The Big Pink are an electro rock duo that formed in 2007 in London, England. London residents Robbie Furze (vocals, guitar) and Milo Cordell (keyboards, synths, vocals) formed the Big Pink in their home studio, where the two musicians began mixing the droning soundscapes of Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine with the lush electronics of M83.
Milo Cordell is son of 1960s pop producer Denny and runs the Merok label, which has released cutting-edge dance acts Klaxons and Crystal Castles. Robbie Furze is a former guitarist with electro-punk singer Alec Empire and is also a founding member of the band Panic DHH.
This London duo use gritty beats, droning guitars, abstract effects and dreamy vocals to create a soundscape that is arty yet tuneful.
They are best known for their 2009 single “Dominos”, which peaked at #27 on the UK Singles Chart and #36 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart in the United States.
After experimenting with distorted noise and melodic nuance in the studio, the duo enlisted help from several friends -- including electronic artist Jo Apps and members of Sunn O))) -- in order to perform the material in concert. A series of popular shows followed, prompting NME to hail the band as "London's coolest new stars," and the Big Pink responded by releasing a limited-edition single through the House Anxiety label. The duo soon signed to influential indie label 4AD and, following the release of several singles including, Too Young To Love/Crystal Visions (House Anxiety), Velvet and Stop The World (4AD). Their debut album “A Brief History of Love” was recorded at the Electric Ladyland Studios in New York and was released in the UK on the 14th of September 2009. A little over a year later, the duo issued a mix CD called Tapes for the K7! label.
Personally the track I find the most epic is Crystal Visions, although I do like the track Velvet. The gradual crescendo and layering that may appear as just pure mess and a blur of noise can be interpreted as deliberate intricate lines of distortion. Furthermore for me the thicker the polyphonic texture the better even if the melodic phrases appear simplistic, individually by themselves. It creates an atmospheric piece rather than a strict structured song lasting a typical duration of three and half minutes.
“Through his operas, his symphonies, his compositions for his own ensemble, and his wide-ranging collaborations with artists ranging from Twyla Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an extraordinary impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times.”
The operas, “Einstein on the Beach,” “Satyagraha,” “Akhnaten,” and “The Voyage,” play throughout the world’s leading houses. Glass has written music for experimental theatre such as “The Hours” and Martin Scorsese’s “Kundun”. “Koyaanisqatsi,” his initial filmic landscape with Godfrey Reggio and the Philip Glass Ensemble, has been said to be one of the most radical and influential mating of sound and vision since “Fantasia.” His associations and collaborations with leading rock, pop and world music artists began in the 1960s.
Glass is the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film and in popular music -- simultaneously.
Dissatisfied with much of what then passed for modern music, he moved to Europe, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger (who taught Aaron Copland , Virgil Thomson and Quincy Jones) and worked closely with the sitar virtuoso and composer Ravi Shankar. He then returned to New York in 1967 and formed the Philip Glass Ensemble – comprising of seven musicians playing keyboards and a variety of woodwind instruments, amplified and fed through a mixer.
The new musical style that Glass was evolving was eventually dubbed “minimalism.” Glass himself never liked the term and preferred to define his work as “music with repetitive structures.” “Much of his early work was based on the extended reiteration of brief, elegant melodic fragments that wove in and out of an aural tapestry.”
Glass has composed more than twenty operas, large and small; eight symphonies (with others already on the way); two piano concertos and concertos for violin, piano, timpani, and saxophone quartet and orchestra; soundtracks to films ranging from new scores to the stylizing old classics; string quartets; and a growing body of work for solo piano and organ. He has collaborated with Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Yo-Yo Ma, and Doris Lessing, among many others. He presents lectures, workshops, and solo keyboard performances around the world, and continues to appear regularly with the Philip Glass Ensemble.
Here is a video showing a preview of the first movement of the new Glass Partita for Solo Violin which will be premiere in the fall of 2011.
