Their music is ancient, their lifestyle medieval, but a group of Cistercian monks from Holy Cross Monastery near Vienna secured a recording contract with Universal Music using the latest craze on the Internet: YouTube. Their video audition came in response to an advertisement London-based Universal placed looking for new groups to feature in their line of Gregorian chant albums. “We’re not Robbie Williams or Michael Jackson,” said a monk identified only as Father Karl. “We’re just a group of monks who sing every day because it’s our prayer and it’s our life.” Father Karl may want to update his examples of hit pop acts to modern day; we suggest his new labelmate, Amy Winehouse.

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