Stop Wondering: Here Are the Sounds for Your 2011 Playlist Update

8 Bands and Artists to Look Out For

Originally published on: Associated Content for Yahoo!

by Elizabeth Torres.

Shocking young Bieber fans and many celebrities and bloggers this February, 26 years old jazzist Esperanza Spalding stole the show when she won the “Best New Artist” Grammy Award, making her a favorite among independent artists and search engines. With a perfect combination of discipline, talent and beauty, this multi-lingual artist is a must-have in your list of artists to look out for this year. The opportunity for exposure after the Grammy’s night will undoubtedly multiply her success, which began at a very early age. Born in the Ghetto and now the new IT girl, her uprising story is motivating to young talents everywhere. I predict a new record, international performing opportunities, and of course, plenty of her in talk shows, radio and TV for the next couple of months. We all have Esperanza to thank for… after all, the music scene truly needed a new face!

And speaking of jazz, I must continue this list with the gifted musician Edmar Castañeda, an innovating harpist who has made a name for himself in the jazz world because of his skillful hands, and the dancing mixtures of sounds he creates by collaborating with pianists, sax players, and vocalists from all over the world. His wife, renown singer Andrea Tierra, often joins him in stage with the deep and delicious sounds of her voice, adding a touch of poetry to his performances. Castañeda has announced the release of his latest record for the fall of 2011, and I recommend you look up his information and add his music to your iTunes.
Dan McClenaghan, from All about Jazz, wrote about his preformance that “The set is a stellar outing, evidence that jazz, in skillful, youthful hands, is a vibrant, forward-moving art form”.

If you are looking for a good time, here’s who you need to google: La 33. Here in the US, people always confuse their name and say L.A thirty three. But don’t you be mistaken. La 33 (lah train-tah eeee tress ) was named after the street where they were formed. The 12-piece orchestra stold

the public’s emotions last year at the Lincoln Performing Arts Center during the summer schedule, and this year’s GlobalFest was no different. I was invited to cover the event and had a chance to interview Santiago and Sergio Mejia, the brains behind this combination of jazz, ska, classic salsa, cumbia… and even The Police covers!. Their list of upcoming projects is enviable, the reviews have been incredible, and their career only seems to head higher. We’ll be seeing them this year, for they will be touring once again the United States and Canada. Enjoy this Funky Boogaloo to understand the definition of sabrosura!

To continue the mixture of international sounds, next we head to the studios of Maku Soundsystem, where Juan, the bass player of the band, shares with me that they are currently preparing their tour through South America for 2011. According to their myspace site, their sound is a mixture of Garage/Happy Hardcore/ Melodramatic Popular song, and the variety of instruments used leaves no one behind when it comes to shaking your skeleton. Drawing on both traditional Afro-Colombian rhythms such as mapalé and bullerengue as well as a mosaic of American genres—punk, hip-hop, and jazz—this newcomer band brings promising sounds to our ears, and non-traditional talent to this list.

This past fall I met the members of Skampida, and had a chance to see them play at Mehanata, a must-know bar in the city. A mixture of Punk, Reggae and Rock, and 11 years of artistic career under the sleeve, Skampida toured Canada and the US, looking mostly for non-conventional venues, underground bars and indie events for a change of environment and to greet their most loyal fans. They also played at the Gypsy Fest 2010 and won the Ska-Reggae Music Awards “best video”. According to rumors in the independent music scene of New York, they will be returning this summer with a collaboration of local artists. Keep an eye on them.

Uproot Andy: A popular name in the New York Club Scene, Uproot Andy mixes Electro Folk Tropical music while DJing and producing, as well as doing remixes. He started “Qué Bajo?!”, a weekly dance party featuring electronic music from Latin America, at Santos Party House with Geko Jones in 2008. He’s often jumping from airport to airport, to private concerts and music festivals worldwide, but there’s nothing better than to hear him play in one of the hot spots of the city (L.A, NY and Miami seem to be the most frequent). Do a search on him to find the latest mixes.

A worldwide favorite for music connoisseurs and amateurs alike, English alternative rock bandRadiohead announced during the week of February 14 that they will soon be releasing “The king of Limbs”,

their latest production. In the style of their previous hit record “In Rainbows” launched in 2009, the sales of this new record have already been announced on a very artsy site, as well as on their official website, as the first Newspaper Album, which will include “Many large sheets of artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradeable plastic to hold it all together”, two clear vinyl records, the mp3 download, the CD. The relatively cheap selling price even includes shipping and handling, and a raffle of a signed 2 track vinyl.Their new and old fans have hit the internet to discuss rumors of a launching tour for this summer, and I have to confess, I’ve already signed up for the waiting list of music addicts, ready for their latest stuff.

