SMALL CROWDS (LES PETITES FOULES)

Scott MacLeay’s cabaret opera first released on the iconic French indie label Sordide Sentimental has been remastered and re-released by Creative Process on a variety of streaming platforms including:

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/fr/album/small-crowds-remaster/1557475656?l=en

Youtube: https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kWP7NYtxp6z3KSNCSTDU17qtUsxNKCkGc

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/12s2fykV2VdRqwNhgdciph

Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/en/album/213412692

The project was conceived by composer Scott MacLeay as a series of intertwined nocturnal processions – a collection of night arias and assorted urban love songs set in a universe populated by an assortment of anonymous marginal personalities wandering aimlessly through the night, stopping from time to time to reflect on their respective destinies.

Performed by his pick-up group Private Circus, the colour of the music varies from an almost “trashy pots and pans” sound to velvety string-based arias reflecting the changing moods and emotional states of this group of lost souls seeking comfort and compassion in the darkness of night. The wanderers sing in English, French and a number of strange unknown dialects. In many of the songs, the vocals are nothing more than another musical element, barely audible above the drone of a rhythm section, while in others they assume a more tradition place in the mix. The objective was to convey the sense of ambiguity, vulnerability and confusion that arises from unexpected chance encounters in the night, while at the same time affirming the inevitable confidence-building camaraderie formed by those who share a common destiny, even if only for one delirious night.