Monks Answer Record Label Open Call

Posted on Mar 27th 2008 5:00PM by James Sullivan
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Universal Music, home of U2, 50 Cent, Eminem and Amy Winehouse, is about to get medieval on your ass. For real.

Looking to capitalize on the runaway success of the video game 'Halo,' with its Gregorian chant theme song, the label has identified a group of monks from the woods near Vienna it thinks could become the next Singing Nun, or at least Ministry. The Cistercian monks of Heiligenkreuz, a 12th-century monastery, answered the label's open call for plainsong performers by submitting that traditional expression of monastic asceticism on their YouTube video.

A label representative recently said the company was convinced it had to sign up a chant choir when festival organizers began asking "if we've got nuns or monks on our roster." Unlike the '90s electronic group Enigma, who set Gregorian chant to a club beat, the Cistercian monks will record just as they perform, without musical accompaniment of any kind. Proceeds from their advance will be put back into the monastery, which presumably needs computers to keep tabs on its YouTube posts and the latest crusading first-person shooter games.

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