Speaking of new sounds, I can’t finish this list without mentioning the multi-talented Carla Bozulich, and her band Evangelista, who had a gold European tour AND a US tour during 2010. A deliciously compelling sonic dance of rythms, poetry and delicate whispers, together with the complex instruments that have shaped her sound, Bozulich has extensively earned recognition in the music scene, making the cover of The Wire in 2008, and appearing in several festivals, including the FIMAV of Canada, the Ruhrtriennale in German and the Le Weekend in Scottland. I have her latest CD, “Prince of Truth” in my hands. It is a custom-packaged CD made with recycled paperboard, which features dreamy, colorful artwork, perfectly fitting for her voice and style. Look up her site or Evangelista’s myspace to keep track of her footsteps, and be sure to not miss her performance if she comes anywhere near you.

Trust me, each and everyone of the people listed above, will be worth your listening time. Enjoy.

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The Glitter Emergency

A new film by Paul Festa

Review by: Melaine Knight.

trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2KrPQ_egHo

***Winner – Best Experimental Film – Los Angeles Cinema Festival of Hollywood***

The latest offering from Paul Festa, director of the internationally acclaimed, award-winning music film Apparition of the Eternal Church + the first film commission of ODC Theater, comes The Glitter Emergency , a screwball-comedy homage to silent film, a mash-up of drag and classical ballet, and a reinvention of the music video genre for a classical masterpiece.

Set to the haunting Canzonetta and barn-burning Finale of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, The Glitter Emergency tells the story of Peggy the Peg-Leg Ballerina (played by Trannyshack and Viva Variety favorite Matthew Simmons, a.k.a. Peggy L’Eggs), whose dreams of ballet stardom are thwarted by her disability and by her servitude to two Depraved Evil Stepsisters (Rumi Missabu of the Cockettes + Eric Glaser). Supernatural intervention comes in the form of two mercurial Pixies (Martyn Garside + San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Jaime Garcia Castilla) and the Mephistophelean superhero violinist, Stringendo (Paul Festa), culminating in Peggy triumphantly manifesting her inner ballerina (SFB’s Sylvie Volosov).

It should first be known that Paul Festa is one uber talented artist!

He is the not only the director but also writer, producer, designer, editor + playing the role of Stringendo in The Glitter Emergency.

Paul Festa studied violin at the esteemed music school Juilliard + has toured as soloist all over the world. He won The San Francisco Symphony Young Musicians Award + performed many times with Albert Fuller’s Helicon Ensemble. He has performed as both violinist + actor with the Stephen Pelton Dance Theater, Kunst-Stoff + North Bay Shakespeare Co. He has had residencies at City Of Paris/Centredes Recollets, Yaddo, MacDowell + OCD Theater. He studied english at Yale, graduating in 1996 with prizes + honors. His essays appear in The Daily Beast, Nerve, Salon + several anthologies. He is the author of OH MY GOD: Messiaen in the ear of the Unbeliever, based on Apparition Of The Eternal Church whose string of accolades include *** Winner, Best Experiemental Film, (Rome International Film Festival, Georgia, 2008) *** Winner, Best North American Independent Feature Film (Indianapolis International Film Festival, 2006) + *** Winner, Gold Medal for Excellence (Park City Music Film Festival, 2006) to name but only a few…

Apparition Of The Eternal Church trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlYdfLm69dA&feature=related

I could go on + on, in fact right off the page, but I will say Paul Festa creates amazing work + of a nature that will mesmerize + stun ordinary minds. This is what happens when you take divine inspiration + marry it with sheer hard work + talent…What struck me most about Paul Festa’s films is the intense correlation between the emotions conveyed through music + the deep spiritual resonance residing, I asked the director about this connection…

“I remember once I complained to Albert Fuller – the late harpsichord virtuoso and early music guru who was star and muse of Apparition of the Eternal Church - that while I loved the visual arts and literature, I rarely had the kinds of overpowering emotional experiences in front of a painting or reading a book or even in a theater that I regularly had listening to music. I mean, I would occasionally tear up reading or spectating but in concert halls I have wept openly and gasped.