Evanescence are defined by Amy Lee’s beautiful melodies, compelling lyrics, poignant piano and stunning vocals, fused with Terry Balsamo’s urgent yet intricate guitar to form a seamless, ethereal mixture that perfectly channels the band’s hard rock and classical sensibilities.
Evanescence is Amy Lee (vocals, piano), Terry Balsamo (guitar), Tim McCord (bass), Troy McLawhorn (guitar) and Will Hunt (drums). Fallen, their major-label debut, was released in April 2003 to critical and commercial success and has sold more than fifteen million copies. Their second major label debut, The Open Door, debuted at Number One on the Billboard charts and reached platinum status in just over a month.
Written late in 2005, The Open Door was recorded and mixed in March 2006. Marking the return of producer Dave Fortman, the album’s musical elements include a classically-infused choir and strings on several tracks, giving further colour to songs of introspection, longing, doubt, self-respect and, ultimately, empowerment. The album opens with “Sweet Sacrifice,” a post-relationship catharsis that head-dives from an otherworldly intro into a hard-driving thrash of hard rock guitars and soaring rock vocals.
Originally hailing from Little Rock, Arkansas, the band’s evolving sound – a nearly mystical marriage between rock, goth and classical – was informed by a curious duality.
Amy Lee, who spent nine years studying classical piano, explains, “When I was in high school I listened to a lot of death metal bands. Both genres are intricate, complex types of music that are very dramatic, and I’m naturally drawn to that.” Her love for Mozart's Requiem in D minor influenced her so much that they sampled the epic chorus of the choir within their piece Lacrymosa.
The drama in Evanescence’s music – a kind of audio odyssey that can turn from piano-led introspection to hammering guitar – has resonated with listeners everywhere. The band’s aggressive core finds a counterpart in Amy Lee’s passionate vocals, lyrics that forge a connection with audiences searching for identity or struggling with feelings of desire, hope love and loss. The Open Door is a logical transformation of epic proportions for the band, which, in many ways has only just begun to make its mark on the music world.
The break out Vitamin String Quartet ingeniously transforms today’s most popular songs and styles with the beauty and intensity of classical string instrumentation. A collaboration for classical and pop audiences alike.
The Vitamin String Quartet puts a classical spin on many popular genres of pop, punk, and metal and is widely known for its tributes to cutting-edge rock acts. VSQ’s innovative approach and dedication to seeking out great material highlights just how distinctive the string quartet is.
"Vitamin String Quartet is about applying rock n' roll attitude to classical technique," says Tom Tally, a violinist and arranger who has performed on and produced over thirty-five Vitamin String Quartet albums, which is one reason VSQ can count renowned film composer Danny Elfman, members of Tool, Deftones, The Killers, and Underoath as fans.
Disney has even invited VSQ to contribute to a track to the second all-star tribute to Tim Burton"s The Nightmare Before Christmas, on which the films original score was reinterpreted by bands like Tiger Army, All-American Rejects, Plain White Ts, and DeVotchKa. Their music has been heard in film and on television, most notably on the finale of the programme, So You Think You Can Dance.
After years of releasing albums exploring the musical terrain of one great artist, VSQ is branching out with a new collection of covers and original songs that highlight their own unique contributions to their musical field.
Their classical string arrangements have made it possible for contemporary rock, alternative and indie covers to be a part of wedding ceremonies and evidently very popular among the event sector.
Songs: Clubbed to death and Furious Angels by Rob Dougan Chasing Cars and Run- Snow Patrol Supermassive Black Hole, Sunburn, Time is running out, Knights of Cydonia- Muse Clocks, Yellow, Viva La Vida- Coldplay Misery Business, Hallelujah- Paramore Numb- Linkin park Paparazzi, Alejando, Poker Face- Lady Gaga Smooth Criminal- Michael Jackson
“The music of composer/pianist Ludovico Einaudi has been described as minimalist, classical, ambient, contemporary, welcoming the sound of stillness in a hectic world.”
