Neko Case is kind to animals!

My favourite alt. country chick Neko Case has a new album, a tour that also includes Europe (but sadly not Norway), and she’s kind to animals as well. What a woman!

Evelyn Glennie

I saw a film about the scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie called Touch The Sound. Since Evelyn is nearly deaf, she can’t hear sound the same way others can, instead she feels the frequencies through her body. Her favorite percussion instrument is the snare drum, but she plays lots of other instruments as well. In the film you can see her improvising with japanese percussionists and the british guitarist Fred Frith. According to Wikipedia she owns over 1800 percussion instruments.

This YouTube video is called How to listen to music with your hole body

To see Touch The Sound in pieces, try this link.

Evelyns internetpage: http://www.evelyn.co.uk/
Read about her on Wikipedia

Alessandro Cortini and his synths

Alessandro Cortini has been the keyboard player for Nine Inch Nails since 2005. He also has his own band called Modwheelmood. I stumled across some interesting videos on Electronic Musician where the italian born musician talks about his synths, most notably the modular Buchla 200e, The Jomox SunSyn and his custom built EAR modular with modules from Plan B and Livewire. Recomended for all gear pornographers out there. Also, check out a Wired article about NINs new show with lasers, lemurs and leds. I think the tour is USA only so we sadly wont get to see it here in Europe..

• See the synthesizer videos here
• Read an interview from the same magazine
• An article about NINs new spectacular live show in Wired

Polly Scattergood

Finally I discovered some exciting new music. When browsing record company Mutes channel on YouTube I found this cool video. Then I had to check out some of her other music. And then I realized that this is probably the best new music I have heard in some time. Hear for yourself:

Polly Scattergood on MySpace
Her own website

This music is so cool that not even Pitchfork has discovered it yet. Loosers.

Einstürzende Neübauten

På mandag var jeg på en veldig bra konsert med det legendariske bandet Einsürzende Neübauten. Bandet har en lang fartstid og en stor fanskare. Deres siste utgivelse heter Jewels og er satt sammen av sanger som de opprinnelig spilte inn og gav som gaver til fansen hver måned. Veldig bra plate! Filmen Crossing The Bridge kan også anbefales selv om den ikke handler om bandet. Det er en dokumentar av Fatih Akin med bassisten Alexander Hacke i hovedrollen. Filmen tar for seg musikkulturen i Tyrkia (både moderne og tradisjonell musikk) som presenteres av en lettere forvirret Hacke som går rundt i Istanbuls gater. Morsomt! Hacke lagde forøvrig filmmusikk til Akins mer kjente film Gegen die Wand som jeg gjerne vil se.

Herbie Hancock & his Fairlight CMI

Check out this cool video of Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones playing the Fairlight CMI.
This beautiful synth / sampler / sequencer / music system was revolutionary in the late 70’s / early 80’s. Even now the Fairlight system looks and sounds very futuristic and cool.

Now Fairlight makes an audio controller, the Xynergy.
The Fairlight history.
Other cool Fairlight videos on YouTube:
Greg Sneddon demos the fairlight
Peter Gabriel also used this expensive synth to sample ethnical sounds

Buchla Music Easel

Her sees Charles Cohen som spiller på en Buchla Music Easel modulær synth som det visstnok ble produsert bare 14 stykker av. Som det står i teksten til filmen er det mye bedre lyd med hodetelefoner!

For HD-kvalitet: http://www.vimeo.com/902069