And Albert’s response, his explanation was that music enters the ear and goes directly to the heart. He didn’t say anything about how the other arts operated, his point wasn’t to denigrate them. But what he said about music made intuitive sense to me, because there’s something about how music bypasses language and other sophisticated brain activity and gets you lower down, it’s as much a physiological as an intellectual or aesthetic response. Every filmmaker understands and exploits this power, the soundtrack is one of the reasons film can be so much more emotionally manipulative than straight theater.

Audrey Hepburn once wrote to Henry Mancini about his score for Breakfast at Tiffany’s and compared film without music to an airplane without fuel… grounded! What I’ve tried to do in my films is to reverse the film-music relationship in a way, so that instead of using music to enhance film, film is used to illuminate music. Critics of Glitter and Apparition could quibble with me on that, because in both films the music functions also as soundtracks do. But my goal with these experiments is to let emotionally and spiritually charged music write the story. Film serves to help interpret or realize the music, rather than music being there to enhance the film.”

With music being the predominant feature of Paul’s work, he is bringing back the old art form of live accompaniment in the theatre when the film is screening… live organ was played at many screenings for Apparition + Paul himself will play the Tchaikovsky concerto live for Glitter screenings (yeah really!) I asked him if there were any places he would particularly like the film to screen…

“I happen to have two particular fantasy destinations in mind, since you ask!

One is the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, a 1400-seat 1920′s jewel box where I’ve seen many silent films accompanied by the theater’s mighty Wurlitzer. So my hope is that one day the film screens there with live organ and violin accompaniment. The other place is across San Francisco Bay, at the Paramount Theater in Oakland, another pre-war movie palace where the Oakland Symphony performs. To have the film screen with live orchestra and soloist in a theater dating from the silent era would be a dream come true for me on so many levels it makes my head spin.”

Paul plays the character of Stringendo in Glitter, he’s like this Ziggy Stardust meets Paganini guy, I want to know how much is he an alter ego or just fantasy?

I aspire to be like Stringendo.

He has magical powers, he leads people to aesthetic bliss and artistic triumph, he plays the shit ouf of the Tchaikovsky Concerto, he’s surrounded by hot ballet dancers and he has washboard abs. Meanwhile I play wrong notes and have gained ten pounds since the shoot, but I try to muddle through on the other points…

Paul clearly cites Albert Fuller, muse + mentor as a strong inspiring force in his life + work…

“Regardless of how good the films are in and of themselves, I hope at least that they lead people to transcendent musical experiences they wouldn’t have had otherwise had. And I hope they help spread the gospel of Albert Fuller, who in addition to leading his Juilliard students to aesthetic bliss and artistic triumph, (like Stringendo can) drilled into us the life lessons that are central to The Glitter Emergency.

“You are the artist of your own life”

was one (life lesson) we heard over and over again, which is exactly what Stringendo keeps trying to tell Peggy the Peg-Leg Ballerina. And the other mantra I want Glitter to spread far and wide is a powerful tool for the life-artist, whether the career is in art or social work or politics or competitive snowboarding…

“Fantasy precedes fact”

Stringendo’s scary and intimidating- Peggy spends half the movie fleeing from him. It’s scary to go after what you really want in life for the same reason it’s scary to love: you might not get what you go after. But if you don’t go after it, you certainly won’t get it. That’s why Matthew Simmons is so wonderful as Peggy, because he/she conveys both the depth of the longing and the terror of going after it and the exhilaration of finally wresting the dream into reality. Peggy is the heroine. Stringendo is just her life coach.”

I love the underlying esoteric nature of these films + that they are put into a framework people can digest. I asked Paul what audiences he’d like to reach?

“A very large one. Seriously I want everyone on earth to see these films! I think they have the potential to open people’s ears to music they would never otherwise hear, even if the end result is that they reject it. I feel that way particularly about Messiaen I’m a born-again evangelist for his music, which is notoriously difficult for a lot of people. I only really discovered him in my early 30s, when I started working on Apparition, and I look back on my musical life before that discovery as being fundamentally impoverished.

I’ve been listening to Tchaikovsky since I was a child, so I may take for granted both how wonderful his music is, and also how many people have never listened to it. People in the classical music world go around with this idea that everyone must know the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, that warhorse, but I get the feeling at some of these screenings that most of the audience is hearing it for the very first time. And everyone should know this music, because it is an over-the-top extravaganza of totally athletic eroticism and overmedicated joy. Which the world needs more of, in my opinion.”

The born + bred San Franciscan has just been in upstate New York on an artist colony working on 2 follow-ups to Glitter + revising a novel, working like a dog + loving it as all us artistic maniacs do, when we’re in there creating… that world at large is a parallel reality when we’re plugged into the universal frequency!

