the video opens on an interior | the scene then cuts to

"The video opens on an interior. It is New York. We see David Swan, practicing diligently.

The scene then cuts to Emmy The Great, and both men, cheering loudly. Then, Emmy the great is seen wearing the hooded figure in the dark sky.

In the chorus, Emmy The Great lip-synchs to the camera, dancing romantically with a bra. Then, Emmy The Great destroys the pair angrily with both men.

The video ends in a desk. Emmy The Great is shown waving sadly to the fairytale prince."

Now that's a concept: Daniel Swan and Emmy The Great are teaming up. And then it gets better: you can generate your own music video plot as seen above and below: music video machine. Goodbye boredom.



I've got to find a place for the love I have within
pumping through my heart like an algorithm

blooming | reaching away from earth

There is something so daunting and suave about the music of Jeremy Zuckerman and the whole Echo Society. It's not even about teasing your ear canals. It's about soul piercing.

The Echo Society is a Los Angeles-based collective that gathers to create and share new sonic and visual art. Our third concert "Bloom," featured a 20 piece chamber ensemble performing original works for the first time, alongside special guest composers Amon Tobin and Ryat.

The LA-based ensemble, comprised of traditional instrumentation mixed with electronics, was created for the show and conducted by our very own Joe Trapanese. The sold-out night showcased visual design by Brady McGowan & Effixx, and sound & mastering by Satoshi Noguchi. Recorded live March 12th, 2015 at Vibiana in Los Angeles.

teasing your ear canals

Starting my summer break with Meilyr Jones. Couldn't tune for a better one.



Please read more on Meilyr Jones via moshi moshi records.

night and rain

Perfect Thursday night. City. Rain. Piano. Nils Frahm.

the music I’ve always wanted to see

The essence captured by Odili Donald Odita and Ilpo Jauhiainen.

“The idea for this composition arose from a desire to create a piece of music around Odita’s poem-like text about colour, the forward to his exhibition, and his voice of such particular cadence (...)
I had become better acquainted with his hard-edged, abstract colour paintings a few months back, thanks to a feature here on Another Africa, and had been instantly uplifted and inspired by them: besides offering new, exciting ways to feel and think about the world they seemed to suggest new forms of music to me; in a way, they were the music I’d always wanted to see." Please read more via Another Africa.



Color
should not be submissive
It cannot be subjugated
It will not obey
It should not play nice

Color is unruly
It is not for the faint of heart
It can be hard and strong
It can be bold
It can be clear and true
It can also lie
It can trick and deceive us all

Color does what it wants
It misbehaves

But most importantly,
Color can change our minds

Odili Donald Odita

perfect

A perfect Sunday. And here's someone perfect to follow: Manu Delago. Hang Guru.

fun fun fun

Now... Speaking of giraffes and other creatures, let's have a look at Laura Gee's illustrations. A pure feast for the eyes. One of her work is a "face" (quite literally) of a new label Handsome Dad Records that delivers a new tune from Fun Adults. Fun. Fun. Fun. Good. Fun.

 

Please support the artists and purchase their work: Laura Gee & Fun Adults.

(...) Kun kylää koettelee kuivuus, sen näkee eläinten luista ja tyhjäksipuhalletuista
kullanruskeista nahkoista kylän ympärillä... se johtuu siitä, että eläinten tehtävä
on kulkea maailmassa ja kerätä nestettä ihmisten ulottuville.
Jos maailma kerran järjestettäisiin uudelleen, eläimiltä kysyttäisiin, tahtovatko ne 
jatkaa tehtävässään. Pauliina Haasjoki, Eläimet, Aallonmurtaja

escapism

For the beginning of a new month: Simphiwe Dana. Divine. Rich. In my escapism.


The video was directed by Emma Willis.

Escapism
Poetry in one word
This one word is my refuge
Realist that I am
It gets too much
It all gets too much
Smile stretched to breaking point
Bones melting inside my resolve
The seeing is for a few
For the rest it is business as usual
Partaking in the feasting
Feasting on life
The takers are everywhere
When everything has been devoured
They will feast on themselves
Such is the nature of their wiring

It is all around me
This nature that I must escape
Setting doubt to my convictions
That we can be great again

The world has changed so much
We have changed the world
Sculptured it into our image
Even our gods are corruptible
Shaped in our image

They did say we would police each other into silence about the things that really matter

It doesn’t matter now
It is done
My one word poetry has been desecrated
Despondency is the only unoccupied space in my escape

Simphiwe Dina

the ability of sharing the light

The Queen of generosity and good vibes couldn't be a better way of closing this day.

When you are gifted with voice or ability of playing an instrument that can speak to people, you gotta be able to share. It's about generosity. It's not up to you to keep it.

