Thank you Christie
it was such a moment of truth
March 29, 2021 by 30 Comments
“Listening to Hania’s music over and over, I began to dream of a single sequence shot that would follow her music floating in the wind of an unreal Icelandic landscape. I asked each dancer to give a personal interpretation of Hania’s song. We were very lucky to succeed in this insane artistic performance despite the great cold (minus 7 celsius), it was such a moment of truth. Shot in Iceland on February 23, 2020”. — Neels Castillon, Director
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call
December 31, 2018 by 55 Comments
True story: One summer, years ago, I went tubing…The sun was blazing, and the water was cool. It was a perfect day to close your eyes and let the current carry you. I was enjoying myself, until we rounded the final bend and saw the parking lot. I leaned back to get my arms in the water and I started to kick and paddle. In a froth of churning water, I passed my mom, my sister, my boyfriend and my brothers, and as I reached the dock, I shouted out, “I won!”
That’s me. All my life, I’ve made lists and set deadlines, never content, or even able, to just glide.
That kind of drive has served me well when aimed at challenges within my control, like writing a novel…I never stopped hoping that if I worked hard enough, wanted it badly enough, I’d finally get the acclaim that I craved…
That did not happen. And my brain, which had propelled me toward so many successes, could not push me past disappointment. Instead of focusing on everything that had gone right, including how lucky I was to make a living as a writer, it got stuck on what had gone wrong. Let’s think about it! my brain suggested, like a Roomba endlessly butting itself into a corner. Let’s think about it a lot. Especially at 3 in the morning. Let’s go over every single choice. Let’s dwell.
I tried yoga. I attempted meditation. Nothing helped. Instead, each spiritual setting and inner-growth-focused class presented new opportunities to compete: I held that pose for longer than anyone in the class. I’m way more Zen than she is. Finally, I remembered reading about how learning something new — creating new neural pathways — was a way to send your thoughts in different directions.
And so, after a 35-year hiatus, I started taking piano lessons again.
I had been an indifferent piano student as a kid…By high school, I had bumped up against the limits of my natural abilities. So I quit. I turned my attention toward activities at which I could excel…
Photo: videvo
How wonderful life is while you’re in the world
November 15, 2018 by 38 Comments
John Lewis’ 2018 Christmas advertisement tells the story of Elton John being gifted a piano as a young boy. The story begins in present day and works backwards chronologically through Elton’s life and musical career, leading to the moment he received the special present of his grandmother’s piano that changed the course of his life. (Source: The Telegraph, November 15, 2018)
Thank you Lorne
“The most beautiful music I’ve heard….”
July 26, 2018 by 15 Comments
Bob Boilen — “It’s as if the pianos were haunted. Somewhere about midway through this Tiny Desk, as Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds performed on his electronic keyboard, two upright pianos were playing lilting melodies behind him, absent any performer at the keys. And yet these “ghosts,” along with Ólafur’s band of strings and percussion, put together some of the most beautiful music I’ve heard at the Tiny Desk, made all the more mysterious through its presentation…”
Nuit Blanche
February 17, 2018 by 12 Comments
Thank you Nan Heldenbrand Morrissette for sharing “Nuit Blanche” (Sleepless night) by the Tarkovsky Quartet.
This world was never meant for one as beautiful as you
December 27, 2017 by 27 Comments
James Blake sings a cover of Don McLean’s “Vincent” which was filmed and recorded live at Conway Studios in Los Angeles in December, 2017.
Sunday Evening
December 10, 2017 by 14 Comments
Jóhann Jóhannsson, 48, performs “The Drowned World” with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble in this clip. He was born and raised in Reykjavík, where he later went on to study languages and literature at university. He started his musical career as a guitarist playing in indie rock bands. In 1999 Jóhann co-founded “Kitchen Motors”; a think tank, art organisation and music label that encouraged interdisciplinary collaborations between artists from punk, jazz, classical, metal and electronic music. His own sound arose out of these musical experimentations.
