Everything mixed again...

Once again it will be a time for total mashup - mix post with different kind of songs and music.
The Eurovisions are coming, Emeli Sandé would be coming to Berlin (I know I should go and see her!) Moby lauched some super relaxed relaxation music (it's actually good for falling asleep), Austra has released a new album called "Future politics" (and they would be also coming to Berlin next week!)...

But first I will chop Eurovisions into pieces...noo...I will not. I will just pick my favorite Finnish song and one from Sweden. Mostly it will be again another year of sad ballads about world peace and over the top glitter blast!

Okay okay, so there's always quite hmmm... "interesting" acts competing in Eurovisions. This year I was super happy about the Finnish contestant Norma John with the song "Blackbird" and yes, it's a ballad with a darker tone. But still works, good song and great piano playing.

Norma John - "Blackbird"

The song starts at 0:37

http://areena.yle.fi/1-3949137

And the Finnish/Swedish Krista Siegfrieds tried to go to the finals in Melodifestival in Sweden. She totally should have gone to the finals but oh no...but she did well!

Krista Siegfrieds - "Snurra min jord"

Bring on the Swedish disco pop!

https://youtu.be/NCW6c5r9aq0

Don't worry that was the ESC part of the post and yes you did survive without glitzer bombs!

Now your task is to imagine a summer morning, early around 05:00 or 06:00 o'clock. The sun is rising and it's already warm and suddenly you hear this song and start to dance!

Rysy - "Crystal love"

Rysy is a duo from Poland and you can hear more of their music here: 

https://soundcloud.com/rysymusic

The next one is from Clap! Clap! they are from Italy. Definitely interesting, bit strange music but will have to listen more to know..but this song was pretty cool! The new album from them is called "A thousand skies"

Clap! Clap! - "Ar-Raqis" and "Black Acre - Nguwe feat. Bongeziwe Mabandla"

The next artist is from Sweden (the promised land of awesome music!)
This artist is called Dorisburg aka. John Alexander Berg and I got to listen the album "Irrbloss" and I really really liked the whole album. Really amazing music. Should buy the album too some time. If you want some pretty chill (well it's officially labeled under techno, but who cares!) but not boring music you should check this album, It's kinda hard to pick my favorite songs from this one because they are all really great!

See (hear) for yourself! I totally love these!

Dorisburg - "Irrbloss"

And okay a second one is a must!

Dorisburg - "Votiv"

And well...third one never hurt anyone...it's more from the techno side..

Dorisburg - "Gloson"

This music totally gets a "hjärtan" from me! You can find out more music from this awesome artist here: https://soundcloud.com/alexanderberg


Now if you know Kings of convenience this sounds pretty familiar...I just can't help hearing them in this song..the musician is Baba Stiltz with a song called "Baby"  hehheee...also from Sweden! Heja Sverige! The song is from the "Is everything" EP.

Baba Stiltz - "Baby"

You can find more music from him here: https://soundcloud.com/babastiltz

If you feel tired from your working day then you should totally hear this song while drinking tea or something soothing...it will be a moment of bliss! The artist is called Lung Dart from the album "As I lay drying" with the song "Healthy functional tissue".  Peace out!

Lung Dart - "Healthy functional tissue"

I can't really figure out the lyrics but there's a part with "you need a woman.."

Found out more here: https://soundcloud.com/lungdart

You can buy the album here: https://lungdart.bandcamp.com/album/as-i-lay-drying

Here's a short info about the duo from their Bandcamp page:

"Lung Dart are Tim Clay and James Rapson - together they make textural, layered music that’s deeply soulful and melancholic, utilising live instrumentation as well as field recordings captured on their phones ranging from sounds of the bowels of Wembley Stadium at 4am to the bellowing wind coming off the Leicestershire hills and broken machinery. The result is a collage of sound inspired by 
the likes of Arthur Russell, Bjork, Lonnie Holley and Scott Walker, with hints of Connan Mocakasin, Windy & Carl and James Blake all influenced and shaped by the world at large. "