The Glitter Emergency just screened at New York Queer Experimental Film Festival in November with a raging success… stay tuned for future screenings around the U.S. keep checking Paul’s blog…I would just love to see it with Paul’s live violin concerto, it would be a truly memorable night…

http://blog.paulfesta.com

MUSIC REVIEW: ISOBEL CAMPBELL AND MARK LANEGAN

by: David Vanegas.

The girl who tamed the devil

After her departure from Belle & Sebastian, Isobel Campell has kept herself busy writing solo material.  I did not keep up with the Scottish pop band after their album “The Boy With The Arab Strap” (1998), so I only became aware of Campbell ’s solo efforts when I found, to my pleasant surprise, a review in some magazine about an album coming out in 2006 by Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan.  Being a long time fan of Lanegan’s work and feeling curious about this unlikely match, I picked up a copy of “Ballad Of The Broken Seas”.

However unlikely it seemed, the pairing of these two was an inspired idea. Lanegan’s voice is a dark and war-torn instrument, his exquisite delivery conjures visions of hard living and weariness.  His golden voice is that of an ancient soul, the embodiment of a streetwise persona that draws a link between Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits.  Heck, he looks like a young Tom Waits.  Campbell ’s material shares some musical elements with her former band, but it abandons any twee affectations and lays a stark foundation for Lanegan to let his smoky voice resound alongside Campbell ’s angelic chirp.  While she wrote most of the material and played many of the accompanying instruments, she offers plenty of room to accommodate Lanegan’s talents.  She gives him the lead in many of the songs, including the cover of Hank Williams’ “Rambling Man”.  In the first track, “Deus Ibi Est”, the percussion stomps right in followed by Lanegan’s chilly, hoarse rasp which speaks of an inexorable fate brought upon him by unseen hands, while Campbell’s playful melody draws circles around him in the chorus.  I’ve been hooked ever since.

The success of their collaboration has resulted in two more albums, “Sunday At Dirt Devil” (2008) and this year’s “Hawk”, which also includes collaborations from folk singer Willy Mason and a couple of Towns Van Zandt covers.  Red Door NY attended the second of two New York dates back in October at the Williamsburg Hall Of Music.  The show’s set list (pictured) was delightfully long.  Isobel and Mark demonstrated great chemistry on stage.  A nice moment occurred when, as one of the songs was ending, the two singers, perhaps having missed a cue, turn to each other to share a good laugh, being the one moment in the entire night in which Mark let down his guard and broke character.  Mark held his own with serious and unflinching concentration, while lovely Isobel effortlessly irradiated girlish charm. She picked up the cello for a few numbers and sang a duet with guest Willy Mason.

The duo saved the best songs from “ Broken Seas ” for the encore: Lanegan’s “Revolver”, followed by Campbell ’s sweet “(Do You Wanna) Come Walk With Me?” and their cover of “Rambling Man”.  One last treat for those of us who wish Lanegan came to NY more often was the closing song of the night, Lanegan’s “Wedding Dress”, a suave and sexy tune that may or may not indicate what this great duo would be doing after the show: “The end could be soon/we better rent a room/so you can love me.”

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Invitation:

Catalina Santamaria.

GRAN EXPOSICION

19 de Noviembre 2010

Comunicado de Prensa

Para difusión inmediata

NUEVA YORK. Ephemeral Gallery se complace en invitar a la comunidad a la exposición del la obra del pintor Colombiano José Osorio. Esta nueva exposición gira entorno de la mujer, una mujer. José ha escogido el óleo sobre lienzo y trazos abstractos de tendencia figurativa, utilizando variedades de azules y verdes para plasmar una colección provocativa, sensual y afanosamente angustiosa.

La exposición se llevara a cabo el día 19 de Noviembre del 2010 a las 7pm en las instalaciones de Ephemeral Gallery, ubicada en el 67 Grand Street Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY 11211.

Así mismo se contara con la proyección de la película experimental de 24 minutos “Luminescence”, dirigida por Catalina Santamaría. “Luminescence”, es una mirada profunda hacia la luz, como espejo, como metáfora, como sombra y auto-reflejo. La proyección se llevara a cabo en las instalaciones de CAVE, ubicado en el 58 Grand Street, Brooklyn NY 11211. Se realizaran dos proyecciones de la película a las 7pm y a las 8:30pm respectivamente.

