Business man on phone beside his white BMW, pacing back and forth.
As I pass I hear him say "How many look-outs are in the gang?"
Robbery planned, or something more innocent.
Wednesday 26 March 2014
Thursday 5 December 2013
Thursday 28 November 2013
Ballake Sissoko
Sunday saw us at Sage Gateshead for a performance by kora player Ballake Sissoko and his group (2 guitarists, a singer and a balafon player).
I love the sound of the kora!
Ballake (and his more famous cousin, Toumani Diabate) are masters of the instrument - their sound is so beautiful & complex, yet not taxing. Just can't get enough of it.
First really heard it many years ago via an album by Dembo Konte, who was from The Gambia, rather than these two who are from Mali.
I love the sound of the kora!
Ballake (and his more famous cousin, Toumani Diabate) are masters of the instrument - their sound is so beautiful & complex, yet not taxing. Just can't get enough of it.
First really heard it many years ago via an album by Dembo Konte, who was from The Gambia, rather than these two who are from Mali.
Bing
In the coffee shop this morning an old guy is talking to one of the staff about the muzak playing, it's not to his liking. He's on about what really likes, saying,
"I'm going back to Bing Crosby"
"What's Bing Crosby?" came the reply.
And to think he was the most famous singer in the world at one time & sings the most famous Christmas song of all.
"I'm going back to Bing Crosby"
"What's Bing Crosby?" came the reply.
And to think he was the most famous singer in the world at one time & sings the most famous Christmas song of all.
Friday 22 November 2013
2008
So, the archives tell me that at the end of 2008 I came up with this list of my favourite music for the year:-
A good year I'd say. (And very international - musicians from UK, USA, Germany, Poland, Norway, Iceland, Mali, Austria, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Cuba, Ireland, Morocco & Madagascar.)
Our Sleepless Forest were a young band from Putney who only made this one album of post-rock.
Remember Remember are a minimalist outfit from Glasgow - Steve Reich with a drum kit.
Toumani Diabate's album here is him playing solo. He is one of the finest musicians I've ever seen live.
Foltz & Lynn is part of a vast 4 CD set of drifting Jon Hassell inspired ambience.
The terribly named This is Your Captain Speaking are an Australian guitar band, with a fine album. (The recent third from them is however a major disappointment)
Since "Fordlandia", Johannsson has been mainly doing soundtrack work, some of it very good. This album marked the first I'd heard about Fordlandia, but I've since read a very good book about Henry Ford's city building exercise in the Amazon.
"Extended Play" was the first album I heard by sound artist Janek Schaefer, I was to discover lots of other good stuff & in the few brief emails I've exchanged with him seems a good man too.
The rogue album is Le Chat Blanc Orchestra, an ambient outfit from Canada as I recall, but an album I don't think I've played since - must dig it out.
Nelson Foltz & Tom Lynn - “Still Life”
Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill - “Welcome here again”
Toumani Diabaté - “The Mandé Variations”
Jacaszek - “Treny”
Our Sleepless Forest - “Our Sleepless Forest”
Peter Broderick - “Float”
Ry Cooder - “I, Flathead”
Lawrence English - “Kiri No Oto”
Thomas Feiner & Anywhen - “The Opiates (revisited)”
Janek Schaefer - “Extended Play”
Rajery, Ballake Sissoko, Driss El Maloumi - “3MA”
Loudon Wainwright III - “Recovery”
Hauschka - “Ferndorf”
Max Richter - “24 Postcards in Full Colour”
Buena Vista Social Club - “Live at Carnegie Hall”
Johann Johannsson - “Fordlandia”
Arve Henriksen - “Cartography”
This is Your Captain Speaking - “Eternal Return”
Le Chat Blanc Orchestra - “Ste Claire Hotel”
Hans-Joachim Roedelius - “The Gugging Album”
Remember Remember - “Remember Remember”
A good year I'd say. (And very international - musicians from UK, USA, Germany, Poland, Norway, Iceland, Mali, Austria, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Cuba, Ireland, Morocco & Madagascar.)
Our Sleepless Forest were a young band from Putney who only made this one album of post-rock.
Remember Remember are a minimalist outfit from Glasgow - Steve Reich with a drum kit.
Toumani Diabate's album here is him playing solo. He is one of the finest musicians I've ever seen live.
Foltz & Lynn is part of a vast 4 CD set of drifting Jon Hassell inspired ambience.
The terribly named This is Your Captain Speaking are an Australian guitar band, with a fine album. (The recent third from them is however a major disappointment)
Since "Fordlandia", Johannsson has been mainly doing soundtrack work, some of it very good. This album marked the first I'd heard about Fordlandia, but I've since read a very good book about Henry Ford's city building exercise in the Amazon.
"Extended Play" was the first album I heard by sound artist Janek Schaefer, I was to discover lots of other good stuff & in the few brief emails I've exchanged with him seems a good man too.
The rogue album is Le Chat Blanc Orchestra, an ambient outfit from Canada as I recall, but an album I don't think I've played since - must dig it out.
Tuesday 12 November 2013
Moving Music
Not often that I listen to a BBC Radio drama, but I couldn't miss "Moving Music" by Sarah Wooley.
To quote from the website:
"Philip Glass & Steve Reich are best known as pioneers of minimalist music. What is less well known is that they ran a removal firm together to make ends meet while they were making their way as young composers in the 1960s".
So, a drama in which you hear Steve & Phil move furniture.
It was about the how and why they fell out at the end of the 1960's after working, musically and other wise, for a productive period in which they found their styles & formed their own groups to play in non standard venues.
There was a disclaimer at the beginning of the play saying that some of it is guesswork. Was it fiction that Philip dropped a piano on Steve's foot? Why did Philip drop Steve's name from his piece "Two Pages (for Steve Reich)"? Not sure that anyone knows for sure. As always with these things the characters make statements that predict forthcoming events in their lives to a degree that never happens in real life.
Interesting little piece, using brief extracts from there music in between scenes. Justin Salinger did a very good impression of Philip Glass.
To quote from the website:
"Philip Glass & Steve Reich are best known as pioneers of minimalist music. What is less well known is that they ran a removal firm together to make ends meet while they were making their way as young composers in the 1960s".
So, a drama in which you hear Steve & Phil move furniture.
It was about the how and why they fell out at the end of the 1960's after working, musically and other wise, for a productive period in which they found their styles & formed their own groups to play in non standard venues.
There was a disclaimer at the beginning of the play saying that some of it is guesswork. Was it fiction that Philip dropped a piano on Steve's foot? Why did Philip drop Steve's name from his piece "Two Pages (for Steve Reich)"? Not sure that anyone knows for sure. As always with these things the characters make statements that predict forthcoming events in their lives to a degree that never happens in real life.
Interesting little piece, using brief extracts from there music in between scenes. Justin Salinger did a very good impression of Philip Glass.
Wednesday 16 October 2013
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