a little motif splashed into the organic, ambient background sounds of the first track: a little jingle of bells for the harlequin, the pulsing, grinding of electronics for the robot, and a fading piano for the ballet dancer.
Already heard this? The remix album Touch Themes Of Harlequin, the Robot, and the Ballet Dancer is beautiful, a real gem.
http://rapidshare.com/files/176116391/Sven_Vaeth_-_The_harlequin_-_robot_-_ballet-dancer.part1.rarhttp://rapidshare.com/files/175910158/Sven_Vaeth_-_The_harlequin_-_robot_-_ballet-dancer.part2.rar
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