Se agradece de antemano la difusión de la presente información y la asistencia de los medios de comunicación.
Lugar: Ephemeral Gallery 67 Grand Street Williamsburg Brooklyn, NY 11211

Fecha: 19 de Noviembre del 2010 a las 7pm

Contacto: María Arias 347 232 5115

José Osorio y Catalina Santamaría estarán presentes durante la apertura de la exposición y la proyección de la película.

CAVE, a space  for the development of contemporary performance and visual arts (www.CAVEarts.org)

CD REVIEW:

By M. Chevalier – Germany

Hunger, Blue CD (www.hungermuzik.de)

Hunger is a long-term project from two even longer-term buddies who are otherwise very active in jazz (in one case) and contemporary art (in the other). Since they first caught my notice in around 2000, they have really held their own in the very frenetic and “creative” Hamburg  anti-rock instrumental-act scene, without ever stepping on any toes.

Hunger usually uses the 3-5mn “song” format wrought out of Jörg Hochapfel playing several organs simultaneously, Christoph Rothmeier slugging it out on the drums (and occasional sample), with both handling vocals and occasional other chores (violin, trumpet). But for the absence of any guitar, one may think of the Minutemen or the Ruins. The pieces are carefully planned and involve deregulation of pitch and tempo. On the other hand, the mostly “cheerful” (while not utterly “committed”) keyboard and vocal injections lead one to think a struggle against some sort of Steely Dan/Doobie Brothers/Hall and Oates spell is the motive force of what is less a concert than some Euripidean plot-line. Yet, no, the spirits are not among us in 2010: the “performative” aspect of Hunger‘s musical process involves putting themselves into an uncomfortable situation and seeing what comes out of this.

Their attitude is humorous, but not ironic. An immediate result is a break with the pathos of Sonic Youth (Star Power) or Hamburg’s Pavement-ripoff, Tocotronic: indulgent bourgeois self-importance.  Is a working process such as Hunger‘s so aberrant? Already in the 1920′s, the Russian formalist Boris Eikhenbaum argued that “not a single phrase of a literary work can at any time be the direct expression of the personal sentiments of an author, it is always construction and play.” Speaking on behalf of his group, Ossip Brik wrote in the same decade “Opoyaz assumes that there are no poets or men-of-letters – there is merely poetry and literature.” A few years later, Mikhail Bahktin famously took this first generation of Russian Formalists to task for exclusively focusing on canonical literature (despite their commendable extension (and risky, considering the culturally conservative predilections of the USSR leadership!) of marxian theory into aesthetics). Bahktin, incidentally, also got into serious trouble subsequently.

Well, Hunger includes a lot of voices, even if these are a challenge to put forth without a certain detachment. But then, why not take in those musical voices from all those alienated work situations, paid music jobs, endless hours unprestigiously building things in a prestigious theater, and recycle them… but not in the “crazy” style of, say, Idiot Flesh (which has its own merits, of course).

And to get back to those deregulations of shifts and tempo, those quavering vocals: doesn’t that gesturally contextualize all that implacably overproduced mid-tempo cheerleader 1980s pop… the neoliberal deregulation of markets and onslaught on democratic control of institutions that it served to distract people from?

Track 4, Extasy starts off with an almost impromptu un-charisma (oh, the tape’s running?)  but then runs through all the procedures of hyperkinetic late-1970s catharsis chart-pop à la ELO. Jüs de Früs follows a similar choreography, with a nearly snappy beginning then getting mangled by downward/wobbly tone-shift and tempo, only to build up with ever more tension, tempo shifts, flourishes, disco tricks, and ideas.

Both tunes feature singing apparently absurd lyrics in English and French (!) (not one track on the CD in German), but in a very – please take my word for this – non-goofy way.

Double Down starts with Bing Crosby-esque singing then jettisoned into rhythmic keyboard/drum attacks in devastatingly precise metric patterns.

Nippon Gakki is a cheerful melodic line à la disco-era Sun Ra, with march-like jabs at some junk metal on the snare (harkening back to F.M. Einheit’s heyday?). It is one of my favorite tracks of recent memory.

Dr. Enzian‘s industrial-distorted but “catchy” line (complete with plausible chord progressions) chimes in with nancarrowesque anti-groove, that, for me, live, opens up a very congenial bonding-of-an audience-in-something-we-have-no-idea-what-the-fuck-is (like some biopolitical magic routine, or haunted house). For a while, they ended their shows with it, like the sensorial clash of dismayed protagonists and otherwordly chorus which the aforementioned Euripides would close his tragedies with.