voyage

Holidays have officially started. What a great feeling even though Charlotte Gainsbourg's concert was cancelled yesterday. Luckily there was a good company around. And now: off to the airport! (but just picking up :))



voyage au bout de la nuit (...)
we could journey till the end of the world

sun will set...

eventually some time soon I suppose. Zoë depicts this state beautifully. Good. Night.

double rainbowness

I have seen two double rainbows two days in a row. Wonderfulness. And also had an inspiring conversation on the beauty of art. Both things brought me the post Zoë Keating shared on her Twitter. Please meet Adam Wolpert and his works. 



I don't relate to ugly, repulsive images that decribe our times. 
(...) there is still an enourmous amount of beauty.

a distant call

Montag talks beautifully about Trish Keenan from Broadcast. Read more about Montag's Phases here. 

  Montag - New Found Land Audio Documentary by Montag - Phases

best friend

Speaking of purple: there is this beautiful limited purple coloured vinyl of Tashaki Miyaki's The Everly Brothers's single on my shelf. It makes me truly joyful. Just as their new single "Best Friend" which is to be released by Luv Luv Luv Records on August 6.

when I dream purple

purple washes over me seeping through my open seams

(Saint) Sebastian

Monday, a new beginning, and time to dig out new bands and new tunes. Here comes Reptar. Do I hear some echos of Wu Lyf? Brilliant. Their debut album Body Faucet is now available through Vagrant Records. DIY is streaming the album this week: have a listen, fall in love and be proud of it! :)



Please meet the directors of the video Ben Fries and Jesse Cain from Deadhorse.

The clip combines performance footage of Reptar’s lead singer Graham Ulicny, shot from several angles simultaneously to create a surreal and cubistic effect, with living tableaus. The tableaus depict the story of Saint Sebastian, the Christian saint and martyr and earliest gay icon, who was tied to a tree and shot with arrows before ultimately being clubbed to death for his criticism of the Emperor.
(via Lucky Number Music)

a good night bent tune

And yet again: a brand new and fresh tune from Bentcousin. Good. Night.

the sounds of the River Thames

Being on a quest of a small research on new technologies I've been tracking consequently (as usual) recent adventures of Imogen Heap's latest projects: "data gloves" and The Listening Chair. And again, by a very fortunate stroke of luck, I was able to watch live stream from A Room For London where Imogen shared her experience and work with The Listening Chair. She has been working now on her new heapsong trying to depict musically the memories of the River Thames: "a very public area with very private thoughts". I would also have a few. This brought me to a recent discovery: a fantastic database of London sounds: The London Sounds Survey. How about a walk in Richmond? :)

endless layers of fantasy

With this werewolf it seems I keep on being in a twilight mood today :). Vladimirska has been on my radar for quite a while already (most likely ever since I paid a visit to Kraków, although I don't recall now). I am now very happy to see how accurately their retro-circus sounds blend with the visual. 



Please meet the director of the video Mateo Zaręba, see his approach to Droste Effect here and also a few of his other video works.

(...) so far gone in this strange world I've made

Holi colours | Swedish pop

Slick pop comes surprisingly always from Sweden. The feast of colours comes from India. Noonie Bao together with Mats Udd embrace both in a very easy kind of way. And again: cheerful tune, bitter lyrics. Such blends work always best.



Read more about the festival of Holi here.

when love ends (...) it's my start

there's a breeze in the tree

Waking up (it seems traditionally :)) with the twilight diva FOE. Welcome to Black Lodge.



Meet other artists from Anorak London.

truthfully & unconditionally

On this rainy Midsummer day chilly London serves truthfully mesmerizing sounds of Ayanna Witter-Johnson. Cherish the first time you are going to listen to this performance as it will stay within you and then it will start growing (as it has started within me). Unconditionally.



To get the EP of Ayanna click here.

good words from Neil Gaiman

I'm going to say the alphabet and I will let you put the words together.
Good. Night. No song today.

