jimmie.hu

well, i guess it’s a classic by now - and that’s not by chance. i just had to feature this brilliant video here… (i know, it’s been around some time. so, if you know it already, just watch it again :)
responsible for this stunning piece of art is of course woodkid, formally known as yoanne lemoine.

all-star lemoine, aged 28, is a well-known producer, photographer, illustrator, video artists - and musician. for his latest (and first!) release as woodkid he compiled a small and beautiful ep, featuring four original tracks, plus two remixes of iron, chipped in by mystery jets and “mysterious” gucci vump (you should check out their unusual and very interesting ep, by the way). the iron ep started off in good company: it was released on green united music (featuring the likes of hindi zahra, gonzales, dani sicilano, craig walker, dan the automator, and many more) and co-produced by julien delfaud and bejamin lebeau, who you might know from their band the shoes (lemoine also produced their latest video wastin’ time. again: definitely worth checking!). what get’s me most about the sound of woodkid - besides his very characteristic, warm and soulful voice, reminding me of the sounds of antony & the johnsons - is the carefully arranged sound, masterly blending electronic, symphonic, soulful, melancholic and acoustic elements. what might seem like a motley collection of quite differing songs at first, fits surprisingly well and makes up one diverse but coherent ep. great music, great engineering - and definitely an impressive debut. lemoine is currently finishing his first album to be released in 2011 still. great stuff ahead.

for his amazing video for iron he (of course) got in as the director, teamed up with mourad belkeddar and mathieu plainfosse, and featured uk model agyness deyn (yep, the owl-lady).

long story short: they killed it.

I carefully rearranged my senses
so they could have a conversation.
Taught them to switch places;
from each pore in my skin grew shimmering eye!s
And fingerprints filled the eye sockets.

- Blood Flight.

yep, its been a while - but let’s not get into that.
after piling and hoarding ideas, music, and all kinds of fascinating and wonderful stuff during the past months, i figured its time to finally get off the hiatus, get back to this blog and share my finds. it feels pretty good actually :)
and off we go.

you have just been listening to the captivating sounds of a very creative lady from norway. not quite nameless, singer, writer and poet jenny hval released her latest record on rune grammofon in february. she has been around before, though using an alias to release her former records as rockettothesky. although i like her former work, it is for this one to really intrigue me. viscera is a wonderful, warm and rather “carnal” compilation of diligently designed songs and sounds that are oscillating between atmospheric shimmer and rhythmic, lively emotions - elaborate and well-thought-out as well as explorative and improvised. supported by håvard volden (git) and kyrre laastad (d), hval eplores vocal and acoustic spheres (and actually more than once reminded me of sidsel endresen…) the motif that gleams every now and then deals with exploring and travelling - into and out of bodies, inside and outside of footings and musical structures. truly inspiring!

it does not come too surprising that she teamed up with an old stager for this kind of sound: helge stern produced and recorded the album and obviously (and luckily) left his footprint on there. you actually might know him as deathprod and (hopefully) know his stunning quartet supersilent (including the brilliant arve henriksen… but we will get to that later).

as for now, ill leave you with this fascinating video portrait. directed by ij biermann in spring 2011, it marks the beginning of a series of artist portraits, featuring their music, a personal place - and themselves. i cant help it but i find this incredibly unsettling and intense. an impressive piece of work - that certainly strikes the viewer.

woon, jamie. 27. london. musician.

and a good one!
after a tiny but beautiful little release in 2007 on live recordings featuring the likes of burial and stitch who contributed two rather groovy points of view to jamie’s bluesy and soulful acoustic tunes and a first signal of life with his really catchy 2009 collab solidify (together with subeena and om’mas keith) jamie woon now bounces back into public with a fresh and decent release on candent songs. it’s called night air and vinyl is shipping from tomorrow via bleep (oct 11th). for this one he again teamed up with the storied burial, who got into play as co-producer and (of course) chips in the groove. in addition to this really smooth, deep and a little melancholic piece they got another expert on the flip: ramadanman and his refix add the right amount of bass, beats and dubby sounds to mix things up for working the dancefloor. as i said, a wonderful musician so get to know him a little right here:

and try his new realease over here:)

oh and here’s a little bonus:
the subeena collab

and the ‘07 burial mix of this little traditional:

wow, that’s a lot of music. so try it, tell me if you like him and in any case - make sure you catch his debut in spring 2011.

