Alessandro Alfonso Fortunato 'Alex' Gaudino, born in Salerno, Italy, began his music career in 1993 at Flying Records and UMM. In 1998, and with the support of the well-known Italian record company TIME, Alex founded his own label, RISE Records, which quickly produced a string of hit records with artists such as The Tamperer, Black Legend and Robbie Rivera, earning him a nomination for Best European A&R at the 2000 European Music Awards in London. But his international breakthrough came with a track released in Italy in December 2006 and worldwide four months later, in March 2007. It dominated the European charts that summer. Initially recorded in 2003 and entitled 'Destination Unknown', he worked with Crystal Waters, took her vocals and created an artful splicing, matching the vocals with the saxophone riff of Rune's 'Calabria', which was recorded the same year.
Coincidently and totally apt, the track popped up on the shuffle function of my iPod two years later, at a week's getaway to the stunningly beautiful shores of Southern Italy. It made the holiday.
Crystal Waters hails from Philadelphia, US. At 11 she began writing poetry and took her writing seriously enough to be inducted into the American Poetry Society when she was 14, the youngest person ever to receive that honour. She studied business and computer science at Howard University and her creative work dropped off as she found less time for it. After earning her college degree in 1985, Crystal worked as a computer technician, making a living that would support her two children. Waters first approached the music world in 1987 as a behind-the-scenes worker, writing demos for a production team known as the Basement Boys, securing a writing contract with Mercury Records in 1989 and began penning songs for recording artists. She wrote 'Gypsy Woman' for Ultra Nate and recorded a demo cut herself. The producers were so taken by her rendition that they drew up a recording contract with her for that one song, never passing it on to Ultra Nate. Crystal's next releases were promoted only in the dance music markets, but she made an unexpected mainstream comeback in 1994 when the song '100% Pure Love'. Also, as a side project, Crystal Waters wrote and voiced a single called 'Right and Exact' under the alias Chrissy Ward in 1998. In 2007 she agreed for Alex to marry up her 'Destination Unknown' with Rune's 'Calabria' to produce one of the more memorable dance tracks.
The music video for Destination Calabria was directed by Eran "Rani" Creevy and produced by Ben Pugh for Ministry of Sound. It features female dancers in green marching band costumes, pretending to play various instruments in a seductive manner, with choreography by David Leighton. In some scenes, seemingly hundreds of the dancers are seen at once, but these are simply the original eight replicated many times using digital imagery.
Chrystal herself does not appear in the video, with some of the marching band members miming her lyrics.
Alex Gaudino feat. Crystal Waters - Destination Calabria (2007)
IRL#2, HUN#2, BE#2, AUS#3, UK#4, FR#6, ES#6, FIN#8, SWE#10, IT#12, NL#14, DE#30, NZ#35, CH#50, AT#55
Lyrics:
I left my job my car and my home
I'm leavin for a destination
I still don't know,
Somewhere nobody must have beauties at all
And if u like us
You can follow me - so lets go:
Follow me and lets go
To the place where we belong and leave our troubles at home
Come with me
We can go to a paradise of love and joy
A destination unknown
Now I won't feel thoses heavy shoulders no more
My life got better now I finally enjoy
Yes all the people wanna come here and so
Come on and join us you can do that now lets go:
Follow me and let's go
To the place where we belong and leave our troubles at home
Come with me
We can go to a paradise of love and joy
A destination unknown
We left the city - the pollution - the crowd
The air is clear here oceans blue I love that sound
Where happy on this destinatin we found
And if you want us you can follow me. Lets go:
Follow me and lets go
To the place where we belong and leave our troubles at home
Come with me we can go to a paradise of love and joy
A destination unknown
No comments:
Post a Comment