A Ballet Through Mud, made in collaboration with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, will be available from 30 August.
Wu-Tang Clan rapper and leader RZA has announced that he is set to release a classical album A Ballet Through Mud on 30 August via platform Platoon.
Scored by RZA himself, the album is recorded by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and forms the soundtrack of its 2023 stage production that tells a coming-of-age love story. It featured choreography by Yusha-Marie Sorzano and Intimacy Direction by Sarah Lozoff.
The 11-track album project was first conceived during the pandemic, when RZA revisited old lyric books from his teenage years. In a statement, RZA told Rolling Stone: “I have been composing my whole life, although I didn’t know initially that was what I was doing. The inspiration for A Ballet Through Mud comes from my earliest creative output as a teenager, but its themes are universal – love, exploration and adventure.
“I hope people use it to score their own lives, to transform a drive to the grocery store or sharing a meal with loved ones into something magical, to be inspired and let their imaginations take them into a different chamber, if only for a moment.”
Check out a snippet of A Ballet Through Mud from its 2023 stage production below.