i’ll keep you posted ;)

i suppose you know the dark. and if you can wrap it up into sounds and music, there is one guy who mastered this. the results are terrifying, gloomy and yet strangely beautiful sounds, amazingly louring and fascinating. the man who is in charge of all that goes by the name of erik k. skodvin. he is from oslo, norway and you might have come across him and his duo project deaf center. well, apart from that he is also running the absolutely stunning label miasmah. what started of as a netlabel in 2006 is now not only pressing vinyls and cds and working together with such beautiful artists as greg haines, elegi (soon more about them here), jasper tx and jacaszek - it is also a graphic design studio. (actually you should stop reading right now - check out their website and music - and come back here)

i am really impressed not only by the huge output of erik skodvin, but also (and even more) by the intense and speacial quality that seemingly all his works hold. just recently he produced a short little video in collaboration with suki chan, a british director. skodvin got in as the sound and music designer - the outcome is stunning:

as a matter of fact, mr. skodvin is rather prolific. thus, he is an active solo-musician himself. as svarte greiner he has released pretty unsettling and intense music, besides others on digitalis (2010) and his debut knive in 2006 on type (that you might have come across here before. you should check out the wonderful set he prepared for their typecast series. it’s the first one in 5 years and holds some notable rarities). his latest work flare, however, will be released on the berlin label sonic pieces (also absolutely worth a visit. wonderful artwork.) you can get it as soon as october 22nd, but you can have a first glimpse at what is going on right here, right now :)

well i suppose you know the dark. this is it.

i admit, i’m a little late. but i just came across this collaboration a few days ago - and it’s arresting! credit goes to two remarkable figures of music: first is the label loaf recordings from london. second is the rather special arctic circle collective. the team around ben eshmade is a group of musicians, artists and promoters who love good music and support young and unknown artists as well as old stagers - by doing concerts, festivals, sessions, a beautiful radio and - of course - records. at the latest after their highly recognized compilation that fuzzy feeling (an absolute recommendation) in 2007 these guys made sure you want to keep an eye on what’s going on when they are teaming up.

well, at least you better do: in january 2010 they launched a one-year collaboration to  publish wonderful music. the explorers club is a monthly digital release of selected music, featuring more than 30 artists - some of them well known, other more of a secret tip. you will find the likes of johann johannsson, peter broderick, nils frahm, ryan teague,  and many more represented by pretty interestig labels (type, static caravan, 4ad, etc.). a true treasure trove of woderful music and special moments that is released digitally, but, however, comes with a survival-kit of artwork, posters, bags, and little goodies.

by the way: the name explorers club is said to be derived from the concept of facing the unknown, that is sending their artists in the hinterland without maps and directions to bring back extraordinary and rare sounds from the wild. i am not to appraise if that’s true or not - as long as the result is that good i won’t ask ;)

check out the past six month’s of the explorers club releases right here right now. a few tips for listening are (most definately) sweet billy pilgrim, (my all-time favourite) peter broderick and the (pretty interesting) sons of noel & adrian.

jan, feb, mar.

penguins rule.

i like jazz music. i like electronic music. i dont like either-ors.

having said that, let’s talk about some guys who might see this equally. first off is a wonderful four-men jazz group around sebastian studnitzky that calls itself portico quartet. they have been praised for their cool and uncomplicated yet unique and fascinating deep sound scapes. and i totally agree: their latest release islas (real world recordings) gets me literally every time i listen to it!

second is someone i have been talking about earlier before. he is calls himself sbtrkt, he is from london, and he does something that some people call ‘future garage’. he is well respected (and played) by guys like sinden, mary anne hobbs, and gilles peterson and he did some really awesome remixes for the likes of modeselektor, basement jaxx, gorillaz and (of course) jose james. until today i’m not yet sure what it is, but something about his sound is just unique - and it really gets me.

now what happened was quite lucky: sbtrkt revisitd and remixed a tune by portico quartet. what came out is a stunning little three-track-ep that does not loose the hypnotic sound of portico’s original and yet kind of gets the groove in there. my today’s repeat-all-album.

so check out portico’s original (by the way a beautiful video, shot by york tillyer).

and click play for sbtrkt’s point of view:)