Algeria, my love II....[ Riders of the Aurès ]

Picture
Théodore Monod (1902-2000), Déserts



If you have a chance to travel to the Maghreb one day (and yeah...you should), Two of the "must see" places are of course, The Rif mountains in Morocco & The Aurès Mountains in Algeria. If the Riff is well known (for his haschich producer & Rides) as his algerian cousin, both are full of history, stories & culture.



To illustrate this beautifull part of Algeria, i chose a song from the last CD of Accords Croisés collections: Cavaliers de L'Aurès (Riders of the Aurès). As you maybe know, Aurès is a part of Algeria where Horses & Riders have an important place & history. Everybody knows that most of the beautifull & competitiv horses are called "Pur Blood" and comes from Maghreb. Accords Croisés edition wanted to show how much Horses & Mens share culture in the Aurès Mountains...
Instead of keep on writing bad english (sorry Adri...)
I prefer to let Bachir Hadjadj explains some things about Riders, Kabylia & the traditional music of the Aurès.

" The Shawiya Berbers live in a rugged mountainous territory in north-east Algeria, between Jebel Boutaleb, Tebessa, Souk Ahras and Telergma. Their character is a reflection of the austerity and majesty of the Aurès Massif.

The Shawiya have always led a pastoral life. To this day they breed horses that are noted for their exceptional agility, stamina and resistance. In the past the young men of the Shawiya people spent much of their time on horseback, herding the flocks to their pastures. These mounted shepherds were known as “Rayan el kheil” ; they were the Horsemen of the Aurès.

These brave young riders, who were always ready to defend their people against possible agressors, were the dream of young Shawiya women.

During the season of festivities that follows the harvest, the air is cooler and nature and man can breathe once more. It is then that the gasba is heard, its notes rising into the clear, starry night. The sensual sound of this long oblique flute – a type of Nây – captures the hearts of the girls and causes their mothers to sigh.

The singer’s bewitching voice evokes passing time, lost loves, footprints in the dew left by a departing lover. The silver bangles that the girls wear on their ankles jingle to the throbbing beat of their bender.

At weddings, the women, forming a cortège, sing to accompany the bride to her new home. Meanwhile the horsemen on their magnificient steeds, chestnut, bay or grey, raise the dust in the arena as they try to outdo each other in dexterity and daring. Sometimes a young woman leaves the cortège and moving forward tosses her scarf into the arena: her heart is free and she challenges the men. With their bodies leaning close to their spirited mounts, the riders gather speed; there is a furious charge and a sound of metal as stirrups clash; only one horseman can seize the scarf. As he does so the women ululate in celebration; shots are fired into the air…

Who better than Houria Aïchi, with her warm, pure voice, could evoke with such intensity the dazzling jousts of the “Rayan el kheil”, the proud horsemen of the Aurès? "

Bachir Hadjadj

Houria Aïchi was born in the center of the Aurès, and she's still here to bring the musical algerian history to people all over the world. Patiently, she collects the last vestiges in the forgotten villages and interprets them by trying to remain so faithful as possible for the tradition.
Of its native mountain, Houria Aïchi kept a shape of sourness. And it is doubtless this purified aspect which seduced Bernardo Bertollucci to accompany a passage of its film " A tea in Sahara ". The first evidence for Houria Aïchi was to go towards the music. She is endowed with a very beautiful voice, powerful, at once pure and guttural impression especially due to her phrasing, both in Arabic and chaoui.
And then she arises from a family - and of a culture where the music is omnipresent. " To sing fact left the life, the education of the girls, it flows in source. To learn the directory is obvious " she explains in the interviews today. From the age of 7 years, Houria escorted her grandmother who was a renowned azriate. Sort of troubadours in the feminine, azriates went of feast to feast, agents of vocal techniques and directories which could so be passed on through valleys and generations.

Listenning to Houria Aïchi is like listenning to 300 years of history, tradition & feelings...

The song i chose from her last CD, is called The Grey Mare and i translate words for ya

The Grey Mare

The grey mare

With two witnesses appeared,

Mounted by handsome Allaou:

Prematurely his hair

Has turned white.

O God, How my soul grieves !

Often my nights are sleepless,

I cannot find slumber.

You are the cause, O ùy dear Keltoum,

When you dress in silk and embroidery.

