Stewart Copeland shares reimagined orchestral version of ‘Message in a Bottle’
American musician Stewart Copeland, best known for playing the drums in The Police, is releasing an album of reimagined versions of some of the bands’ most popular tracks.
Police Deranged for Orchestra is set for release on June 23rd and contains alternative offerings of some of their hits arranged for a symphony orchestra, giving the songs a completely new lease of life.
Copeland has picked out tracks such as ‘Roxanne’, ‘Message in a Bottle’ and ‘Don’t Stand Too Close To Me’ for orchestral treatment. Additionally, some of his songs written outside of his time with The Police will be included on the tracklist.
‘Message in a Bottle’ became the band’s first number-one hit upon its release in 1979, appearing on their second album, Reggatta de Blanc. It remains a personal favourite of the band members, with Sting once describing it to Q as a “good song” that “makes a journey”.
Discussing its reimagining for Police Deranged for Orchestra, Copeland told Grammy:“‘Message in a Bottle’ was like a diamond and I could not mess with it; the form of it is what it has to be.”
He added: “I did mess with the orchestration, with the sound textures and so on, but the song itself resisted all of my attempts at de-arrangement. But I did orchestrate the heck out of it.”
Check out the new version below.
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