Piergiorgio Corallo takes “My Guitar in the Orchestra” to the Dancefloor with Brand New Hera Project

Piergiorgio Corallo is giving his guitar a rather different orchestra to deal with.

On October 16, the Italian songwriter will release My guitar in the Orchestra – Puglia Crime Remix feat Brand New Hera Project, a new electronic version of a track from his album In via di sviluppo. The collaboration takes a song originally built around guitars, piano and orchestral passages and pushes it towards the dancefloor.

The ingredients sound like an unlikely combination: club beats, synthesizers, brass and tango-inspired rhythms. Corallo's original vocal remains part of the recording, while Brand New Hera Project brings a different production approach to the arrangement.

There's a curious backstory to the song itself. Speaking to Indie Italia Music, Corallo described the guitar as something of an outsider in an orchestra, an instrument trying to find its place without losing its character. It's a rather personal way of explaining a musical arrangement, and perhaps an appropriate starting point for a track now undergoing another transformation.

The original recording had a complicated construction, too. In an interview with Bored City, Corallo discussed how In via di sviluppo brought together studio recordings, electronic elements and material captured during live performances. The orchestral contribution to My guitar in the Orchestra came from that mixture of sources.

With the remix, Corallo and Brand New Hera Project are moving into territory where acoustic instruments and programmed rhythms have often made interesting companions. Think of the tango experiments of Gotan Project rather than a conventional rock remix, although the finished record will have to establish its own identity.

The release also retains the post-apocalyptic imagery associated with In via di sviluppo. Its artwork depicts a lone figure among damaged buildings, looking towards a guitar suspended in the distance. An official music video is in development, with further details yet to be announced.

The move towards electronic music isn't entirely unexpected. Across In via di sviluppo, Corallo has shown little interest in keeping rock music confined to guitars and drums. The record moves between more traditional songwriting and arrangements shaped by electronic production, occasionally allowing those different approaches to occupy the same track. The new remix takes that tendency a step further, bringing another creative partner into the process rather than simply revisiting the existing recording with a different mix.

It's also worth considering how much the role of the remix has changed. Once largely associated with extended versions made for DJs, the format has become a way for musicians to revisit their own catalogue, sometimes years after the original release. An existing song can be rebuilt for a different setting, with changes that go well beyond tempo or percussion. For independent artists in particular, collaborations of this kind can open up musical possibilities that wouldn't necessarily emerge during the production of a conventional album.

Tango makes this particular experiment a little more interesting. Its musical vocabulary has been used in electronic music for decades, with producers borrowing everything from its distinctive rhythmic patterns to the dramatic interplay between instruments. Gotan Project famously built a substantial body of work around that encounter, demonstrating how an established musical language could operate within contemporary production. The reference provides some context for Corallo's forthcoming release, though it would be premature to place the two projects in the same musical category before hearing the finished track.

The involvement of brass instruments is another detail to watch. In a guitar-driven recording, brass can contribute colour or reinforce a melodic line. Within electronic dance music, it can serve a very different purpose, introducing sharp rhythmic accents or interrupting the regularity of a programmed beat. How Brand New Hera Project handles that relationship could prove more revealing than the genre labels attached to the remix.

And then there's the voice. Retaining Corallo's original vocal performance creates a connection between the two recordings, even as the surrounding instrumentation changes. A vocal line conceived for an orchestral rock arrangement may respond differently to the repetition and rhythmic pressure of electronic production. That contrast is among the more intriguing aspects of the project, particularly for listeners already familiar with the original track.

For now, the collaboration is best approached as a new version of an existing composition rather than an entirely separate chapter in Corallo's catalogue. Its release will offer an opportunity to hear how much of the original survives the change in setting, and whether the combination of tango accents, brass and electronic rhythms produces something distinctive.

My guitar in the Orchestra – Puglia Crime Remix feat Brand New Hera Project arrives on streaming platforms October 16.

Marta Rau, Independiente, 10/10/2026, Siviglia