Se tudo pode acontecer (A lightning in the dark)

If there is an idea that some of us tend to believe is that everyone is born with one gift, and a bunch of defects. It's up to us to search and find that gift, as well as correct the defects, in order to shine in our own particular way in this world.
For some of us, mere mortals, this is a life lasting task, which normally ends up in spotted shiny moments and a significant number of darker ones.
For Arnaldo Antunes, for evident reasons, this was an easier task. His voice is his natural talent. His evident talent, his gift.
But this gift is not a normal one. He is not Whitney Houston. Once you hear him once, you will recognize him forever. Undoubtedly, he has one of the deeper voices you will ever hear.
For some of us, that gift would be more than enough to feel satisfied in life, but not for Arnaldo. He is also a perfectionist. A perfectionist of the language, an instigator of unexpected images. He delights himself by finding the greatest combination of words, an unexpected parallel universe that, together with his voice, rocks your senses, from the basement to the top of your head.
If, as his song says, anything can happen, his leit motiv would be "let's make it happen".

His last work, Live in Studio (Ao vivo no estudio) is many of those things. It's a live album, recorded in a studio. It's also an opportunity to revisit his previous album with slightly different arrangements. But among this things, it's also the enjoyment of listening to a man that strongly believes in what he says and what he creates. A man that is used to transform any possible defect in a gift that it's almost as powerful as his natural gift. A man, transformed into a poet. A deep voice poet.

Enjoy him:

Se tudo pode acontecer


Contato imediato

"Some a some a some I murdeeeer, Some a some I let gooo..."

So, M.I.A. came back to the game.

If you don't know M.I.A., a very brief biography would say that she is a musician named Mathangi Arulpragasam. She has been born in London in 1977 from a family originally from Sri Lanka, and she spent part of her childhood back in Sri Lanka, where her father was a militant of the Tamil group. After a few years she went back to London, where she studied fine arts, film and video.

'Kala', her second album after the succesful 'Arular', is the evidence of her talent, and the confirmation that the originality and strength of the first record was not just a coincidence.

But 'Kala', for me, is Paper planes, a violent song written to express the worst nightmare of a society that feels immigration as a threat.
If you need to express violence in a song, just ask M.I.A., she will tell you how. Just give it a try:



This is what M.I.A. has to say about the inspiration for this song:

"I was going to get patties at my local and just thinking that really the worst thing that anyone can say [to someone these days] is some shit like: ”What I wanna do is come and get your money.” People don’t really feel like immigrants or refugees contribute to culture in any way. That they’re just leeches that suck from whatever. So in the song I say All I wanna do is [sound of gun shooting and reloading, cash register opening] and take your money. I did it in sound effects. It’s up to you how you want to interpret. America is so obsessed with money, I’m sure they’ll get it. "

French word of mouth: Camille Dalmais

If you are rather conservative while picking up new music to hear, please go no further. This is not for you.

Ok, so you are open to be surprised by new sounds and styles. That's great. So what if I tell you that the album that I am going to review is composed by a single note? Doesn't sound soooo interesting, I know. Well, that's right. The album is composed by a single note that will play since the beginning of the record, and won't stop until the end. That's what, in french, Camille calls Le fil, The thread.
But my question was a tricky one. The note is there, but fortunately it's not the only thing you will be listening to. You will also get a striking voice that is used not only to sing the lyrics of the song, but also to play most of the instruments. This has been done many times already by many groups and singers, like Björk in her previous album, Medulla. But in this case, I have to say that I find this album more enjoyable and easier to listen.

Le Fil was released in 2005, and Camille has been playing it in concerts all around Europe, North and South America and even Asia. So, old album already. The only reason why I am mentioning it is because I think is just one of the best albums released on the last years.

Here are some extracts of the album review done by Mike Schiller, from Popmatters.com:

"Camille makes nearly all of the sounds on her album with her voice, and manages to create something texturally interesting and incredibly accessible. It’s no small feat, to be sure, and you’ll find yourself listening over and over again just trying to figure out the inspiration, not to mention the methods, behind some of these arrangements."