Hope you'll feel the atmosphere of this wonderful place...


Also, i just found a Live Video of Houria Aïchi singin this LP in a festival called "Au Fil Des Voix" (Feb.2008) ....Enjoy

Algeria, my love...

A more personnal post today...
I feel very nostalgic about my family roots and past.
I was born in Paris 1980.
My dad & Mom were born in Alger, Algeria when Algeria was still a french colony.
Nobody choose where he should scream for the first time.
For my Dad & Mom as for yours, it's the same.
My grand mother & Grand father were speaking Arabic currently in the 50's.
In 1962, Algeria been independant. And i'm happy with this...Very Happy
All french (called Black Foot by the Metropolitans) had to go back to France in big boat with just a case and some personnal effects.
Leaving Alger while people were sayin' Get out Fuckin French....
Arriving Marseille (South of France) with french screamin' Go back to your country Fuckin Arabs....
Yes France is a very Racist country indeed, better for u to know that

Unfortunately, Algeria fall into Civil War, Islam extremism & Poverty...for many years

I grew up in South suburbs of Paris, as some Media call it "Projects" or more often "Ghettos".
I grew up there with Algerians, Malians, Senegaleses, Morocans, Tunisians, Romanians, Turkishs and some time Gypsys friends.
Everybody criticized french governements about its immigration policy but if u never grew up over here, you just don't know nothing.
France has an history. A difficult one.
And as i was a child & teenager, you have to deal with this past everyday.

And thats what made Paris a beautiful city.
Popular & Mixed

I rather prefer the arab quarter (called Barbes) then the F**** Champs Elysees...
Anyway its not the point


Today i wanna talk about a Terrorist State as U.S. UK's and many Mass Medias call it...Bastards
My loving Algeria..
The heart of this country i share everyday threw my Grand Mother, threw the music i wanna share with you Today

It's not gonna be an epic history of Algerian Music, it's too big for a blog
But
I can share some beautiful feelings for sure if your heart is open



One of the most talentuous & misunderstood Algerian Artist was Cheikha Rimitti (Rest In Peace)

Rimitti was born French in the early 20's around Oran (Algeria) by Morocans parents. Orphans in eraly ages, she was livin from a neighboorhood to another one, sometimes inside Hammam and more & more illegaly. At 20th, she joined a musicians Hamdachis group and shared their lifes singin, dancin 'til death every nights. At this period, many epidemy were happen in Alger (as Albert Camus described it in his Master-Piece book La Peste "The Plague"), Rimitti has composed most of her first songs in this atmosphere. Never wrote a word on a piece of paper, always remembering and composing in her mind. But from this sad period, she preferred to remember only joy moments at Parties.
It's important to say that Rimitti in the 40's, was already singin Womens problems, and introduced to notion of charnel pleasures. But her writing subjects went more far: All loves forms, Celebrated frienship, her alcohol problems, emigrations problems...
Her poetry will cost a lot to Cheikha Rimitti: in the 60's the traditional religious new governement judged Rimitti as a non patriotic artist. And she had to leave her country, the country she sang so many times.

She composed more than 200 songs which are now in the national patrimony and more inside the arabic world singer. For all the Raï singers, she's THE great woman, THE Queen...
A real legend so weaved around this woman who haunts the collective imagination of the Maghreb for more than half a century. Rimitti, rediscovered for some years by a new generation, is a visionary. Her songs emphasized for half a century were never so close to the bloody reality of Algeria of the 90s, decade of all the dangers (For the women especially whose door Rimitti was the most audacious and the most lucid word).

According to prestigious concerts given in the big world capitals, Rimitti became the main ambassadress of the Rai (New York, Bets, London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Geneva, Madrid, Milan, Berlin, Cairo) She receives meanwhile Grand Prix of the Disk 2000 of the Academy Charles Cros.
But it is to the another title, and to the only one in fact, that Rimitti hangs on, that of "Cheikha"
( the dean) More than a title, the term " Cheikha " is the indelible mark of its route, emblem of the wide furrow dug by its life of " Franco-Algerian rebel"
Refusing from the beginning the way of the " rai variety " borrowed by the generation of "Chebs" (Cheb Hasni, Cheb Khaled, Cheb Mami or Cheb Bilal to nominate the most famous), she privileged rather the variety of the style offered by the Rai. Her collaborations with Robert Fripp and Flea from Red Hot Chile Peppers on the album " Sidi Mansour " ( 1994 ) illustrate in the shape a "electric" bend taken in the end of the 80s.
Determinedly progressive, she assures the transition of a Rai resting on her traditional bases, indispensable to the implementation of the "trance", to that of a Rai "enriched and refined" in the rhythmic and more modern tones. She draws the outlines of a Rai which can one day be dreaded as a major musical current. A style mixing the African influences of Gnawa and the Arabian-Andalusian harmonies of the music Châabi with the raw words and often improvised of this Soul Algerian.

