Austrian Monks Win Record Contract Through YouTube

Buy an ad on DigitalJournal.com

Universal Music advertised in major religious publications for monks, men of cloth or sacred singers to record a Gregorian chant album. The Gregorian chant gained popularity through Enigma’s songs but dates back to the early Middle Ages.

Universal Music received hundreds of demos from various groups, but they were blown away when they saw the YouTube video from monks in the Helingenkreuz monastery based in Vienna, Austria.

The Cistercian monastery is home to 80 monks and dates back to 1133.

The monks heard about the competition from a friend in London and soon contacted Universal; they sent a link to their YouTube video. Universal A&R executive Tom Lewis heard their music and was very impressed with the quality. He told BBC News:

It was beautiful, beautiful music and they're using the very latest in terms of communication devices available to them to get their music heard…They're lovely people, they're very passionate about their music and they're very excited about this opportunity.

Lewis said the monks want the music to be heard by others and hence they submitted it to Universal.

Universal staff will travel to the Austrian monastery to record the album next month. The monastery's Father Karl is very happy and said the album would feature between 10 and 12 singers.

Father Karl wrote the following in an e-mail to BBC News:

"It's a fun experience because I didn't think they would choose us - it was just for fun that we wrote to them in an e-mail.

"It's a good thing because Gregorian chant is part of spirituality and our life."

He said he thought the monks had "a very healthy and prospering monastery", adding they were keen to "show it to the whole world".[/i

Father Karl said the profits from the album would be used in the training of Cistercian monks. Universal plans to release this album later in the year.