As the title suggests, I'm trying to make up for the fact that I've failed to do a post on any music for a whole fortnight! As usual, I have a lot of work to do, so I'm having a few time management issues.
I decided that it was time for some more Chinese music and Klezmer music.
I chose to feature Xiang Sihua as my Chinese artist. I just love the way in which they prolongs the sounds, that they make with the guzheng. As you might have gathered, I haven't been able to find anything out about this artist, apart from the fact that they play the guzheng but if any one viewing this blog/blog post knows any more, I would very much welcome their enlightenment!
I've chosen to feature the Kasbek ensemble as the Klezmer artists this time round because I like the way, in which they can evoke the emotions of their songs/compositions so well. All I know about this band is that they're an Eastern European band, who play Russian style Klezmer music. So again, anyone who knows anything more, is very much welcome to tell me more and I'll update this post if I can find out anything more.
Note this song (below) should be Heyser Bulgar:
If you want to buy any music from the Kasbek Ensemble, I recommend buying it from iTunes, since Amazon only sell it in CD format and that costs £41.99!
I'm sorry for neglecting you last week but I hope you enjoyed the company of my sister. Thanks ever so much Susie, you were a great help!
I thought it was time for some more celtic music, so today I chose Altan. I just love the way in which their music is so jolly and relaxing, it makes me feel so happy.
Altan was founded byMairéad Ní Mhaonaigh and her late husband, Frankie Kennedy, in 1987, with the aim of bringing the music of Donegal to the world stage. They were the first traditional Irish group to be given a recording contract in 1996, when they signed with Virgin Records. Their main audience stretches from Europe to North America, although they also have a fair amount of fans in Japan.
Hi WMW fans. Due to technical difficulties with the wonders of wireless, this blog is seeing it's first ever guest post by Lucy's sister, Susie (@Schrubbel in case you're wondering). Lucy sends her apologies and left me with strict instructions not to post any naughty music (as if I would....).
I’ve recently been dragging out my Bossa Nova compilations
and having fun with Gilberto, Getz & Co in the October heatwave that hit a
grateful UK after a damp, cold summer. That led me to the music of Sabrina
Malheiros, who is one of a number of artists on the BPM (basically Brazilian
pop) scene producing jazzy up-tempo music combined with smoother vocals.
There’s something very 70’s about Brisa Mar, a song relaxed enough to admit
that it’s only trying to have fun in the Sao Paolo sun.
For those who like things more jazzy than
pop, Terra De Ninguem hits all the right notes with jazzy flute riffs and light
vocals from the lady in question.
For those who like a touch less electronica and more
authentic acoustic Brazilian beats, there’s no beating Swing de Campo Grande by
Novos Baianos, widely credited as having given wings to the BPM genre.
With any luck, Lucy'll be back next week to sail further into the uncharted waters of wacky but wonderful world music.
Since starting university, I've rediscovered the hardships of self-motivation, and classical music can be good for helping me to motivate myself but sometimes I listen to it on too often a basis for it to be effective, so I've taken to listening NRK Folkemusikk (a norwegian folk music radio station listed on iTunes list of radio stations for world/international music) as another tool for self-motivation. Whilst I was listening to this radio station today, I heard a beautiful piece of music by Steinar Ofsdal, so I decided to investigate his music further by typing his name into YouTube and that's how I discovered Bukkene Bruse. The band came up in connection with his name because he's a member of this band, so I began listening to their music and I just loved the old-fashioned, traditional sound of their music, and therefore felt that they definitely deserved to be featured on this blog!
They've composed a number of traditional and folk-style Norwegian songs of different repertoires, that come from many different Norwegian traditions. Steinar Ofsdal plays the flute, and he's joined by Annbjørg Lien, who plays the Hardanger fiddle and the nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle), Arve Moen Bergset, who sings aswell as playing the fiddle and the pipe organist Bjørn Ole Rasch. They are a very well respected group, who have often performed in Scandanavia, although they have also performed in other countries. They were chosen as official Olympic Musicians for the Lillehammer Olympic Games, in which they performed in the closing ceremony. The group's name comes from the tale of the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff, which is known as "De tre bukkene Bruse" in Norwegian.