Her most recent album N’ta Goudami, released in 2006, was a lustful combination of traditional Algerian and modern rock sounds sung in a deep voice of booming energy that belied her 83 years and garnered enthusiastic reviews. For someone who had been officially banned in Algeria, Rimitti marked rai history by taking the defiant step of recording her last album at the Boussif Studios in Oran, the city where rai music was born over a century ago.

She continued performing until the end — two days before she died she was rapturously received by an audience of 4,500 at the Zénith in Paris.

She died in a Paris from a heart attack on 15 May 2006, aged 83, and is survived by 4 children, all of whom live in Algeria.

The song i proposed you to discover Cheikha Rimitti is called Nalhla (The Palmtree) and it from the album Nouar (2000)

- Nakhla (The Palmtree) -

I sowed my palm tree, I should have done it in my garden.

You sow when you are sure to stay

Not when you are leaving,

Because when I felt like savoring a date,

My foes refused it to me.

If you can't feel Algeria threw this, i can't do anything for ya...But me, i cry on it

It means a lot for us

Oneday i will go La Casbah....One day i will

Rest in Peace Cheikha...

Drum & Bass Mixes October Selecta

Yeah Startin today with this special mix by Break, certainly one of my fav' producer actually..All his tracks since 2 years on Symmetry, Quarantine, Critical, Integral, Revolution...and his recent EP on Klutes imprint Commercial Suicide are in my records bag...This guy is sick, his tracks are fuckin fuckin deep, dark but always so rollin' that u can play it in any of your sets....Reload guaranteed

So today its this Future Soul Promo Mix, (miror) sick as usual. Mix he did when he went to Gent, Belgium for a party. The future soul crew one.

01. Break - Hooked Up [SYMMETRY]
02. SpectraSoul - Poseidon [DUB]
03. Tactile - Caravan (Ant TC1 re-edit) [DISPATCH]
04. Break - Lead The Way [COMMERCIAL SUICIDE]
05. Spectrasoul - Tectonics [DEEP SOUL MUSIC]
06. Break & Survival - Dawn [DNAUDIO]
07.
08. Break - Reach Out [SYMMETRY]
>> Calibre - Fire & Water [SOUL:R]
09. Spinline - Cold Feet [SOM]
10. Break - Splash Step [QUARANTINE]
11. Dose & Menace - Pick Up [SAMURAI MUSIC]
12. Break - All Around [SYMMETRY]
13. Break - Let It Happen [SHOGUN AUDIO]
14.
15. Survival - Change
16. Zero T - Goes Around [SHOGUN AUDIO]
17. Total Science - S.O.S [VIOLENCE]
18. Break feat. Keyo - Last Chance [SYMMETRY]

Just Enjoy that shit, it kick ass as hell
Trust me


So yeah this is my 1st selection sorry but its an amazing artist, so watch for him in your local bass dealer or club next venue.



Next one is a new mix by Mr Atlantic Connection, boss of the U.S. label Westbay.

New mix is called Morning Sex Mix, and it's just what is it....Morning Sex, smooth liquor, Soul Brother N°1 !!!!!
Heavy Heavy selection and forthcoming tunes on his label. After tracks like "can't destroy love" and "Situations" there more & more to expect from our guy.

Miror 1
Miror 2




Next one is a special 100% Random Movement production mixed by the man himself.
Straight from the lab, R.M. give us (again) one full hour of Soulfull delights with tons of forthcoming materials, Dubs & Classics tunes that put his name on the top of Down Tempo D&B producers such as Redeyes, Mutt or Zero T. Just to name a few of theis amazing and talented generation.