The next artist is Akira Kosemura but he has unfortunately only preview songs on his Soundcloud page but still totally worth of checking! Beautiful and calm music!

https://soundcloud.com/akirakosemuraofficial

Wild beasts is also a totally new artist for me. He has also only preview songs on Soundcloud but you should check them and go to Spotify (where you can listen to them all)

https://soundcloud.com/wildbeasts

The next artist comes from South Africa and I have so far heard only one song from her but it is so awesome! The artist is Nonku Phiri and the song is "Regrettables"




Okay and I will end the post with some sleepy music...Moby with "Long ambients" which you can buy or get for free if you want! It's suuper relaxed "quiet" music.

Check for yourself! Good night and sleep well!

http://moby.com/la1/

Radio re-discovered!

The Earth during the night

I love languages and I love music. So I found an amazing site which combines them both!
Huge thanks go to my friend J.M. (you know who you are!) for posting the link in FB! I was seriously stuck with this awesome radio site for some hours afterwards.

I used to listen quite some radio already as a kid. And my dad had this super cool radio that you could listen to all different radio channels around the world. How awesome that you can "sail" trough the world, countries, languages and cultures just by turning the radio button! Nowadays I feel that the radio has lost so much and mostly all channels are playing the same songs on a never ending loop. I tend to open the radio, but then closing it after 30 minutes because I can't take it anymore.

This awesome alternative I'm talking about is: Radio.garden It gives you a pretty amazing chance to browse trough many radio channels (mostly internet radios) in "Google Earth" -style environment. So you can just turn the globe and browse endlessly from a country to another.

First of all this page is awesome if you want to learn new languages or keep up with languages which you have already learned but don't hear that often. And sometimes it's just super cool and quite relaxing to listen to music while not understanding the language at all. So you can totally zone out with this page!

So far I've been listening only to a tiny fraction of the stations. Stations in Russia, Greece, Turkey, random Arabic speaking countries, Italy, Finland....

And of course I wanted to try out if I could find any stations in China, but the last time I was maybe able to find five or six stations. North-Korea is totally empty! Last year (2016) in December I was still able to listen to radios in Aleppo, Syria but now there's nothing. But you can still tune in in Damascus.

Here's a small article about the guy, Jonathan Puckey, behind this project:

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/12/16/505829305/radio-garden-lets-you-tune-into-a-world-of-global-broadcasts

And the link to all this awesomeness is http://radio.garden

Have fun browsing and listening!

pssst...check radios in Tehran, it's pretty cool!

Happy New Year people! Something for everyone.

The 2016 went by! Some good things happened and some horrible ones too, especially in the music scene. But as an eternal optimist I'm sure 2017 will be a great year!

I skipped NYE's parties in Berlin, they are overpriced and too crowded. And anyhows you have all the other 364 days to go to nice techno parties which are bit more decently priced! Meanwhile I have found some cool new songs and this post will be again mix of everything (nice!). So bare with me and I hope you like these songs!

I seem to have taught my Spotify pretty well because in the past time I've found quite some cool songs via it. This one is also from my Spotify recommendations. The artist is BeGun and the song is called "Nari" it's a chill and nice afternoon song.
 

According to SoundCloud Begun comes from Spain. He has released an album called "Amma" on 2016, in a quick browse trough the album sounds pretty cool. Relaxed music with some African vibes. Totally recommend it if you like a mix of electronic and African music.



You can also check the video story of the album Amma on Begun's homepage:
http://begun-music.com/

The next artist comes from....Finland!! Even though crazily enough her music hasn't been played yet that much in Finland. I'm talking now about the most awesome Alma ! She's a young artist who has kinda hit trough already, but we are still waiting for a longer album from her. She released "Dye my hair" -album in 2016. If you have heard some songs from her it must be either "Karma" or the song from Felix Jaehn "Bonfire ft. Alma". I still personally don't get why she is not that popular in Finland, because she has really a phenomenal voice! But as so often bigger artists who sing in English are either talked over to change their "singing language" into Finnish or otherwise they can create careers abroad, which is totally ridiculous. This must change!

