Spellbinding Music
Genre-bending & spine-tingling
O Vis Aeternitatis I only discovered Seán Mac Erlaine’s music a few months ago when I heard his version of “O Vis Aeternitatis” on the saxophone. It was one of those epiphanic moments when a piece of music resonates instantly. I was familiar with the piece from the 12th century mystic Hildegard of Bingen through the 1994 …
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In 2007, Icelandic band Sigur Rós released Heima, a full length feature capturing a series of free and impromptu concerts filmed across “the furthest flung corners of their homeland” in 2006. Superbly shot in several breath-taking locations by Canadian film director, animator and long-time fan of the band Dean …
Continue Reading about Steindór Andersen & Sigur Rós: Á ferð til breiðafjarðar vorið 1922 →
Manchester born flute, whistle and pipe player Michael McGoldrick is a musician who learned his trade at traditional Irish music sessions, Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann meetings and Fleadhanna Ceoil competitions. He is also a musician who, in his late twenties, had already co-founded, toured with or been a member of several high …
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The fruit of the pan-European cooperation between German trumpet player Markus Stockhausen, Hungarian classical guitar player Ferenc Snétberger, Norwegian bass player Arild Andersen and French drummer Patrice Héral, Joyosa (2004) is more than a traditional solo jazz recording with sidemen. Coming to life as distinct duos from …
Since her international début in 1997, Malian singer songwriter Rokia Traoré has always managed to strike an interesting balance between tradition and innovation. A ngoni and balafon player, she mainly sings in the Bambara language and draws inspiration from the rich tradition of the Mandé song repertoire or from other …
Malian singer songwriter Rokia Traoré’s “Roots” project emerged as a continuation of the Desdemona multimedia collaboration she contributed to in 2011. Written by American novelist and 1993 Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison and staged by experimental theatre director Peter Sellars, Desdemona is a play imagining a dialogue …