Note: Find entire music video here. (I’ve clipped the back half above). Find Jóhannsson’s web site here.
Mozart. People compare you to Mozart. What do you think of that?
November 6, 2017 by 42 Comments
It takes Alma Deutscher just four notes and forty seconds to improvise an impressive short piano sonata right before 60 Minutes cameras. That alone is remarkable – but she’s also just 12 years old…Alma, a musical prodigy who, by the age of 10, had composed a full-length opera. She’s also a virtuoso on the violin and piano, where the music flows from her fingers as effortlessly as the breath from her body.
Scott Pelley: There is another composer who had an opera premiere in Vienna at the age of 11. Mozart. People compare you to Mozart. What do you think of that?
Alma Deutscher: I know that they mean it to be very nice to compare me to Mozart.
Scott Pelley: It could be worse.
Alma Deutscher: Of course, I love Mozart and I would have loved him to be my teacher. But I think I would prefer to be the first Alma than to be the second Mozart.
~ Scott Pelley, Watch a prodigy create – from four notes in a hat (CBS 60 Minutes, November 5, 2017)
Having trouble viewing video, try this link.
Blackout
September 30, 2017 by 9 Comments
23 year-old Londoner Freya Ridings released her debut single Blackout in May 2017.
Liked this? Don’t miss Freya Ridings’ hit single: Maps
Find her on Facebook.
Find her 2017 album on iTunes: Live @ St Pancras Church
I tend to feel rhythm in my torso.
June 22, 2017 by 3 Comments
I tend to feel rhythm in my torso. Maybe that’s because I play seated and my torso is the only part that can move. But when it’s there, everything else follows and the hand is connected to it. I like to tell my students that a lot of music happens below the neck, in your heart and in your gut. They really can get a little heady with things and I have to remind them: music is first and foremost a way for us to move together.”
~ Vijay Iyer, in an interview by Mendi Obadike and Keith Obadike in BOMB Magazine
Vijay Iyer, 45, is an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader, producer, electronic musician, and writer based in New York City. He became a Professor of the Arts at Harvard University in early 2014. Born in Albany and raised in Fairport, New York, Iyer is the son of Indian Tamil immigrants to the United States. He received 15 years of Western classical training on violin beginning at the age of 3. He began playing the piano by ear in his childhood and is mostly self-taught on that instrument. After completing an undergraduate degree in mathematics and physics at Yale University, Iyer attended the University of California, Berkeley, initially to pursue a doctorate in physics. Iyer continued to pursue his musical interests, playing in ensembles. (Source: Wiki)
Photo of Vijay Iyer: Via Observer.com.
Dreaming
May 13, 2017 by 13 Comments
Ásgeir Trausti Einarsson (24) is an Icelandic singer-songwriter and musician.
His new album, Afterglow, was released on May 7, 2017.
The Look of Love
January 21, 2017 by 31 Comments
Gulls
December 19, 2016 by 13 Comments
This land belongs to the gulls
And the gulls to their cry
And their cry to the wind
And the wind belongs to no-one
The wind belongs to no-one…
~ David Gray, from Gulls.
Video recorded live on December 7, 2016 in Antwerp, Belgium.
Hasselblad
April 19, 2016 by 13 Comments
Patience please. Don’t quit too soon…
“Jean-Michel Blais is a 31-year-old pianist from Montreal. He grew up in a rural French Catholic town in Quebec, and at age nine began tinkering with his family’s organ. By 16, he was invited by a conservatory to train as a classical pianist. Deep in the throes of teenage rebellion, Blais found the constraints of formal training cumbersome and, after two years of study, he decided to trade the conservatory for a life of world travel. Blais then spent his 20s living around the world — including stints in Berlin and South America — before finally settling in Montreal where he began to work on his debut album, entitled Il, which was released on Arts & Crafts on April 8, 2016.”
If you liked this, you’ll love this tune: Jean-Michel Blais | Il.
Live & Learn 