Here the kick ass songs from Alma! And those superrr beats! Pa pa pa paaa!

Alma - "Karma"

And the already 7 million views gathered song... "I'm the bonfire, you make me stronger...."

Felix Jaehn - "Bonfire ft. Alma"

Okay, still one more...a great video too!

Alma - "Dye my hair"

We will for sure hear more from this fantastically talented young artist!

The next artist come from Spain.. Marcos Cruz  I know only this song from him, but it's a nice one!

Marcos Cruz - "Esencia"

You can follow him here: https://soundcloud.com/marcos-cruz

What would become if you combine Turkish music, electro and some weird disco? You'll get this one:

Débruit & istanbul - "KACIYORUM with Gaye Su Akyol"

And what do you get if you combine electro rockabilly style music with Turkish music?
You get this one:

Gaye Su Akyol - "Eski Tüfek"

You can buy their digital album from Bandcamp: http://music.debruit.com/album/d-bruit-istanbul

These disco dream songs will lead us into some retro tunes:

Bright light bright light  - album "Choreography"

You can follow Bright light bright light here: https://soundcloud.com/brightlightx2


The next one is from a tv series "Stranger things", it's a sci-fi series which is pretty great! "Stranger things" got lot of praise from its soundtrack which is done by a group called Survive from USA, Texas, Austin. If you like synth music, you should definitely check the sound track. It's ridiculous how catchy the main theme is, I think I could watch this 10 minute version of it in one sit:

Survive - "Stranger things - Theme song"

And another favorite from the soundtrack:

Survive - Stranger Things - "Lay-Z-Boy"

Check also these ones from the soundtrack: "Fresh blood" and "Lamps" .

Here's an article from The Rolling stones about the group:  http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/stranger-things-survive-talk-their-creepy-nostalgic-score-w431789

Boxer rebellion comes from UK. I don't listen that often to alternative rock, but they are great!!

Boxer rebellion - "Let's disappear"

You can follow Boxer rebellion here: https://soundcloud.com/theboxerrebellion

This next band comes from The Netherlands!! And they are awesome! And they are called Crying boys cafe. Here's a live performance from them from the popular talk show De Wereld draait door (The world turn around) in The Netherlands.

Crying boys cafe - "I was a singer"

They have released an album "The keys not the people" in 2016 which is definitely worth of checking out! I especially liked the song "Be so".

Crying boys cafe - "Be so"

You can follow them here: https://soundcloud.com/cryingboyscafe

Here, have a beautiful song from the band Sea Bed from the UK!

Sea Bed - "Young"

You can follow Sea Bed here: https://soundcloud.com/seabedband

I will end the fairly long post with this cool song from Waterbed.

Waterbed - "Butterfly"

Oh yeah, and because it's 2017!!

via GIPHY

Some tragic music videos and some not so tragic ones

Tragedy. The fall and the rise. Loosing and finding and letting go. These are pretty common themes in the music videos all over the world. Sometimes it's over the top but sometimes it's very well done and if so the video will stay in your mind for the rest of the week like a good movie you have just seen.

Within the last two weeks I somehow ended up watching these two music videos couple of times and I would say that they are pretty tragic ones, but still great.

The first is from Mykki Blanco. I saw the name at the gig list of Gretchen (a club here) and thought that I had seen the name somewhere, anyhow I didn't end up going to the gig but then last week finally looked up better who is this artist. Mykki Blanco is an artist from USA, he released his debut album "Mykki" this year (2016). I haven't yet listened the album trough but it seems to be more electronic/hiphop. Some people got to know Mykki Blanco from this video about the USA president election 2016 where he recites a poem by Zoe Leonard "I want a dyke for president" which has a pretty strong message:

Mykki Blanco performs poem "I want a dyke for president" by Zoe Leonard

The actual music video which I watched was for the song "Highschool never ends" it tells a story of a black trans woman falling in love with a white neo nazi.