So stop talking and grab this sweet liquor...Seat back, roll a big one and just relax

Random Movement # 100% Original Mix

(Intro) Means To A Meaning (unsigned dub)
01 Random Movement - Lesson And Aftermath (CIA 4thcoming)
02 Random Movement - Ruthless Machine (Innerground 4thcoming)
03 Random Movement ft. Focus - Methods Of Thought (Bingo)
04 Random Movement - Kids In The Sea (unsigned dub)
05 Random Movement - Can’t Resist (Innerground 4thcoming)
06 Random Movement - Morning Glory (Bassbin)
07 Random Movement - Stare At The Sun (Timeless)
08 Random Movement - Scarlet Trouble (Bingo)
09 Random Movement - Psychedelic Drainpipe (Innerground 4thcoming)
10 Random Movement - Thick Liquid (Innerground)
11 Random Movement - Infinite (Progress)
12 Random Movement - The Things You Do (Innerground 4thcoming)
13 Random Movement - Believe No Other (Westbay International)
14 Random Movement - One Touch (unsigned dub)
15 Random Movement - The Student (Westbay International 4thcoming)
16 Random Movement - She Don’t Get It (Nu Directions)
17 Random Movement ft. Focus - Shattered Dreams (Innerground)
18 Random Movement - Her Song (Innerground 4thcoming)

Just enjoy, no time to post more

Peace
J

7th Gwangju Biennial [5 Sept. - 11 Nov. 2008], Focus on Gwon Osang & New The Walkmen LP "You & Me" (Gigantic Music)

Gwon, Osang
A statement of meaningless 360 pieces / C-prints mixed media / 120x100x60 cm, 2000



Gwangju Biennale 2008 presentation from Artkrush
(Where u can look at pictures from Biennale's Artists)

"Artistic director Okwui Enwezor dispensed with a thematic framework for the Gwangju Biennale 2008. Instead, Enwezor — past director of the 1997 Johannesburg Biennale and 2002's documenta 11 — chose to showcase a series of selected traveling exhibitions, consisting of 127 artists from 36 countries, under the title Annual Report: A Year in Exhibitions. The show consists of three sections: On the Road gathers and engages 36 exhibitions from the past year; Position Papers allows five emerging curators to realize innovative exhibition proposals and curatorial strategies; and Insertions presents new works created especially for the Biennale.

For On the Road, German artist Hans Haacke's Wide White Flow is transported from New York's Paula Cooper Gallery to the Biennale Hall, its white silk sheet billowing above the currents of four large fans. Another New York transplant, the Whitney Museum's retrospective Gordon Matta-Clark: You Are the Measure contributes Matta-Clark's seminal works of segmented architecture, such as 1974's Splitting. Isaac Julien offers a somber film on illegal immigration off the Sicilian coast, while Bruce Yonemoto photographs Asian-American male models in theatrical Civil War costumes to explore heroism. Other notable contributions to On the Road come from two young Korean artists: Donghee Koo presents the impressive video work Static Electricity of Cat's Cradle, a film within a film based on a couple's shared memories of bygone heroes and ancestors, and Jina Park's new series of Moontan paintings draws inspiration from LOMO toy cameras, depicting banal, unremarkable moments of everyday existence.

In the Insertions portion of the Biennale, a collaborative work between Donghwan Jo and his son Haejun Jo contains more than 500 documentary drawings based on their family history vis-à-vis Korean social history. A special archival cabinet has been constructed for the work, with viewers invited to examine each drawing closely. Meanwhile, American photographer Daniel Faust channels Stephen Shore's drive-by aesthetic for a tourist-cum-ethnographer's take on Alaska, and Indian artist Praneet Soi shows deftly rendered miniatures of Abu Ghraib tortures. Claire Tancons' opening-day procession at Position Papers meanwhile, paid tribute to Gwangju's democratic uprising in May of 1980, while Sung-Hyen Park's Bokdukbang Project placed experimental installations by Korean artists Munho Ma, Munjong Park, Kiyoung Peik, and others in Daein Traditional Market — set up in stalls alongside fish, fruit, and vegetable vendors.

Founded in the fall of 1995, the Gwangju Biennale was intended to be the foremost contemporary art event in Asia, but it faces increasing competition from other festivals in Korea and those in nearby countries. However, Enwezor has praised such proliferation, saying: "It is not a competition among biennales... This is an immense privilege for this region to have so many exhibits open." Enwezor believes it is only proof that "the 21st century will be the Asian century."