Einaudiís music began to assume its own unmistakeable character towards the end of the 1980s, as he absorbed elements derived from popular music. Around this time he first became involved in collaborative ventures in theatre, video and dance.
The album Le onde was a turning point in Ludovico Einaudís career as it was his first real work as a soloist.
In 2001 I Giorni was released consisting a dozen pieces for solo piano, composed as deliberate snapshots of the creativity of a musician who has achieved full freedom of expression. This was the genesis of an album involving a long process of reflection.
Einaudi: “When I compose, I need to improvise, but I also meditate for a long time on what I am writing. I progress on two apparently antithetical levels: I create a great diversity of styles then, at a later stage, I review it all with a rational ear.” The result was yet another performance of great emotional intensity, quite unconnected with the concept of a sound track. Five years after Le onde, I again decided to create a solo work for piano; after experimenting with various things, I wanted to get back to the solitary dimension. It is a kind of suite of pieces in the form of an instrumental song. Although each piece has a meaning of its own, they are linked by a general idea of musical accountability and by melodic, thematic and harmonic references.”
Einaudi aims to find a direct channel of communication with the public, be at the centre of the magic and emotion that can be created only during a live performance in gaining an immediate relationship with both music and audience.
Ludovico Einaudi also has composed music for the cinema. He began with two films made by Michele Sordillo: Da qualche parte in citt (1994) and Acquario (1996), and continued in 1998 with Treno di panna, the only film made by Andrea De Carlo. In the same year, he composed the sound track for Giorni dispari by Dominick Tambasco, while some extracts from Le onde were included in Aprile by Nanni Moretti.
Einaudi latest album, Una Mattina, was released in 2004 for Decca.
I would have to say my favourite pieces are: Nightbook, Divenire, and Nuvole Bianche.
This is Einaudi introducing his recent release Nightbook:
Any band that features both a classically-trained double bass player and Brazilian former death-metal guitarist, and whose frontman has adopted the surname of Dangerfield, might reasonably have eccentricity expected of them. And so it is with pop quartet Guillemots. Theirs is a fulsome and extravagant, love-filled sound borne aloft on summer's breeziness, swollen with casual grandeur and baroque instrumental flourishes.
The Cinematic Orchestra is a Britishjazz and electronicgroup, which formed in the late 1990s by Jason Swinscoe. The band is signed to Ninja Tune, and independent record label. Jason Swinscoe’s experience of playing bass and guitar in bands alongside DJing, introduced many influences and resulted in giving him a head full of ideas, ranging from the sound of jazz bass players, rhythm sections and film soundtracks. Other members include Tom Chant (saxophone), Phil France (double bass), Luke Flowers (drums), Nick Ramm (piano), Stuart McCallum (guitar); former members include Jamie Coleman (trumpet), T. Daniel Howard (drums), Alex James (piano), and Patrick “PC” Carpenter (turntables).
‘Motion’
“Taking on the role of bandleader, Swinscoe rallied a group of adventurous jazz players and delivered a debut album that took everyone by surprise and was voted album of the year by listeners to Gilles Peterson’s Radio One show. It is a record which underlines the cinematic in the Cinematic Orchestra.”
The Guardian heaping praise upon both Jay’s sense of space and his attention to detail: "It’s frighteningly rare that a musician in a contemporary field brings so much generous knowledge and that transforming power to their work, inviting you inside their world and introducing you to a new way of listening".
Live:
In the last three years the Cinematics’ have played far and wide at every conceivable type of venue and on all kinds of occasion. They have shocked out from the Jazz Café to the Jazz Bop via Ronnie Scott’s. They have also toured in Germany, Japan, Italy and Portugal. They have also clocked up the music festival mileage appearing at, amongst others, Homelands and Essential (UK), Sonar (Spain), Celerico De Basto (Portugal), North Sea Jazz and Drum Rhythm (Holland), Cannes (France), Fuji Rock (Japan) and Montreux (Switzerland) and have headlined The Big Chill twice. And are about to play at Royal Albert Hall on 14th November this year.
