Albarn takes Chinese monkey show overseas

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — After more than 15 years as one of the leading lights in British pop music, Damon Albarn is this week preparing for the international debut of his latest project.

A founding member of leading Britpop band Blur and one half of revolutionary "virtual" group Gorillaz, Albarn has turned his attention to the unexplored terrain of mixing ancient Chinese folk music, opera and circus performance.

"Monkey, Journey to the West" arrives in Paris on Wednesday for an 18-night run at a theatre in the French capital before heading to Berlin next year.

Albarn, like the reviewers who saw the show debut at a festival in the north of England in June, is at a loss to describe what he seems to have invented.

"What it is I don't know. Maybe it's a kind of...