- Josephina E. Lee The Gwangju Biennale continues through November 9 at the Biennale Hall, the Gwangju Museum of Art, the Uijae Museum of Korean Art, the Daein Traditional Market, and the Cinema Gwangju.

Also, one of the best artist at this Biennale is certainly the korean Osang Gwon

Born in 1974 in Seoul, where he lives and works today, Gwon received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in sculpture from the prestigious Hong-Ik University. Gwon's attempts to break away from traditional sculpture led him to abandon conventional materials, such as bronze and stone, and begin working photography into his work. In doing so, Gwon secured his first solo exhibition in 2001 at Insa Art Space in Seoul; he has since shown internationally in Beijing, London, and Zurich.



A statement of 280 pieces on the absolute authority and worship in art / C-prints, mixed media / 240x50x140 cm /1999

Osang Gwon may be best known for his photographic modes, but don't call him a photographer. In 1998, he began his Deodorant Type series of life-size figures created from hundreds of cut-and-pasted photographic fragments, including inanimate objects, such as Unbearable heaviness, that mapped the texture of stone over rounded forms. But his human figures — eerie, three-dimensional paper dolls — eventually became Gwon's trademark entrance into the art world, and continue to hold sway on the contemporary market. Several works from the series, along with new commissions, were recently on view in a solo show at the Manchester Art Gallery in the UK.


THE FLAT 11 / Lamda Print, Diasec / 180x225 cm / 2004

For his next project, appropriately titled The Flat, Gwon assembled magazine cutouts of luxury goods, propping them up in a tight swarm across desks and floors to create the illusion of depth; he then photographed the glossy, yet empty cascades, collapsing them back into two dimensions. Again toying with the demands of three-dimensional representation, Gwon re-examines sculptural conventions with full-scale, painted bronze models of sports cars and motorbikes in The Sculpture. Here, the sculptor's quest for anomalous artistic forms leads him back to an old-fashioned material in an act of ironic homecoming. Gwon's name continues to circulate — he recently photographed British megarockers Keane for the cover of their upcoming album — as his continuing ability to subvert his media challenges audiences to look beyond preconceived notions.

To be honest i'm fucking in love for that guy...Impressive Works



Today, i was listenning to The Walkmen's last LP called You & Me.
As i bought it for the library, i wanted to verify if my friends speechs about it were correct or just (again) bullshits

For one time, she was right. This new one is a great as well.

Beautifull songs all along if u were waiting for something different, don't be disapointed
It's still The Walkmen
It's different
And its Fuckin good

4th in a series (we hope so !!), this one was written since 2 years between an old night club in Chelsea/New-York & one old house inside Fish Town's neighboor in Philly.
Recorded first in the Mississippi by John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth) then in New York by Chris Zane (Calla, White Rabbits, Asobi Seksu)...Yummy !

This track called On The Water, is clearly perfect to watch some pictures from the Biennale
Or smoke a lil one...

Get the album on Gigantic Music
And check their Myspace

Peace & Good Week end everyone

Syclops - I've Got My Eye On You (DFA, 2008)

I've been listening to this album since i found it on a blog one or two months ago (can't remember which one sorry)...About all mysteries around this band's members faces n shit, i really don't give a F*µù...
As my favs producers are mostly playing on stage with masks, i'm not gonna spend time to tell u why or who is behind Syclops.
Just the fact is, Maurice Fulton produced, arranged & Wrote that LP...This reason isn't the only one to be mo' curious about them.
The best one is this extract from that pretty good LP called I've got my eye on you.
Ok it's a DFA record but...what else?

THIS
Syclops # The Fly

Ok, it's not a brand new exclusive super VIP record, but it's a good one
So check it out

Read also Reviews on R.A. & Pitchfork Media

This Record can be purchase at
DFA Official Webstore
Boomkat
Or
Juno


Peace

Anne Sofie Von Otter # Swedish Songs [Boldemann-Gefors-Hillborg] (Deutsche Grammophon, 2008)

Anne Sofie von Otter was born in Stockholm and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Vera Rosza. She also attended classes in lied interpretation with Geoffrey Parsons in London and Erik Werba in Vienna. In 1980 she began her collaboration with the pianist Bengt Forsberg. Two years later she joined the ensemble of the Basle Opera, where she made her mark as an interpreter of Mozart (Cherubino, Dorabella, Sesto) and Richard Strauss (Composer). One of the finest singers of her generation, the internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano works with the pre-eminent conductors of the day, has triumphed at the world’s major opera houses and is a regular guest at leading festivals. Anne Sofie von Otter has also achieved great success as a lieder interpreter, mostly in collaboration with Bengt Forsberg.

