Cells Planets (SINGLE)

Cells Planets is a ballad performed and composed by Erika Lloyd of the indie rock band Little Grey Girlfriend.  Lloyd—much like composer Mason Bates—is equally comfortable in the worlds of classical and popular music, performing concurrently as a lead singer in her band as well as in her Renaissance quartet, The Good Pennyworths. 

Lloyd’s solo song is transformed here into a choral arrangement by arranger Vince Peterson, who also directs the New York-based chamber ensemble Choral Chameleon.  Lloyd recently told San Francisco Classical Voice that Peterson “…knows Little Grey Girlfriend’s music by heart and I bet had some of these musical ideas in his head even before the prospect of arranging it for Chanticleer came along.”  The sensitivity of Peterson’s dynamic arrangement and Lloyd’s eclectic musical background are a perfect match for Chanticleer.

Of the perceived disparity between contemporary pop music and classical music, Lloyd offers these thoughts:

“Especially in regards to an instrument as old as the human voice, not much has changed… We’re still singing about love, still singing about heartbreak.  It was popular music in Elizabethan times.  We haven’t changed that much.”