Mykki Blanco ft. Woodkid - "High school never ends"

The other video is a older one. Just somehow stumbled upon it again and watched it. She's one of my favorite artists: Lykke Li and the music video of "Never gonna love again" She's having this "for ever continuing struggle and pain" -theme pretty often in her music videos, sometimes I get also super annoyed by it, but this video just stays in your head. The song hits hard especially if you listen the song (the youtube video version) without watching the video with your headphones on. You will notice if you try.

Lykke Li - "Never gonna love again"

And then some not so tragic videos but visually really cool ones. Solange Knowles has released a new album "A seat at the table" in September 2016 and I really liked her old music videos and the new ones are also great!

Solange - "Don't touch my hair"

Check also "Cranes in the sky" from her

One other for ever my favorite artists of mine is Roisin Murphy. She has always really cool music videos for her songs. This video "Whatever" is from her new album "Take her up to Monto" which was released in July 2016. Brilliant as ever!

Roisin Murphy - "Whatever"

And as we are in the smart phone theme and the emojis, likes and apps it's good to continue with the really stunning music video of Moby and the void pacific choir for the song "Are you lost in the world like me?" from the new album "These systems are failing". (And finally GEMA isn't blocking anymore the youtube videos because they got into an agreement with Youtube (Finally!) Great for everybody living in Germany) The animation for this video is made by Steve Cutts and it's amazing!

Moby and the Void pacific choir - "Are you lost in the world like me?"

Syrian expat philharmonic orchestra

I had the chance to go and see the "Berliner philharmoniker open air 2016" event in the end of August. I don't go often to classical music concerts so thought this would be a nice chance to enjoy some classical music outdoors without this "stiffness" what you sometimes have in the classical music concerts. The "backyard" of Berlin Philharmonic was packed with people when the concert started.

The opening act was The Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra (SEPO, later using the shortening). The group consists of Syrians refugees who had to flee their own war torn country to EU countries and elsewhere. I was really impressed about the passion and the joy the Syrians had in their music, while knowing how horrendous things are happening in Syria at the same time. You could sense the sorrow and sadness from some of the songs, but still the whole set of SEPO was more vivid than the set of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra. The whole audience of some 5.000 people (guess) were applauding after every song and shouting "Bravo, bravo."

I haven't listened that much Middle-Eastern music and was very impressed about the happiness and livelihood of the music. There were lot of quick changes, the music stayed the whole time interesting and evolving, it didn't have the "typical" ending of the classical pieces which build up into a huge "bombastic" end but it surprised you just when you though you would know what comes next.

After SEPO had finished and the Berlin philharmonic orchestra started it felt like the whole playfulness was gone and the "serious classical music" -mode was on. I felt almost falling half asleep while the orchestra was playing Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvorák.

It was anyhow good to stay till the end of the concert because I got to hear the announcement that SEPO would be giving a concert in September at the Konzerthaus Berlin. After some weeks I booked my ticket and was very happy that I did!

Konzerthaus Berlin

Waiting for SEPO

Konzerthaus Berlin is a massive, massive building at Gendarmenmarkt at Berlin. It was my very first visit to this venue. The whole hall was packed with people. I think many of people had done the same as me, after seeing and hearing SEPO at the open air booking their tickets for this concert.

Here's shortly the program and the solists.

Conductor: Ghassan Alaboud

Solo clarinet: Kinan Azmeh

Solo violin: MAias Alyamani

Solo nay (sort of a flute): Mohamad Fityan

Solo violin: Jehad Jazbeh

Solo oud (sort of a lute): Maher Mahmoud

Solo percussion: George Oro

Solo soprano: Rasha Rizk

I wished I would/could have done notes from all of the songs. But here are the songs which were played:

1. Tomorrow

2. My beautiful homeland

3. (song name only in Arabic)

4. Oh birds

5. Oh! My homeland

6. Rose

7. One way ticket to Damascus

- Break -

8. Passion

9. Sea waves

10. Damascus - one more aspect
11. The silk road
12. November 22nd
13. Wedding
14. Longa Nahawand

SEPO

I truly loved the whole concert! It was so great to see so much commitment, strength and passion in the orchestra playing. I was very astonished by the vividness of the music. Some songs reminded me bit of the Greek music. The Middle-Eastern music has such a different rhythm than the western music. It was refreshing to hear something totally new. And knowing what these people had to go trough made the concert extra special. I think many from the audience felt quite moved after the concert. The whole hall was standing and clapping till the orchestra went off from the stage. It was also my first time hearing a soprano singing in Arabic. I would have loved to hear more songs with the oud played by Maher Mahmoud, really loved the sound of it. But I have to admit that all the soloistst were amazing!