"Always searching for new and challenging repertoire, Anne Sofie von Otter herself came up with the idea for this album: “I wanted to do something for Swedish contemporary music, and so, following the intense work preparing and premiering Hans Gefors's Lydia's Songs, I asked Anders Hillborg if he would also compose a work." Complementing the two recent cycles by living composers in this collection is one from the mid-20th century by a lesser-known figure, Laci Boldemann.

Hardly any other Swedish composer's biography can match the drama of Laci Boldemann's. Born in Helsinki, he grew up in Germany and moved to Sweden in 1939. Forced into the German army during the war, he served in Russia, Poland and Italy before deserting to join the Italian partisans. Eventually he was captured and spent two years in an American POW camp. In 1947 he returned to Sweden, where during the 1950s he had to support himself as a timber measurer. As a composer, Boldemann devoted much of his career to writing stage works and songs for children.

Boldemann's Four Epitaphs for mezzo-soprano and string orchestra, labelled a cantata by the composer, date from 1952. They are settings of poems from Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology (1915), 244 free-form tombstone epitaphs for citizens of the fictional town of Spoon River, Illinois, written in the first person. “I find the songs incredibly moving," says von Otter. “The first one is truly beautiful, both text and music. I am also attracted to their simplicity; there is a streak of folk music in them."

The four epitaphs offer four different perspectives on love and death. In the first setting, with its almost Wagnerian accompaniment, Sarah Brown implores her grieving lover to tell her husband to accept their illicit affair: “Through the flesh I won spirit, and through spirit, peace." In the second song, a march, Ollie McGee avenges her cruel and humiliating husband in death. Boldemann's cantata is significantly more modern than his vocal works from the 1960s, especially the third song, in which Mabel Osborne complains that her tomb's flowers are drooping from lack of water, a metaphor for her loveless life. Finally, in a tranquil setting, William and Emily sing of the bliss in passing away together.

Hans Gefors composed Lydia's Songs for Anne Sofie von Otter in 1995-96 to a commission from the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Having produced successful operas dealing with deception, murder and the dark side of the human mind, including Christina (1986) and The Park (1991), he chose here to write love songs that address themes of longing, innocence, lust, desire, jealousy, ridicule, abandonment, and both painful and sweet memories, finding his inspiration in Hjalmar Söderberg's The Serious Game (Den allvarsamma leken).

Arguably the greatest love story in Swedish literature, Söderberg's 1912 novel is a complex work containing direct references to specific works of literature, poetry and music. The story, which begins towards the end of the 19th century, is simple. Arvid and Lydia fall in love, but end up marrying others. After ten years they meet again at the opera. Arvid is now a music critic. They begin an adulterous affair. Lydia divorces, but at the end abandons Arvid for another man. Arvid leaves the country.

Gefors's song cycle is organized in seven sections, with a clear, almost operatic, narrative outline. Only once does he take his text directly from Söderberg, instead turning to poetry mentioned or suggested in the novel - verses by Heine, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson and Jens Peter Jacobsen.

Gefors first met von Otter when she played him her album “Speak Low: Songs by Kurt Weill," and he was immensely impressed with her range of expression: “I was fascinated by the fact that the same singer could perform Baroque and cabaret, high Romanticism, Lieder and folksongs with equal sensuality and commitment. That inspired me to aim high." Later, after having presented von Otter with the final version, he recalled that “she seemed surprised over the work's scopea 30-minute cycle in which the singer sings virtually the whole time is rare, but she approached the piece with a determination to master it." Von Otter agrees, and adds that she appreciated the work's “immense expressiveness and the different character of the individual movements. Although the music most often has a tonal focus, the cycle's sheer length and the rhythmic complexity of the fifth movement, 'The Sphinx,' make it intensely demanding."

