Melodies collide with melancholy and psychedelia in our January 2018 playlist, featuring some of the finest in indie pop, folk, rock and electronica released in the Fall-Winter 2017/2018.
Loud Open Mind, Cry Out For The Cause - collage by GoodMorninCaptn
AFTER THE TOP #30 TO #19 RECORDS, LET’S KEEP ASCENDING THE STAIRS OF 2010 WITH THE SECOND PART OF OUR FAVORITE RECORDS, MOSTLY POP AND FOLK, WITH SPARSE JAZZY OR NOISY TOUCHES.
12 years after “Swans Are Dead”, Michael Gira’s noble bird turns into a Phoenix and resuscitates with a strikingly powerful album. Eden Prison by Swans
> Listen to My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky on Spotify.
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15) CLOGS – “The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton” (Brassland)
For the first time, the instrumental quartet has invited some distinguished friends over to sing along: Sufjan Stevens, Matt Berninger (fromThe National, with whom Clogs share one of their founders and masterminds, Bryce Dessner), and most notably Shara Worden (aka My Brightest Diamond) all take turns and grace the lush and brilliant compositions with their unique vocal presence. Not the least of its qualities, Clogs‘ fifth album is nicely packaged in a beautiful hommage to Douanier Rousseau by Hvass&Hannibal, also known for designing recordcovers and directing a video for Efterklang.
Listen to “On The Edge“, featuring Shara Worden, from “The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton“:
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> Listen to The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton on Deezer.
Wildbirds & Peacedrums‘ third album is the reunion of 2 EPs, Iris and Retina, where the Swedish duo mixes its warm, soulful voice and tribal rythms with the Icelandic avant-garde. Rivers indeed was recorded by Ben Frost and mixed by Valgeir Sigurðsson, with an Icelandic chamber choir arranged by Hildur Guðnadóttir.
Thomas is back with a beautiful EP, the poetry of which we love to get immersed and lost into. A nice preamble to his new full-length album to be released in 2011.
Listen to “Climbing The Fjelds Of Norway” from “Cardiac Maformations“:
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> Listen to Cardiac Malformations on Deezer or Spotify.
Björk’s protégée and Múm collaborator Ólöf Arnalds releases a lovely new album produced by Kjartan Sveinsson (Sigur Rós), at times heavily orchestrated with uplifting choirs, and at times stripped down to only Ólöf’s high-pitched voice and simple strings.
Shara Worden, whom we’ve heard alongside Sufjan Stevens, before she took her own solo path under the moniker of My Brightest Diamond, feels like a dragonfly and dreams of flying away. Mabe you could help her by attending her Point Ephémère gig in Paris tomorrow, to listen to her crystal-clear yet powerful voice, coupled with nice songwriting skills and a highly endearing personality.
We’re already quite excited about the announcement of A Thousand Shark’s Teeth, her 2nd album to be published on June 17 by Asthmatic Kitty, and for which Shara cites influences from Tricky, Tom Waits and Maurice Ravel, as well as Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s movies and Alice In Wonderland.
Tujiko Noriko – 普通の日 (Dead Earth)
No wonder we are starting to see Tujiko Noriko more and more frequently booked at some of the best Parisian venues, as the Japanese-born singer and composer chose to live in our land of magical baguettes, as one can guess from the TV samples heard in her “Dead Earth“.
For us awaken Earthlings, the fairy Noriko-san will showcase her nursery rhymes, between well-written melodies and sharp experiments, Wednesday April 23rd at the Point Ephémère, as part of the feminine festival Les Femmes s’en mêlent.