"This bitter earth/On the nature of daylight" is the song that concludes Martin Scorsese’s 2010 psychological thriller Shutter Island. None of the music for the film’s soundtrack was actually composed for the film but it was (expertly) curated by musician and long-time collaborator Robbie Robertson, whom Martin Scorsese ... [Continue Reading]
Contemporary
Danger Mouse: Encore
The Grey Album I had forgotten about The Grey Album but was reminded of it while watching the excellent TED talk on combinatorial creativity by Kirby Ferguson (of Everything is a Remix fame). The Grey Album (2004) is a very clever mash up of The Beatles’ [amazon text=White Album&asin=B0025KVLU6] (1968) and Jay-Z’s ... [Continue Reading]
Jeanne Balibar & Rodolphe Burger: Le tour du monde
Jeanne Balibar (b. 1968) is a French stage actress who has also featured in over 40 art house and independent films by directors such as Jacques Rivette, Olivier Assayas or Arnaud Desplechin since the beginning of the 1990s. A chance meeting with musician and singer Rodolphe Burger in 1999 sparked the start of a fruitful musical ... [Continue Reading]
Marcin Wasilewski Trio: Night train to you
Marcin Wasilewski (b. 1975) is a Polish jazz pianist and composer who formed his trio in the early 1990s with Slawomir Kurkiewicz (double bass) and Michal Miskiewicz (drums). With each member still under the age of 40, the trio already boasts an impressive CV, having worked and recorded with Polish trumpet player Tomasz Stańko ... [Continue Reading]
Neil Cowley Trio: Slims
London-born pianist and composer Neil Cowley (b. 1972) formed his eponymous trio in 2006. The traditional trio formation of piano, drums (Evan Jenkins) and double bass (Rex Horan) hints of course at jazz music, but strong pop, rock and dance music influences are also very much in evidence. Neil Cowley composes catchy melodies ... [Continue Reading]
Max Richter: Vivaldi recomposed
From a statistical point of view, Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" probably belongs to the top ten most popular pieces of classical music recorded and played (sometimes even overplayed) on classical music radio stations. Not daunted by its overwhelming popularity, neoclassical composer Max Richter set to revisit Antonio Vivaldi's ... [Continue Reading]