An evening with Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer is a result of a tour Amanda and Neil went on last autumn in North America (hmm... were there any problems with saints as the tour started on the Halloween night? ;)). Read more about the project here. Meet also the author of the cover Cynthia von Buhler. (via Amanda Palmer).

remembering forward

when those from Kendal meet the Droste Effect

This music video directed by OneInThree for 'Wild Beasts' second single of their debut album 'Limbo Panto' is a mesmerising & hypnotic tour de force. It pioneers an amazing mind bending visual technique called the 'Droste Effect' which is based on an uncompleted lithograph that Escher made in 1956. The maths behind the lithograph was so complicated that Escher was unable to finish the centre of the picture and so left it blank. OneInThree developed the technique from Josh Sommers code so that it could be applied to moving images. OneInThree did all the VFX themselves apart from a grade & online at The Mil. (via OneInThree)

See more on M. C. Escher here.

meanwhile in London | grounded in Helsinki

Amanda and Imogen are in London this week. Today Amanda gave a free gig (free gig!) in Village Underground in Shoreditch. On Thursday and Friday Imogen will be recording her new song in A Room For London in the Southbank Centre. Me? Exploring the city as usual and... sneaking in suburbia. Will I be grounded in Helsinki like Dickens in London? ;) Other highlights of the day: funny encounters and a spontaneous snack somewhere downtown plus preparing for my first DJing. These days could just be lasting forever!



The person who is most grounded in London is Dickens, and one of the reasons for that is he used to walk to school from Camden, which is quite near me, to his grammar school, which was something like five miles away, every single day, through the whole of the city, and then back again.  Zadie Smith

a good (night) tune from Hauschka

Read more about Hauschka here. See the interview of Michael Mayer here.

get the cuts you need

Storyboard. Directing. Cutting. Editing. Shooting. These are the key words for today. All in tiny measures but in a good company :) See another good work of Angela Kendall for Tegan and Sara.



get the cuts you need,
eyes focus like a microscope

brave the storm

During this watery and windy Sunday I have actually seen a lot of sun and managed to brave the storm with one of the most beautiful song I have ever heard. From Graham, obviously. Good. Night.



there's a world where we can disappear, into our own little stratosphere

it was worth it

My beloved Summer Camp. Just unwrapped their Young EP from the Rough Trade package. There is a piece of review of the album on the price sticker:

One of the most enduring qualities of music lies in its ability to be transportative - the very best songs can take you, almost instantly, to a specific moment in time, or perhaps a particular location, even evoke a specific emotion.

Well, of course. This brings me back to the fascinating conversation I had yesterday on the effect music can have on the human brain. All that made me read more about the matter and more ... and even more... with all the fuzzy and cosy sounds of Summer Camp's EP around me (see the BBC review here). And then I was taken into yet another dimension thanks to this acoustic version of Was it worth it? I can say it's worth it! :)

The video was shot in Camden Town, where this weekend Amanda Palmer is working on a video with Tim Pope, as she announced on her Twitter. Let's stay tuned.

jazzy, jazzy

It's going to be a jazzy day. Heading to Sture Jazz in the afternoon to check out their venue.



The video was shot by Gildas Boclé (see the fretless bass in the video :)).
Check more videos here.

even more graciousness

Speaking of Bobby and Manu: this is gracious. And they have to do it more often!


OFF SESSION - Bobby McFerrin & Manu Katché by Off

See more Off TV sessions here. Regardez la musique autrement... oui, oui en français :) Bonne nuit!

Eastwood, the bassist

Did you know that Clint Eastwood's son, Kyle, is a jazz musician? I just find out about it! What a good vibe to start this weekend! Kyle performs here with Manu Katché on One Shot Not, a music show co-hosted by Manu Katché between 2007 and 2011.



For Kyle Eastwood's albums click here.

feel it in my bones

This week has been filled with good days. All of them were my favourite and I feel it in my bones that there are more good ones coming :) I have heard from an old friend of mine and was brought to that song. Brilliant.



