Music

Wintermusik

by JustinLeave a Comment on Wintermusik

Can you believe it’s nearly winter. How time flies by. So, whilst we’re on the cusp of ever darker and colder evenings it seemed fitting to revisit one of my favourite winter albums, which is called (rather fittingly) Wintermusik. It’s by the contemporary composer Nils Frahm. The songs were originally a Christmas present for friends but it was then put out in a limited edition on CD. It’s a beautiful record –  uplifting, yet with a tinge of sorrow. And it’s perfect for a Sunday evening as the dark creeps in and the temperature drops. Here is one of the 3 tracks. It is well worth finding a copy if you can – there are 5 copies left on amazon at the time of writing this, which you can find by clicking: here

Frahm has also just released a new album called Felt, which The Hype Machine is streaming in its entirety. It ‘s much more minimalistic than Wintermusik but there are some lovely moments. I can’t seem to embed the stream here but you can find it by clicking:
The Hype Machine – Nils Frahm: Felt

Music

The Magical World of the Strands

by JustinLeave a Comment on The Magical World of the Strands

The Guardian is running a brilliant column in their music section. Each week one of their writers picks their favourite album and this week’s choice is particularly good.

Journalist, Andy Capper has chosen The Magical World of the Strands by Michael Head and the Strands. It’s a great record and I couldn’t do it any more justice than he does in his brilliant write-up, which you can read by clicking here

So, why am I blogging about it here? Well, because the CD of the album is long out of print and two of the key tracks (especially Something Like You, which Capper talks about so poignantly in the column) deserve to be heard (right now!) So here they are. Hope you enjoy them.

Music, Videos

Lana Del Rey – Video Games

by JustinLeave a Comment on Lana Del Rey – Video Games

Lana Del Rey – quite a buzz has been generated about her online already with an inevitable backlash (is she a manufactured starlet rather than the “gangster Nancy Sinatra” her PR people are touting, are her lips surgically enhanced, does the fact that she’s the daughter of a millionaire mean she’s somehow less relevant, less “authentic” etc etc etc). And all before she’s even released her debut single. There’s bound to be a backlash against the backlash because the song, Video Games is utterly brilliant. As you can hear (and see) here:

Video Games is released on 16th October on Stranger Records

Music

Ólafur Arnalds – Living Room Songs

by JustinLeave a Comment on Ólafur Arnalds – Living Room Songs



The brilliant Icelandic musician/composer Ólafur Arnalds is creating and releasing a new song each day for a week starting on Monday. As the name suggests, these songs will be filmed and recorded in his living room and then made available for free as downloadable MP3’s and streamed videos.

Now I grant you, the prospect of someone releasing songs from their living room doesn’t necessarily fill one with anticipation and wonder but this is no ordinary musician we’re talking about here. The last time he did something similar was in 2008 when he composed, recorded and released a song a day for a week as part of a project called Found Songs. The result of that project was a brilliant album and one of my all time favourite songs, which inspired an equally amazing video.  I blogged about the video back in December 2009 and you can click here to watch it if you like. It’s pretty beautiful.

To watch the videos and download the songs just go to the Living Room Songs project website. Despite the rather stilted intro video that’s up at the moment, from Monday there should be some magic…

Books, Quotes

It is Easy to Forget How Mysterious and Mighty Stories Are…

by JustinLeave a Comment on It is Easy to Forget How Mysterious and Mighty Stories Are…

I’m aware that just posting quotes can seem rather trite but I stumbled across one today that seemed pertinent (seeing as my past few posts have been about books) because it concerns the power of stories. Not just the ones we read but the ones we tell ourselves and each other; the fabric of the tales we tell about our lives and our personal histories and how what we weave shapes not just our pasts but our future too. I thought it was thought-provoking and so here it is. It’s from Ben Okri’s book, Birds of Heaven:

“It is easy to forget how mysterious and mighty stories are. They do their work in silence, invisibly. They work with all the internal materials of the mind and self. They become part of you while changing you. Beware the stories you read or tell; subtly, at night, beneath the waters of consciousness, they are altering your world…”