As you can see, I've not quite kept to my standard of doing a blog post for each week. I'm terribly sorry about this but it's been due to the fact that my university's wireless connection keeps going wrong and I've had a lot of reading to do along with all the domestic chores.
I came across TriBeCaStan when they started following me on Twitter and thought I should share their music with you, for what should have been last week's post because I really like the combination of West African kora and Appalachian mountain tunes, since it's unlike anything I've heard before. I admit that there are some tunes on their album, which I'm not so keen on but even in those cases I still like the way in which they highlight international socio-economic/socio-political problems.
As they have many influences, their music encompasses a great range of styles such as Yugoslavian village music, punk, gamelan, free jazz, funk and The Beatles. The artists, Jeff Greene and John Kruth, play more than 24 instruments throughout their albums and they have often allowed many different artists (artists with a recording contract, who aren't so well known) to accompany them in recording music, so they've almost certainly recorded a piece of music to suit everyone's taste.
I would go into more depth but my seminars start next week and I still have a lot of reading to do but if you want to read more about them, then I recommend using this link, http://www.last.fm/music/TriBeCaStan/+wiki , because they are a fascinating band to read about.
As I said on my Twitter account, I'm very sorry to have kept you waiting for so long but I started university this week and for a few days I had limited internet access but up until now I've also been very busy, so I couldn't write a blog post until today.
I chose Calogero because I thought it was time for another post on French pop. I like his music because although the lyrics to his songs can be cheesy, I find his songs are very relevant to me and therefore help me to deal with problems in my life.
As you might have gathered from his name, he is actually Italian in origin but as far as I can see he's always lived in France. He started to take an interest in music before his sixth birthday, and he was so enthusiastic about music that he quickly learnt to play flute, bass and piano. When he was 15, he became the lead singer and song writer of the band, Les Charts, which he founded with his brother, Gioacchino, and friend, Francis Maggiulli. Les Charts was initially a successful band, that managed to release 5 albums in 8 years but after 1997, they began to lack the skills they needed to keep the band going, so Calagero decided to become a solo artist. He started by collaborating with artists like Pascal Obispo and Zazie, and the collaboration with Pascal Obispo helped him to release his first solo album, Au Milieu des Autres. He tends to focus on love, politics and social problems in his songs.
This is his song, Pomme C, it's about people who rely to much on the internet to create/start up a relationship:
This song is called, Tien An Men. In this song he insinuates that we are closer to daily wars than we think we are.
This is one of his hit singles, En Apesanteur (In weightlessness):
So as you can see, I've contradicted the name of my blog by not posting for over a week. I'm very sorry about this but I was on holiday in Munich and although I had an hour's worth of internet access a day, that just wasn't enough time to make a blog post and their version of internet wasn't compatible with Blogger.
I thought it was time for some more flamenco music, so I thought I'd share Ioannis Anastassakis' music with you because I just love all the twists and turns of his flamenco music.
Ioannis Anastassakis comes from Crete. He studied at the Greek National Conservatory and the Nakas Conservatory. He did his first degree at the American College of Greece and then went on to study at the Musicians Institute (GIT). He became an instructor there, after he graduated at the top 1% of his class. Afterwards he completed a masters in Guitar Performance, he graduated Magna cum Laude. He has had many electric guitar teachers and he studied solo flamenco guitar with Juan Serrano for a few years. He's also studied with Manolo Sanlucar, Juan Martin, Paco Serrano, Jose Antonio Rodriguez and Manolo Franco.
I'm sorry to say that I'm now going to make this into a weekly blog because I'm about to go to university, and so I won't have time to do posts on a daily basis because they take an average of 2 hours a day. I know it's hard to believe because I don't write that much but it takes a long time to find a good artist for a post and that's what takes up the majority of the two hours. Nevertheless, if people are prepared to suggest artists on a more frequent basis, who I deem to be of a good standard, I'm perfectly happy to post more frequently.
