Category: Contemporary
Cesária Évora: Mãe Carinhosa
A new song by Cesária Évora is certainly a good excuse to open the floodgates of nostalgia! The Cape Verdean singer passed away in December 2011 after a very successful “late” international career. The singer was 47 when she recorded her first breakthrough album La…
Max Richter: The Haunted Ocean
Waltz with Bashir (2008) is a groundbreaking animated documentary by Israeli film maker Ari Folman. One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The…
Max Richter: Shadow journal
The Blue Notebooks “Shadow journal” was originally released in The Blue Notebooks (2004), the second solo album by German born British composer Max Richter. While classically trained, the musician is also influenced by Rock and Electronic music or by modern minimalists such as Philip Glass, Steve…
Antony and the Johnsons feat. Björk: Flétta
This exquisite collaborative track comes from Antony and the Johnsons’ 2010 recording Swanlights. The track was originally composed in 2006 during the recording sessions for Björk’s album Volta which includes two duets with Antony Hegarty. In “Flétta”, Antony and Björk sing to actual Icelandic words…
Andrey Dergatchev: The Return
I must have watched The Return three or four times now, several years apart, and each time I am left with a very strong impression. Set against the backdrop of the desolate wilderness of Northern Russia, The Return is an arresting film by first-time director Andrey…
Amadou & Mariam: Wily Kataso
Amadou & Mariam have been playing music together since the early 1980s and Folila, released in April 2012, is the pair’s latest recording. Often referred to as “the blind couple from Mali”, Amadou & Mariam have a great knack for composing catchy songs in their…
The Bad Plus: Everywhere you Turn
The Bad Plus is often presented as an American jazz trio from Minneapolis. A more appropriate description would be that of three adventurous musicians playing instruments traditionally associated with jazz (drums, double bass and piano) but composing tunes following Rock structures, or de-constructing famous Pop…
Air: Sonic Armada
Both Brian Selznick’s The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007) and Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (2011) have done a lot to reintroduce “cinemagician” Georges Meliès to an entirely new audience, especially to his ground breaking masterpiece Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon). The…