So I suggest you should stop reading and give her a try. This is the opening song of the album:



If you like it, there is more to enjoy her. Actually, I don't think that listening to her gives you the full experience, so I suggest you should also see her. This video corresponds to the song Ta douleur, and I am sure it will give you a good idea of who are we talking about:



Finally, if you are really into her and you would like to go on enjoying her style, watch this absolutely amazing performance of Au Port:

Natural High: Sainkho Namtchylak

There is music, and there are many other things.
Among these many other things, there is Sainkho.

First experience with her is far beyond what could be called a musical one. Natural reaction while hearing her songs is a mixed baggage of astonishment, amusement and joy. Her music is in the border, sometimes difficult to hear, sometimes wonderful. All in the same song. You could be loving her for what you hear in one second, and wanting to cover your ears with your hands in the next one, just because it's too much.

Let's start from the beginning. Sainkho was born in Tuva, an autonomous Russian republic north of Mongolia and south of Siberia. That's far away, from an occidental perspective. You could say that literally and metaphorically. Tuva is not famous worldwide for many things, although they are known as one of the main regions where throat singing is more popular. That was the influence that marked her musical roots and set the base for her singing and composition style.

While studying in Moscow, and also after graduation, she was influenced by other music forms, like jazz and classical, that helped her to craft the blend of styles she has shown later on each one of her multiple albums.
She lives actually in Vienna, and periodically releases new records which normally have two things in common: her tuvan roots and an unclassifiable mix of styles both in her singing and in her compositions.

"Stepmother city", released in 2002, is probably her most accessible (easy to listen) album. "Dance of eagle", as its opening song (after a short instrumental introduction) is a good example of how listening to her can show you that not everything has been written yet when we talk about music styles.
Pay attention to the rather "strange" sounds you hear along the song. This is Sainkho doing her well known throat singing.

Enjoy!

In the mood for: Fish & Chips (??)

Well, not quite right. Fish & chips may be the best exponent of fine british cuisine, but not the best option when trying to stay healthy.

I couldn't reach Pula on the weekend. I was pissed off, and tired. So the mood was not the best after spending more than four hours driving to get as far as the starting point. I needed to do something to spoil myself and get me back into the right mood. That's normally solved with food. Good food. So, in order to forget about the heat and the bad experience, I decided to cook myself a good piece of fish, with a very tasty side salad.

First of all, there is a physical need to have a fish to cook, and some vegetables in order to prepare the salad. In Ljubljana this can be easily solved, as in most of the the cities in the world, by going to the supermarket, a grocery store nearby or, if you are lucky enough, to the local market place. I was lucky enough. Ljubljana has one of the nicest markets I have seen so far (I'll come back to this on a future post). So I was able to buy fine products to put on my dish.

Back to the kitchen, I started with the fish. A nice piece of Orada (Golden Fish) that grew and was captured in the ocean, end up in my oven, filled with fresh rosemary, coriander and lemongrass.

This is how it looked when coming out of the oven:

Yummy!!!
Salad was still pending, but fortunately I've managed to do it while the Orada was getting its "tanning". That was easy. Just mix arugula, lettuce, radiccio, tomato, coriander, basil, olives, bitter sweet cucumbers, some capers, fresh cheese (locally made in the market!!) and maybe some other ingredients that I don't remember now. It looked like this:


Again: Yummy!!

Now we are talking! Buy the time the food was done and ready to be eaten, the heat was gone, and the mood was starting to be the right one again. I was ready for dinner:


Good treatment... don't you think?

Damn hot chilli: Héctor Buitrago

Let's go back to some music.