We have insurance on our hands, right? They are hilarious! Make sure to check out Tegan and Sara's Carpool Confessional, a TV show shot during recording of their new album.

what rushes into my heart and my skull
I can't control

with a passion that’s all-too rare

Please read more about  Cass McCombs' song on Democracy Now! To find out more about Bradley Manning click here.   (via Domino Records)

a good (night) song from Amanda Palmer (and Radiohead)

vocabularity of Bobby McFerrin

So speaking of Bobby: his talent is heavenly beautiful. And divine.

divine language

I don't know much about God. But I know that music is divine, so perhaps it just might be His langauge as Nelly says. In fact I had such a feeling during Bobby McFerrin's concert.

black dog

I am a cat person. Cats like me as opposed to dogs that usually avoid me or bite me. However recently there have been two positive incidents that change my attitude towards these lovely creatures. In both cases a dog of a friend came to sit on my lap the entire evening (a thing that it would never do as my friend said) and that had a really healing effect on me. I guess a dog from Jennifer Left song might not have such an effect (it's cute, though quite a big dog, and it would not fit on my lap ;)), but the song as a whole definitely has. Jennifer is from Brighton (where all the bent tunes come from) and is another new artist added to the watch list of 2012. Also, make sure to check out this cool blog about Brighton music.

Video credits go to Thom Undrell and Jennifer's producer Tim Bidwell.

a good (new and really great) song from Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra

Please meet David Mark, the author of the cover, and have a look at his work in progress for the Amanda-art (via Amanda Palmer).

you'd see a million colours

Dirty Projector's new song can be now seen in quite a reasonable number of colours. The video was directed by David Longstreth (of the band). 

If you had looked, you might have just seen them
Stretched in the background
You’d see the oceans swell
And the mountains shook

You’d see a million colors
If you really looked
Now quick the night draws near
Her curtain spreads quicker
The safety’s off

But the gun has no trigger.
If you had looked, you’d be no one’s coward
Distance, justice, power
You’d glimpse the password

You wouldn’t need the book

a new brilliant song from Yeasayer

I am brought back to life by the news of Yeasayer's new album. Fragrant World is out in August.
I say YAY! :)



The song was apparently inspired by life of Henrietta Lacks. Read more on how she became immortal (not only through that song).

June in June

you are pretty painful (...)
guns and bombs and fireworks
on my command
now!

are you wasting my time?
am i wasting your time?

changing your heart

Feist has a good effect on Patrick Daughters's directing. I like their duo. It lifts my spirit.



The video features dancers from the non-profit dance company Sens Production. Choreographed by Noémie Lafrance.



I feel it all, I feel it all
I feel it all, I feel it all
The wings are wide, the wings are wide (...)
I’ll be the one who'll break my heart 
I'll be the one to hold the gun

no place for hiatus

There is absolutely no place for any kind of hiatus these days. No breaks, no pausing. That's the only hiatus I can afford :) Beautiful and good. Night.

Sunday paradise

Sunday morning is filled with Slow Club's new album Paradise. It is sublime, perfect and beautiful.

... beautiful not only musically but also graphically.
The cover is done by Charles. 

After everybody else has gone
we'd go to that country bend
by the reservoir shaped like South America
(...) I am glad that I knew you while you were at your best

well it's easy now
your in the north oh my God I lost 

remember, remember

I do remember. The new album of The Walkmen is out and their video is cosy and warm.



Meet the director Alex Southam.

é sexta-feira

Well, it's Friday. All music genres are allowed. Video credits go to Pedro Mota Teixeira and Ilídio Moreira.



"Mas eu não tenho um tostão (...)
But I do not have a penny as Boss AC's reference to Portugal's financial crisis ;)

all will be quiet

Quieting down after the whole week and almost two weeks without a day off. Now surrounded still by a few great work colleagues in the office, but soon all will be quiet here. Off we go. Weekend, I embrace you!



Check more from All Will Be Quite released by Lionheart Records.