Standing ovation

Unfortunately SEPO doesn't have yet any albums out, I would surely want to buy the album of this concert.

You can follow SEPO on facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/Syrian-Expat-Philharmonic-Orchestra-SEPO-108858616125496/?fref=ts
Here's the official homepage: http://sepo-philharmonic.com/

Here's a short video report of DW from the concert in Berlin.

One song from the concert at Malmö, Sweden the day after the concert in Berlin:

"Damascus, one more aspect" (with oud)

And here's their own YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtDjhSW1vaNthlKlFUygQeg

More info about Middle-Eastern music: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Eastern_music

Mix and mash part 2

The second part of the notes is purely from the Bleep newsletters I get. You can also order them via bleep.com. They have often quite interesting picks. I went trough some of the older emails I had and picked my own favorites from there and there were many. There's going to be some classical music, techno, drumm n' bass, oldskool and some African music!

Jherek Bischoff is an American musician, composer, well, a multitalent. I haven't heard before about this artist but I'm considering buying the new album "Cistern" from him. His soundscapes remind me bit of Nils Frahm. 

Here's a short discription of his new album from the Soundcloud page:

"Cistern is an album inspired by time Bischoff spent improvising in an empty, two-million-gallon, underground water tank, with a 45-second reverb decay. The unique acoustics of the space forced Bischoff to slow down and adapt his compositional approach - something which, unexpectedly, brought him back to his childhood, and the slow-pace of life he experienced growing up on a sailboat."

I haven't yet listened trough the album but for sure it will be interesting to listen! You can find the full album already from Spotify.





This next one is just hautingly beautiful and a touching song.



Here's the link to Bischoff's Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jherek-bischoff

And just now noticed that of course the record label where Bischoff is, is Leaf where's also artists like Colleen, Caribou, Efterklang and Vladislav Delay and here you can find the rest

http://www.theleaflabel.com/en/artists

I'm an optimist but sometimes I have to listen music from a Pessimist ha ha haaa...I know a lame joke but I had to. Pessimist aka. Kristian Jabs comes from the UK and makes drumm & bass music.
Even though I haven't been a big fan of drumm & bass (well Burial..) I really enjoy Pessimist's work and sounds.









Here you can find the Soundcloud page of Pessimist: https://soundcloud.com/pessimist


Then it's time for some totally awesome oldskool vibes. Letherette aka Andy Harber and Rich Roberts come also from the UK,

Letherette - "Maybe"

Letherette - Maybe from Synesthesiæ Films on Vimeo.

Check the new album under this link (can't embed it)
Especially the songs "Sweeter" and "D&T"

https://soundcloud.com/letherette/sets/letherette-album

Sweeter found from here:

https://bleep.com/release/71449-letherette-ep3

More you can find at Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/letherette

Volte-Face is a totally new UK artist for me, but oh he makes great techno! I really really love his sound! Just listen this stream trough and you'll love it! Even though the last song is named "Dead cat on the dinner table" it's an amazing song! Put your techno shoes on!




You can buy Volte-Face's "You bury me" from Hard wax: https://hardwax.com

One other artist I found from Hard wax (I should take time and go them all trough) is Emiel Zwart who comes from The Netherlands, Rotterdam. (A great place of techno in the The Netherlands). Should buy also his stuff!





And one more via Hard wax: Abayomi who's a Berlin resident.





Ok some more easy going music now.... The Avalanches sounds groovy! The next would happen most likely if you watch "The wizard of Oz" on drugs..

