Editorial
On the cusp
Posted December 31, 2007Looking back on 2007 might be a good way to start the new year. It has been a pretty exciting one, and a pretty exhausting one, too. With the music industry structures changing, there are a lot of gaps to be filled for the artists – while the freedom of the new media make them enthuse, the lack of professionalism in the business does not help them to find their path, not necessarily creatively, but in terms of their careers. While it is wonderful to be able to record almost anywhere and put your music on the internet for general consumption, it might well be frustrating for a creati... more
Latest news
September 2008
Posted August 29, 2008VICTOIRES DU JAZZ - YARON HERMAN IS BEST NEWCOMER
Yaron Herman, the young and excellent jazz pianist, has won the highest public distinction granted in the jazz idiom in France: Les Victoires du Jazz, in the section”revelation”. His next trio album is due in March, 2009.
RELEASE PARTY – JUN MIYAKE “STOLEN FROM STRANGERS” IN PARIS ON SEPTEMBER 18
Japanese artist Jun Miyake celebrates the French release of his album “Stolen from Strangers” with a very exclusive release party in a classy Paris hotel on September 18. The album features Brasilian based Arto Lindsay and Vinicius Cantuaria, French stars Sanseverino and Arthur H., as well as several other first class musical guests.
LA CARAVANE PASSE WITH DJ REMIXES
Gypsy rock band La Caravane Passe re-releases their album (previously a double DVD/CD) in audio only version with a dj remix bonus (dj Click, Gaetano Fabri and Boom Tschak) for three titles. The release is entitled “Sacha Mona -Velkom Plèchti!” The album is now out throughout Europe.
LA CARAVANE PASSE AT POPKOMM, BERLIN 09/10/2008
French band “La Caravane Passe” will be one of the stars of the French night at the Popkomm music conference/convention in Berlin, where they will present their potent mix of gypsy//Balkanic/klezmer rock on October 9. The band’s album Velkom Plechti! is out across Europe via Continental Music Services. Distributor in Germany is In-Akustik.
MIRABASSI PARIS CONCERT 23/10/2008
Giovanni Mirabassi and his trio partners, Gianluca Renzi, bass and Leon Parker, drums, will be the center of a special concert on October 23, 2008 at the New Morning in Paris. They will celebrate 10 years of an exceptional jazz career for Mirabassi, as well as the termination of the recording of their second album together, due for release beginning of 2009 on Discograph.
KUNG FU FOLLIES
After having featured in the French Lotus paper advertising campaign and in the soundtrack of the French “Disco” movie, it is now the turn of “Kung Fu Panda” whose soundtrack and CD release contains “Kung Fu Fighting”, the definitely unbeatable track by Carl Douglas. Douglas has a new album out this year, called “The Return of the Fighter”.
BORIS KOVAC DVD RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS GERMAN RECORD CRITICS AWARD
“Before and After … Apocalypse” has been singled out by the illustrious German Record Critics panel as the most outstanding music DVD for the 3rd quarter of 2008. Gorgeously photographed, these two music films “from the land of Pannonia” have found the recognition they deserve.
CONCERT GREAVES VERLAINE at the Paris Jazz Festival 05/09/2008
John Greaves and his outstanding ensemble of 8 musicians will be presenting the poetry of Paul Verlaine put into music by John Greaves and released this year at La Villette, in a big concert hall – a big treat !
e.s.t. LEUCOCYTE PARIS PRESS CONFERENCE 04/09/2008
In addition to the Stockholm press conference on August 19, Dan Berglund and Magnus Öström, the bass player and the drummer of the trio e.s.t., will be in Paris on September 4 to present the new e.s.t. album “Leucocyte”, recorded before the tragic disappearance of pianist, composer and leader Esbjörn Svensson and to be released by ACT Records on 1st September, 2008 (ACT 9018-2). They will be at the Sunside club, at 11 am on September 4, following a press conference in Hamburg the day before.
August 2008
Posted August 04, 2008Jun Miyake ’s album “Stolen from Strangers”, is on release in Canada where it is licensed to Do Right Music, as of August 18, 2008. David Byrne & Brian Eno have a new album on release: “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today”.4 August – “Strange Overtones” released as free download single from the album an... more
July 2008
Posted July 29, 2008After his outstanding solo concert at the St. Germain Church in Paris, the high point of the Saint Germain Jazz Festival, which earned him a standing ovation, jazz pianist Yaron Herman will travel far and wide this summer: dates are booked at major festivals in France, Austria, Spain (Vittoria), Canada (Montreal) and the US (Monterey), in time ... more
New Releases
e.s.t. Esbjörn Svensson Trio - Leucocyte
Label: ACT
Distribution in France: Harmonia Mundi
Release date: September 01, 2008
For e.s.t., spontaneous jam sessions were the way to renewal. The players needed this freedom in order to explore new musical regions, or as Esbjörn Svensson always formulated it, “…to follow the music”.
The trio constantly posed the fundamental question, “What can a piano trio be that it has not been before?”
(Pat Metheny).
Leucocyte is the result of one of these two day jams. It took place at the famed “Studios 301” in Sydney during the band’s Australian tour. In early 2008 e.s.t.’s sound engineer Ake Linton joined the band at the Bohus Sound Studios in Gothenburg, Sweden to begin mixing. On April 28 there was a photo shoot in Berlin for the new campaign. On May 16 the artwork and album were delivered to ACT.
Then on June 14 the incomprehensible happened: Esbjörn Svensson, probably the most influential stylist of the last decade, lost his life in a diving accident off the island of Vrämdö near Stockholm.
As a result, Leucocyte has become Esbjörn Svensson’s and e.s.t.’s musical legacy! It is the most venturesome album Esbjörn Svensson (p), Dan Berglund (b), and Magnus Öström (dr) have recorded as e.s.t. The essence of this journey of discovery is its ecstatic energy. It is a trip through the bloodstream sans compositional safety-net and stylistic restraints in which the borders of musical communication are sounded out.
Torsten Goods - 1980
Label: ACT
Distribution in France: Harmonia Mundi
Release date: September 25, 2008
Torsten Goods was born in 1980 and it is four 1980 hits that form the backbone of his second ACT album, simply titled 1980 (ACT 9719-2). Goods has a special affinity with each of them. “I’m a huge fan of Queen,” he admits, so he arranged Freddie Mercury’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” in a way typical for the whole album: “Freddie wrote it as a homage to Elvis. We’ve taken it that little bit further and transferred it to jazz.” The other cover songs have been updated in a similarly unorthodox way: Billy Joel’s “It’s Still Rock’ n’ Roll To Me” has turned into a swinging Big Band number, David Paich’s Toto hymn “99” is reduced to a cool easy–listening track and George Benson’s popular “Love Dance” takes us back to the Brazilian roots of its composer Ivan Lins.
Huun Huur Tu - Mother-Earth! Father-Sky!
Label: Jaro
Distribution in France: Abeille
Release date: October 09, 2008
The long expected studio album of Huun-Huur-Tu was created in cooperation with famous singer Sainkho from Tuva. The aim was to produce an album based on ballads, with sounds of silence and nature, closed to the great environment of central Asia. The listener should
dive into the nature and take time for “Mother-Earth! Father-Sky!” The music infers itself to the listener at the moment he/she takes time to relax.
