A gorgeous piece of minimalism with choir by former Sigur Rós multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson, who is off working on a couple of new projects of his own.
Month: February 2015
[Sample] Das Mädchen von Hongkong O.S.T.
I can’t get enough of cheese-ball Euro-trash soundtracks, so coming across a gem like this on Bandcamp made my day! It’s for Das Mädchen von Hongkong, a film from 1973, and Black Pearl Records deserves all credit for hipping the world to this digital album.
[Video] Ellý Vilhjálmsdóttir – Sveitin Milli Sanda
Long before Iceland gave the world Björk, they brought us Ellý Vilhjálmsdóttir. This haunting, wordless ditty was a massive hit for her in 1966.
[Article] Manna for fans: the history of the hidden track in music
How cool. I had no idea The Beatles were the (accidental) inventors of the secret track!
Here’s more, courtesy of Jude Rogers at The Guardian.
[Article] Gong founder Daevid Allen has six months to live
Very sad news to report, though it’s surely made its way throughout the progressive and pyschedelic rock communities. Daevid Allen, the beloved founder of Gong and member of Soft Machine, is suffering from neck cancer. He has decided to forego any more treatment, and has six months to live.
A strange factoid to pass on: when I worked at a local record shop in Los Angeles, the actor Sherman Hemsley (George Jefferson of ‘The Jeffersons‘ TV series) was a client of mine. He had the strangest and most interesting taste in music, and was particularly fond of progressive rock. I was told some years later that it was he who had spent a good sum of money to bring Daevid and company out to the United States for a tour.
What strange bedfellows those two made.
[Article] Harper Lee to Publish Sophomore Novel
The risk Harper Lee took to publish a second novel is breathtaking. She essentially hit a home-run her first time at bat with To Kill A Mockingbird. She wrote nothing since, though she did help her childhood friend, Truman Capote, by doing research for his classic work, In Cold Blood.
The risk has paid off, however. Go Set A Watchman won’t be released until mid-2015, and it is already #1 over at Amazon.com.
Read Publisher’s Weekly for the announcement of Lee’s book release here.
[Article] Aphex Twin: his Soundcloud dump shows how musicians can shock and delight
Love him or hate him, Richard James (Aphex Twin) has been the figurehead of IDM for over two decades now. There is no one more influential (or frustrating at times). This article, written by Stuart Aitken for The Guardian, discusses his current projects and the amazing dump of unreleased material on Soundcloud that is certainly good enough to be collated into a few albums.
[Article] A Striking Exception
The Wall Street Journal do justice to the legacy of Manfred Eicher and perhaps the most amazing and success label you may never have heard of, ECM. From Stuart Isacoff’s article, a quote which sums up my personal opinion of him quite nicely:
“But the most striking exception at the Grammys belongs to ECM (Editions of Contemporary Music), nominated this time around for works by the little-known Polish-Russian composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg performed under the direction of Gidon Kremer. If anyone deserves an award for lifetime achievement, it is ECM’s founder, Manfred Eicher, a producer of over 1,600 albums—many of which have changed the course of recorded art
Here’s to Manfred and the crew at ECM, hoping they make another 1,600 wonderful albums.
[Video] Tuure Ara ja Dallapé-Orkesteri – Yksi Ruusu On Kasvanut Laaksossa
From progressive rock to atmospheric prog-metal to minimal techno, Finns place a creative spin on everything. Thanks to the Dallape30 channel on Youtube, I get to sample everything from big-band to tango from Finland during the 30s and 40s. Here is Tuure Ara (in Finnish, sorry) and the Dallapé-Orkesteri from a track done in 1942.
[Video] Portishead in Portishead
Portishead, the undisputed kings and queen of Trip-Hop, perform in the hamlet which bears their band name.
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 