The Avalanches - "The Wozard of Iz"

The Avalanches - The Wozard of Iz [Music Video] from Danny Brown on Vimeo.

And when the whole village goes berserk....don't drink that neon-lemonade!

The Avalanches - "Frankie Sinatra"

The Avalanches | Frankie Sinatra from DIVISION on Vimeo.

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/theavalanches

Konx-Om-Pax comes from Scotland but resides in Berlin. They have a new album called "Caramel" out from the label Planet Mu. I really think I will end up buying it!

I couldn't find my favorite "Perc rave" anywhere else than the Bleep page:

https://bleep.com/release/74090-konx-om-pax-caramel

"Oren's Theme" and "Caramel" are great too...Just check all of the songs!

Here's their Soundcloud page: https://soundcloud.com/konx-om-pax

Special request aka. Paul Woolford is a great artist too

Listen "Damage" from here:

https://www.beatport.com/track/damage-original-mix/7221942

Check from the "Modern warfare" songs "Take Me" and "Simulation" .

https://bleep.com/release/64252-special-request-modern-warfare-eps-1-3

My Nu Leng are from Bristol. Great club music. This song is from a cool collaboration, which My Nu Leng participated too, between musicians and Malawi.

"Beating Heart is an exciting music project 65 years in the making and featuring 21 artists including: RUDIMENTAL, MACHINEDRUM, LUKE VIBERT, THROWING SHADE and many more. They have taken the recordings of man called Hugh Tracey who wanted to share African music with the world and remixed them for tracks to feature on a brand new album with a brand new sound. Release 3rd June 2016."

 Here's a short trailer about the project:

Beating Heart project

Beating Heart - Malawi from VOX Films on Vimeo.

My Nu Leng - "Eyes"

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/mynuleng

Definitely worth of buying this collection "Burning heart - Malawi". (Though I think I will have to get some other ones too, too much great new music out!)  Hope you enjoyed the music tips of this post! Until the next one!

Mix and mash part 1

You know the moment you start to have too many notes on tiny pieces of papers lying around on the floor, on the table and some are already lost. I usually write all the new nice songs which I hear down so I decided to go trough some of my notes and emails and found some nice new music. Lets start with something legendary...After laughter comes tears...

The song "After laughter" is originally done by Wendy Rene (1947-2014) written together with her brother in the 1964. Maaany artists have done covers from this song.

Wendy Rene - "After laughter"

Nicolas Jaar has made a quite cool remix of the original song:

Wendy Rene - "After laughter comes tears Nicolas Jaar edit"

Should actually write a post about Nicolas Jaar because he has done a lot good music!

Even though the Eurovision song contest was competed already a while ago, (see, my notes are bit old), there were some great artists that even didn't get to compete to Sweden. One I really liked was Mick Pedaja from Estonia with the song "Seis" (Stop). I really love the magical atmosphere of the song. I would definitely love to see this artist live or to buy an album of his!

Mick Pedaja - "Seis"

Here's the extended version of the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwCKtC5E4Bg


Mick Pedaja - "Peakskiviimaks / Ought at last"




Go and check his Soundcloud page too because he has some really beautiful ambient tracks there:

https://soundcloud.com/mick-pedaja

And then jump to something totally different...a mix made in heaven! Burial & Four tet mix can only mean something good!

Burial & Four tet - "Nova"

Lets stay bit in the same vibe with this one:

Christian Löffler - "Blind"

Should also write and check more songs from him! Here's the Soundcloud account:

https://soundcloud.com/christianloeffler

Next one I heard thanks to Spotify....

Turtle - "Who knows"

Here you can find the Bandcamp page of Turtle: http://turtle.bandcamp.com/album/who-knows-ep

I heard also the first time Beck, (well at least knowing it was Beck) now even though I've heard the name before, but I totally love the new single which is out just now!

Beck - "Wow"

We are not happy with GEMA.

here's just the link because GEMA wants to be annoying:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZlbahhoEIo

and a short teaser: 

WOW from Ulysse Prom on Vimeo.