Sting has tried out practically every genre in the musical universe, so an orchestral rework of his songs seems a natural thing to do. Sting's 'Symphonicities' balances old pop-rock tunes with the Royal Philharmonic's classic sound. "Symphonicities" means to re-imagine some of the star's best known songs with The Police, as well as those from his solo career, in collaboration with a full symphony orchestra (namely The Royal Philharmonic).
Possibly inspired by the fact that people liked his lute-ish renditions of 'Fields Of Gold' and 'Message In A Bottle', this is an album's worth of Police and solo material recreated with orchestras and classical ensembles.
'We Work The Black Seam', as its looping riff is appears theatrical and you can almost see this playing out in a musical or in a movie.
Mainly, though, the re-thinks emphasize what was already there. "Englishman in New York" seems more light and playful through the whimsical strings and wily woodwinds, while the delightful orchestrations in "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" literalize the idea of finding endless pleasure in someone you're smitten with. Few of the melodies get a genuine shake-up, which explains why fans won't be shocked by anything they hear. For that, you have to look to the recent work of a Sting peer. Back in February, Peter Gabriel radically recast pop songs with classical arrangements on his CD "Scratch My Back." He used the orchestra so inventively, they turned the pieces into psychologically potent art songs. (It probably helped that Gabriel left rock instruments behind entirely). By contrast, "Symphonicities," presents rock and classical forms more as respectful collegues than as true friends. They collaborate peacefully.
Although Sting had reservations about how to tackle the problem of maintaining a rhythmic pulse within an orchestral environment. Of course classical music already has a strong rhythmic pulse, but it is a different pulse from the one understood by most rock musicians or the majority of pop fans. Rock and roll is generally reliant on a strong metronomic backbeat; generally a snare on beats two and four in 4/4 time. I imagine this is a legacy from the earlier strict tempo rhythms of the dance bands of the '30s and '40s.
Strict tempo in pop music equates very much to modernism, to the extent that in the current era of dance music, rhythm and tempo are almost exclusively created by machines. Tempo and pulse in a symphonic setting are much more elastic, where the tempo breathes organically alongside the complexity of emotions and drama encoded within the music.
The spirit of reinvention that surrounded the initial approach to these orchestral arrangements Sting said needed to be incorporated into the visual aspects of the show. In collaboration with artistic director Robert Molnar, he visuals, like the new orchestrations, enhanced the emotional and psychological aspects of the songs in concert.
Sting: “I have always had an affinity for classical music. When I was younger I studied a lot of the repertoire for the Spanish guitar and still make a daily practice of playing a number of selections from J.S. Bach, pieces from the cello suites, which fall nicely inside the range of the guitar, the violin partitas and, of course, the lute suites. Not that anyone would want to pay money to hear my efforts in this field. I do it purely for my own enjoyment; sitting at the feet of a master musician like Bach, reading and interpreting his notes on the page and watching and listening to the often astounding decisions he made as a composer, is as close as I get to religious devotion. I am not the first pop musician to borrow ideas wholesale from the Baroque master. "Whenever I Say Your Name," for example, owes a lot of its structural harmony to one of Bach's preludes.
For the song "Russians," which I wrote in 1985 about the cold war, I borrowed the beautiful melody of the love themed "Lieutenant Kije" by Sergei Prokofiev. To this day I feel honored to share regular royalties for that song with the estate of the celebrated Russian composer. The orchestral arranger of "Russians," Vince Mendoza, went even further by also borrowing the opening of Prokofiev's ballet suite "Romeo and Juliet" as a stirring prelude to the song.”
Jónsi initially thought when he was working on the album ‘Go’ he would be making a low-key, acoustic album until, as he says, “somewhere along the line, it just sort of exploded.” That explosion resulted in sheer aural fireworks. It is not a straight ahead pop record, nor rock, folk, ambient or electronic, it encompasses all of these to create an expansive musical palette that’s been brought to life by Jónsi alongside a number of free-spirited collaborators.