Héctor Buitrago is a bassist and head musician of one of colombian most famous bands abroad, Aterciopelados. During 2006, he took some time off to record his own album, Conector (A game of words in spanish that means both connector and "Con Héctor", literally "with Héctor"). Taking some time off is a way of saying, because the other musicians involved in his "solo" project were mainly the ones from his own band, including a wide participation of Andrea Echeverri, the other head of the band.

The original idea was to record an instrumental album, "connecting" typical latin american music styles with electric sounds. Only after hearing the first results of the recording Héctor decided that instruments were not enough to emphasize the type of sounds he wanted to hear, so he began to add some lyrics and voices.

The result is an album that mixes a broad range of music styles, like pop music, latin american folk and even some mantras in a very original way. The result is a blend of styles that may not have been born to be together, but played by Héctor fit perfectly well.

Julieta Venegas, Andrea Echeverri and Alex Ubago are, among others, the musicians that help to create, with their voices, one of the most personal and sensible work up to date for this latin american pop star.

As a sample, you can hear "Fruto Real", one of the best songs in the album, and a perfect tribute to the act of eating "hot chilli peppers":

In the mood for some music: Aga Zaryan

Yes, it was about pictures. But then I changed my mind.

Working on a multicultural environment has some advantages. You get to know people from all over the world, and if the mood is good, you begin to share things with them.

Exchanging few tips on learning how to insult in other languages is among the first thing you normally do. As time passes and confidence settles down, other things may come up while exchanging stories about personal live experiences. Sometimes, somebody will cook its local delights for the rest of us. On other occasions the name of a rarely known local movie that we shouldn't miss comes up to illuminate our knowledge.

In this case, I was illuminated by a polish jazz singer named Aga Zaryan. I came to know her on one of this cultural exchanges with a polish friend. He passed to me a vast amount of information about polish and eastern European music, so much that I still couldn't hear all of them although a couple of months has long gone by.

So, back to Aga. As I said, she is a polish jazz singer, and she is fantastic. Her voice gets your attention easily, as she slides it through the eclectic instruments that completes its compact and talented group. A little bit about her biography, as it is stated in her own web site:

"Graduated with honors from the Fryderyk Chopin Public School of Music on Bednarska St. in Warsaw, where she also completed the post-graduate Jazz Studies program under the tutelage of legendary Polish jazz vocalist Ewa Bem.

In 1998 she was awarded First Prize at the International Jazz Vocalists' Competition in Zamość. As a two-time recipient of international study grants, Aga travelled to the United States to participate in the Stanford Jazz Workshop and Jazz Camp West programs, which gave her the opportunity to hone her talents under the direction of world-renowned vocalists like Rebecca Paris and Madeline Eastman, among others. In 1997 she performed at the Warsaw Fall Festival of Modern Music with an orchestra conducted by Jacek Kasprzyk, and appeared with a string quartet at the “Passage” Panorama of 20th Century Music festival the following year. In 2000, she returned to the United States, performing a jazz repertoire with pianist Michał Tokaj.

March 2002 saw the release of Aga's debut recording “My Lullaby”, on which was accompanied by Tomasz Szukalski, Darek Oleszkiewicz, Michał Tokaj and Łukasz Żyta. The CD received excellent reviews in Poland, as well as in Japan, where it is officially distributed. “My Lullaby” was also nominated for the Polish Phonographic Academy's “Fryderyk” award.

Since that time, Aga has appeared at a large number of clubs and festivals in Poland, the UK, the USA, Isreal and the Czech Republic. In Jazz Forum Magazine's annual Jazz Top Readers' Poll she was recognized as one of Poland's leading jazz vocalists in 2004 and 2005. In 2004 she became a licentiate of the Department of Musical Therapy at the Academy of Music in Łódź, where her work focused on the incorporation of certain elements of jazz music into the process of musical therapy and teaching music to children and youths. In 2006, she received an award at the “Jazz Struggle” International Jazz Vocalists' Competition. "

Here you have a sample of her last disc, "Picking up the pieces". The song is called "Woman's work", and it was composed by her bassist, Darek Oles. Enjoy it!