The song always speak to people because where it comes from is the place of light that doesn't belong to you, that we can't sell, you can't predict, we don't know when it's gonna come (...)

ANGELIQUE KIDJO WITH MANCHESTER WORLD VOICES CHOIR from Band on the Wall on Vimeo.


Please see other videos by Band on the Wall here. See also more project by The Space. To learn more about We Face Forward please click here.

other visions of London

Back from London. Differently. Non-indifferently. Make sure to take this walk along The Thames. To see the whole project by The Space please click here.



(...) he stands gloriously still on the banks of The Thames knowing that he can't help but love this city that has effectively rejected him and his kind.

you know where to find me

My days off officially start. I would take a walk or two alongside the Thames Path I guess.

allow yourself to have emotions

In September Africa Express went on tour across the UK. That was a ride of pure joy!

classic and timeless

She is... an inspiration. (...) some 40 years from now somebody is going to discover Amy Winehouse song and the lyric and be inspired by it.

when I see paintings...

When I hear music I see images and when I see paintings I hear music. Anna Calvi.



Olin aina uskonut, että merihätä oli joku kaukaisten, parempien ihmisten huoli. Nyt se tuli minun kohdalleni enkä osannut tarttua siihen yhtä väkevästi kuin se näytti tarttuneen minuun. Vaikka märssykori olikin lempisanani, en ollut sellaiseen koskaan kiivennyt.  Hannu Väisänen, Toiset kengät

into blessed nothingness

Dizzy with light, we dipped into that enormous book of holidays, its pages blazing with sunshine and scented with the sweet melting pulp of golden pears. Bruno Schulz


Please meet the director of the video Maxime Loisel. Montag's Phares is out now.

Tak wędrowaliśmy z matką przez dwie słoneczne strony rynku, wodząc nasze załamane cienie po wszystkich domach, jak po klawiszach. Kwadraty bruku mijały powoli pod naszymi miękkimi i plaskimi krokami - jedne bladoróżowe, jak skóra ludzka, inne złote i sine, wszystkie płaskie, ciepłe, aksamitne na słońcu, jak jakieś twarze słoneczne, zadeptane stopami aż do niepoznaki, do błogiej nicości. Bruno Schulz, August

Thus my mother and I ambled along the two sunny sides of Market Square, guiding our broken shadows along the houses as over a keyboard. Under our soft steps the squares of the paving stones slowly filed past - some the pale pink of human skin, some golden, some blue-grey, all flat, warm and velvety in the sun, like sun-dials, trodden to the point of obliteration, into blessed nothingness. (for the translation of the whole chapter click here)

blue Monday

This melancholy London - I sometimes imagine that the souls of the lost are compelled to walk through its streets perpetually. One feels them passing like a whiff of air.
William Butler Yeats



That crazed girl improvising her music. 
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,
Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling She knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship,
Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare
A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing
Heroically lost, heroically found.

No matter what disaster occurred
She stood in desperate music wound,
Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph
Where the bales and the baskets lay
No common intelligible sound
But sang, 'O sea-starved, hungry sea.'  William Butler Yeats, A crazed girl

live on the moon

don't ask me when bu ask me why
don't ask me how but ask me where
there is a road there is a way
there is a place there is a place

man of rain

There was this abundance of sun that I was puzzled by today. I got stuck by the seashore. Recorded a few sounds. There were no violet colours. And then the rain came.



Read and hear more on Gaba Kulka / Konrad Kucz project at jazzboy.pl.
Video credits go to Filip Kovcin.

I'm so tired of violets
take them away from me  J. D. Passos

jazzpospolita

Sketching out a sneaky plan of visiting Warsaw later on this autumn. Sketching out a storyboard. Picking up a suitable note. Feeling small. Yet with strength.
Jazzpospolita, here I come.



Please meet the directors of the video Siostry BUI (for English info click here).

o que c'est beau schön prittie prittie

"Zoe Keating playing her cello in the middle of San Francisco International Airport. On her way to play, Zoe opens up about the places she's been fortunate enough to visit and play, because of her music. A cello festival in Beauvais, the opera house in Sydney, Zurich, the New Mexico desert for the gasoline-laden simulation of a nuclear bomb, the list goes on." Read more on the story here. 



under the counter it's dark and the lady the nice Dutch lady who loves Americans and has relations in Trenton shows you postcards that shine in the dark pretty hotels and palaces    O que c'est beau schön prittie prittie and the mooonlight ripple ripple under the bridge and the little reverbères are alight in the dark under the counter and little windows of hotels around the harbour    O que c'est beau la lune
     and the big moon (...)
   we hurry wallowing like in a boat  (...) J.D. Passos The 42nd Parallel