These include, Nico Muhly, the Philip Glass protégé who is renowned for his work with Björk, Antony & the Johnsons, Bonnie “prince” billy and Grizzly bear. Muhly has arranged all the songs on ‘Go’, bringing strings, brass and woodwind to dance playfully alongside his offbeat piano playing. In addition he incorporated into the mix the percussive genius of Samuli Kosminen, whose drumming powers many of the songs along, and you have a sonic landscape that bears little relation to anything else around today, yet explodes from the speakers with sheer happiness and wonder, wide-eyed and eager to be heard.
Within every colour of the palette in which this album paints for the listener there are wild cross- rhythms, syncopated flute harmonics, layering of delayed echo voices as if travelling across a vast landscape. The symphonic soundscapes are combined with a rhythmic sensation of train’s engine running.
An article by James Killingsworth describes Grow till tall "a beautiful, the moody, operatic drama" and Hengilas—"a track so intimately arranged that you can distinctly hear the steady-droning horn players gasping periodically for breath—tell an incomplete story."
Although in the classical era the texture of works were typically known to be homophonic, here, in this album the texture is additive, which relates to rock music. However the components of this texture are typically from the classical period i.e. the piece begins with monophony or homophony but gradually becomes polyphonic through the layering of timbres. Especially, as his voice unlike popular music today whereby the vocals seem to polish the song off by creating hook lines for audience members out there, his experimental vocal timbre (large range) just becomes another ingredient into the mix and is treated as a branch of the piece, an equal instrument.
Singer songwriter Jem, entered the music industry by storm via the exposure she gained from her tracks featuring as sync, soundtracks for TV shows including The O.C., Grey's Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, CSI Miami and Six Feet Under, whereby literally millions of listeners worldwide have heard her music.
Jem fused elements of rock, new wave-styled electronica and trip-hop in her first album Finally Woken. I would say she is a an alto vocalist who if was transported to a jazz bar would easily be in harmony with her slightly husky laid back vocal sound.
I would be speaking on behalf of her if I claimed she is clearly influenced by Imogen Heap, who I will shortly be posting a blog about. However as a listener, whether musically trained or not you can easily hear the similarities in their new wave electronica style intermixed with live orchestral string timbres.
She is an artist who really relishes on different timbres and captures the essence of contemporary classical music. Tracks such as 24 have featured in the trailerUltraviolet; the TV series Smallville and Without a Trace; and the film Center Stage: Turn It Up. The use of the track in film Centre Stage: Turn it up was a fundamental musical accompaniment to the final dance scene of the film, whereby the piece begins with a monophonic melodic line played by the violins in close harmony, which acts as a driving ostinato figure throughout the piece. Following, the hip hop beat kicks in, supporting the imagery of contemporary ballet into a jazz style of dance. The diatonic harmony of the strings is interrupted by the forceful distorted sound of the guitar who acts as a continuous interjected drone throughout the chorus’ playing the first and third beats of each 4/4bar. Today, within the film industry the recent, new up and coming genre of dance themed films tend to choose a similar style of music combining a traditional romantic piece (Tchaikovsky) for a ballet sequence with modern day urban club music. This is generally because the films would only be popular to a young audience if the contemporary times of dance were included, thus a fusion of dance styles and a fusion of music genres.
After experimenting with distorted noise and melodic nuance in the studio, the duo enlisted help from several friends -- including electronic artist Jo Apps and members of Sunn O))) -- in order to perform the material in concert. A series of popular shows followed, prompting NME to hail the band as "London's coolest new stars," and the Big Pink responded by releasing a limited-edition single through the House Anxiety label. The duo soon signed to influential indie label 4AD and, following the release of several singles including, Too Young To Love/Crystal Visions (House Anxiety), Velvet and Stop The World (4AD). Their debut album “A Brief History of Love” was recorded at the Electric Ladyland Studios in New York and was released in the UK on the 14th of September 2009. A little over a year later, the duo issued a mix CD called Tapes for the K7! label.