Although sung by a woman, the cycle adopts Arvid's male perspective on Lydia. In two sections, however, we hear her own voice. In no. 2 she seeks a way out of her confining marriage. In no. 6 the text comes from the final duet in Bizet's Carmen, in which the heroine (a role von Otter knows well), referring to herself, famously exclaims “Free she was born and free she will die!" shortly before she is murdered by Don José. The concluding cabaret song, a Heine setting, is also the last poem that the disillusioned Arvid reads in the novel before he goes away. Although it has a familiar ring, the song is entirely Gefors's own. “I take pride," he says “in writing melodies that seem universal."

Anders Hillborg is perhaps best known for his orchestral works - among them, Eleven Gates (2003), commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen - although he has also made an astonishing contribution to the choral repertoire with his overtone piece muoaiyouum and has collaborated with Swedish pop singer Eva Dahlgren. Hillborg composed ...lontana in sonno... in 2003 for von Otter and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra to texts by Petrarch, the 14th-century Italian Renaissance humanist who channelled his obsessive, unrequited love into poetry. In these settings of Sonnets 250 and 301, expressions of Petrarch's emotions before and after the death of his beloved Laura in 1348, Hillborg blends the vocal line with highly imaginative instrumental combinations. As von Otter explains: “The vocal part is instrumentally conceived and is most demanding for the performer. Anders asked me to adjust my singing to the sound of the instruments."

In particular, the dense but clear, vibrato-free, sine-tone sound of string and glass harmonica chords suggests a giant synthesizer, typical of Hillborg's orchestral writing, as well as the spacious acoustics of a cathedral. The lament unfolds from a slow, static introduction with a Gregorian chant-like melody in the voice - here Hillborg is emulating the medieval mystic Hildegard of Bingen. The music builds to an intensively ornamented section in which the poet recalls Laura's words - “Do you not remember that last evening?" - as Hillborg introduces a violin solo evoking the hurdy-gurdy of Schubert's Leiermann. ...lontana in sonno... ends as it began - in despair. "

Per F. Broman in Swedish Song original Booklet

In This new Recording published on Deutsche Grammophon, Anne Sofie von Otter insist to create one and unique records about Swedish Composers. First one composed by Anders Hillborg, is an absolute unique creation. As a world-premiere recording, this one is very close from György Ligeti's work (used in Kubrick's 2001) in instrumentation and sounds. Hillborg asked von Otter to put her voice the most closest from Strings...Quite difficult i can tell but after one and only one listening, we can see how much Anne Sofie is one of the last greatest Soprano of the last century.

...Lontana In Sonno ... (2003_World Premiere Recording)

Feelings during 15'05 are so powerfull...thats why i wanted to share this song with y'all


Don't doubt about quality of the entire CD, its an absolute master piece just released
You can buy it online on a deluxe 320kbps quality on deutsche grammophon website or as a CD.

BUY IT HERE
BUY IT HERE
BUY IT HERE
BUY IT HERE



Deutsche Grammophon Website
Anne Sofie von Otter Website
Anders Hillborg Website

No Weak Hands Part 2 # Special World Edition #

Photos by Eikoh Hosoe

I just finished this compilation about World Music. Not only traditional music but mostly i choose music from different countries with one and only common things = GooseFlesh

Enjoy

No Weak Hands Vol.2 # Special World Edition #

01.The Kidnapper Bell # Mono (Japan)
02.Round 2 # Traditional Orchestra of Ratchadamen (Thailand)
03.Min Al Mukhayyam Toulad Al Ru'uaya # Sabaya Al Intifada (Palestine)
04.Dugu Kamelemba # Oumou Sangare (Mali)
05.Djuna! # Frida Hyvonen (Finland)
06.Siki, Siki baba # Kocani Orkesta (Macedonia)
07.La Vem O Salgueiro # Os Origonais Do Samba (Brazil)
08.Mania de Peitao (VOLTAIR Remix) # Seu Jorge (Brazil)
09.Tragédie d'une trajectoire # Casey (French Hip Hop)
10.Vengeance Drools # Chris Clark (UK)
11.Didgeridoo # Aphex Twin (UK)
12.SURPRISE # Esirprus (Netherlands)
13.Street Justice # MSTRKRFT (Canada)
14.Elevator # Minitel Rose (France)15.Last Track # Zelienople (USA)

Covers LP coming soon