Songs from the Bar of Lost Souls

Songs from the Bar of Lost Souls is a 5 track EP by independent UK band Hope and Social. The tracks were written, recorded and mixed in 5 days and created as part of the imitating the dog theatre piece Tales from the Bar of Lost Souls. Available as digital download for whatever you want to pay.

There's a raw and live sound to these tracks that makes you feel like you're in the same room as the band, sharing something honest and real. You can see how this fast recording method works via their YouTube Channel.

Band member Rich Huxley shares his insights on what true independence can do for a band's career in a recent post on the Creative Deconstruction website titled The Declarations of Independents. The article provides information about the social strategies, ideas and tools used by the band to connect with fans, both online and off.

Social Connections

http://band.to/hopeandsocial - Hope and Social Page address on Facebook

Tweets - Twitter search for all band member messages.

http://www.myspace.com/hopeandsocial

http://www.last.fm/music/Hope+and+Social

For more music and info check out the links at the top of this post.

Birdsong

via vimeo.com

Inspired by a photograph of birds perched on the wires of a street light, journalist and musician Jarbas Agnelli decided to write a song using the relative proximity of the birds as notes on a stave. "Birds on the Wires" is his musical interpretation of the picture. He says "Inspiration can come from anywhere, but we must be alert". You can follow Jarbas at http://twitter.com/jarbas_agnelli 

The video has received widespread attention, appearing on popular websites like Laughing Squid, Wired, and Gizmodo. Jarbas's friend, Sean Crownover (Candlegravity) from Tokyo, has also posted a version on his FaceBook page (player bottom left).

Link to original newspaper article (Portuguese)

Musical Data

I'm reminded of David Cope's ideas on the concept of musical recombinancy. In his "Experiments in Musical Intelligence" he argues that:

"...recombinancy appears everywhere as a natural evolutionary and creative process. All the great books in the English language, for example, are constructed from recombinations of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. Similarly, most of the great works of Western art music exist as recombinations of the twelve pitches of the equal-tempered scale and their octave equivalents. The secret lies not in the invention of new letters or notes but in the subtlety and elegance of their recombination."

These "hidden structures" are present all around us, at the very core of sound creation in the natural world. For more on exploring the hidden data in nature see Evan Grant: Making sound visible through cymatics (YouTube video)

Hard Believer by First Aid Kit

Swedish folk/indie duo First Aid Kit release their new songs "Hard Believer" and "Waltz for Richard" on October 5th via http://www.wichita-recordings.com/ - If you like the song above you can vote for it to appear on the official BBC 6 Music Playlist through Steve Lamacq's Rebel Playlist, the vote closes at midnight on Sunday 6th. 

Sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg come from Enskede near Stockholm. They have a loyal following of fans built through their personalised and direct style of social media marketing. An example is their use of Twitter to invite cover song requests which they publish online as video performances (First Aid Kit Sessions). The request form is at http://thisisfirstaidkit.com/your-requests/ the tweetstream is http://twitter.com/faksessions and the videos are shared via http://www.youtube.com/jagadambarecords

In fact it was their video cover of the Fleet Foxes "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" that attracted worldwide attention in 2008 (currently at 790,987 views).

The girls will be touring the UK with Fanfarlo during September/October. You can get tour details and purchase tickets via their website or Music Glue (includes exclusive free tracks). They have also announced tour dates for The United States of America in October, see their MySpace for further info.

Web Connections

http://thisisfirstaidkit.com/

http://www.facebook.com/firstaidkitofficial

http://www.myspace.com/thisisfirstaidkit

Pogo Starts a Blog

Australian electronic music artist Pogo has started a blog at http://pogotracks.blogspot.com/ currently featuring an FAQ and a list of interviews. His unique sound comes from the sampling, sequencing and reimagining of popular childhood movies. Tracks are constructed using sounds lifted from movie scenes (sometimes entirely), drums, bass and percussion.

Melodies are formed using cut-up dialogues in a non-lexical vocal style; "There are no definitive lyrics to my tracks because I have never intended to form sentences with the samples I use."  The music is then synced to video cuts from the original movie to create a new mini-trailer. 

Pogo has a growing fan-base on YouTube where fresh uploads and the viral potential of video widgets quickly attract thousands of visitors. Creations such as Expialidocious have now reached far in excess of half a million views. You can browse the growing collection of mashups at http://www.youtube.com/user/Fagottron

Below is the recent video for his track 'Bangarang' composed of sounds from the classic Spielberg film 'Hook'

 

Update 13th Sept '09

'Bangarang' removed from YouTube - Pogo Blog visit the link for full explanation.

Today, Sony Pictures Entertainment claimed that 'Bangarang' is an infringement of copyright, and the video has been removed from YouTube. I suppose this had to happen eventually given the kind of world we live in. (September 10th 2009).

Unfortunately this is a common experience for remixers of controlled media, such are the constraints of heavily restricted copyrights. However you can still play and download the full track here (while it lasts!)

Related

A sonic guide to the history of cut-up music: DJ Food - Raiding the 20th Century - Words & Music Expansion

Apologies EP by Mosaik

 

Mosaik is the electronic music project of Stockholm based musician Jakob Svanholm. The Apologies EP features 7 instrumental tracks that combine melodic bass and synth sequences with delicate percussive rhythms. The sonic spaces are subtle and calming, with centered tonal themes, repeating motifs and ambient textures that conjure the emotions and imagination.

Originally released on Kahvi Collective in 2007: http://www.kahvi.org/139.php

MP3 and Flac versions now available under Creative Commons license at: http://mosaik.bandcamp.com

You can listen to some of Jakob's recent works in progress at: http://soundcloud.com/mosaik

See his website for discography and social connections: http://www.mosaik.se/

Charcoal Flowers by Dulceflur

Ambient music artist Dulceflur offers four relaxing and peaceful instrumental compositions blending floating piano melodies with acoustic guitars and mellow pads. Created using Apple Logic 8. Influences: Stars of The Lid, Hammock, johann johannsson and Brian Eno.

Free downloads available via: http://dulceflur.bandcamp.com

Social Connections

http://www.myspace.com/dulceflur

http://www.last.fm/music/Dulceflur

http://twitter.com/dulceflur

http://summerrainrecordings.net/artists/dulceflur/