Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Free Music: Jenny & Tyler

Jenny and her husband Tyler met at the University of Delaware. They met in a bus on their way to church. They started leading worship together and from there began writing songs and eating omelets on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. They spent the first year singing together in the stairwells of the student center. The acoustics were incredible. Sometime that fall they started dating and well, as they say, the rest is history. They are really different, but those differences are part of what make us a great team. Tyler pushes me Jenny to try new things and Jenny keeps him somewhat grounded. Their different musical backgrounds inspire us to create new music. If it weren’t for Tyler, Jenny probably would be writing cheesy country songs and Tyler’d be a virtual Jack Johnson impersonator. In 2007, they released a record called A Prelude. an album with songs that were really just the beginning of what they were to become as a duo. In 2008, they moved to Nashville. In 2009, they quit their day jobs and released This Isn’t a Dream. That spring, they toured for the first time. They traveled consistently for the next year, playing in houses, coffee shops, churches, colleges, and bars. Met all sorts of interesting people, some of whom now feel like extended family, and learned a lot about ourselves. This past summer, they decided it was time to make another record. Gathered a group of songs and went into the studio (aka our friends’ closets, living rooms, and basements). They're really happy with the result. Faint Not chronicles our journey. "As writers, songs allow us to communicate experiences and truths when we can’t find the words to speak them. Our hope is that the songs will resonate with you. We don’t know what the future holds, but we’re thankful for where we are today. Definitely be sure to try out their FREE album!


@ Nashville, USA
♫ Folk, Rock, Pop

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Jonas Alaska

Today's feature, Jonas Alaska, is  a discovery I made through Spotify's "What's New" section. Jonas (born 1988), from Åmli, Aust Agder, Norway, released his self-titled debut album in September on Jansen Plateproduksjon. Despite his young age, Jonas Alaska is an incredibly talented lyricist and songwriter with a characteristic sound and a strong voice. After a series of shows, including by:Larm in Oslo in February, many have their eyes on the talent from the south. As a consequence of those concerts, Jonas has played many of the larger festivals in Norway this summer. Artists like Paul Simon, John Lennon and Bob Dylan are often mentioned as references for Jonas Alaska’s music, but as southern Norwegian newspaper Arendals Tidende wrote about the 22-year old: Despite his tight trousers, harmonica, boots and guitar, he is no copycat of Dylan. Jonas Alaska has his own characteristics and his own sound, also fit for the present. The album consists of 11 songs written by the artist, most of them during the past two years. The songs range from heart-wrenching songs, to ballads with captivating harmonies and up-tempo tunes with elements of Americana, folk and pop - all with an original sound, both lyrically and melodically. Alaska’s lyrics often focus on themes such as love, politics and tragedy, but also the simpler things in life that everyone can relate to. Other than Alaska himself on vocals, piano and acoustic guitar, this incredibly talented team of well-known musicians contribute on the album: Thom Hell: Guitar, piano, organ, vocals Even Ormestad: Bass, piano, keyboards Martin Horntveth: Drums, percussion David Wallumrød: Organ, piano Marius Graff: Banjo Audun Borrmann: Electric guitar Thomas Aslaksen: Drums Marcus Forsgren: Electric guitar. Don't hesitate and give his music a try!

@ Amli, Norway
♫ Folk, Pop

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Rebekka Karijord

The last few weeks I discovered that my internship is, with its long days, quite time consuming. That's why you haven't seen updates on here for quite a while. But I still am discovering lots of new interesting music, so I'll try to share those as much as possible with you from now on. Today's feature is Rebekka Karijord. Rebekka was born in 1976, in Northern Norway (Lofoten). She lived with her mother her whole growth. Both her parents are artists. Rebekka went to several musical/performance educations such as the Norwegian Musical Theatre, Academy of ballet and she also went to the Royal Academy of Acting in Stockholm. She has a Swedish family and after four years living in Stockholm she feels she has two homes, one in Sweden and one in Norway. Rebekka composed her first song when she was 3 years old, recorded her first demo with her own songs when she was 8 years old. She also learned how to play piano and the violin during her whole growth. She started composing English songs when she was 12 years old and contributed with her talent to Children’s records and NRK (Norwegian TV) as vocalist, songwriter and actress during her whole growth. When she was 17 years old she was contracted to a major record company, but left out as they tried to control her artistic visions. Afterwards she immediately procured her own computer to start composing digitally, on her own. Rebekka’s music is probably inspired by Northern Norway, more specially Lofoten, where her family lives these days. Her dream would be living in Lofoten with her computers, microphones and just keep creating these beautiful tunes.Rebekka never intended to only sing beautifully, she wanted to project a story with her voice. She wants people to listen to the recording and understand what she went through earlier the same day. To this date, she has released three studio albums, all under slightly different artist names. In 2003 she released Neophyte (as Rebekka) followed by Good or Goodbye in 2005 with Peder Kjellsby (as Rebekka & The Mysterybox) and her latest album The Noble Art of Letting Go as Rebekka Karijord.

@ Stockholm, Sweden
♫ Alternative, Acoustic, Folk

Monday, September 5, 2011

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins

Summer is almost over, and for me that's when the intensive music listening and discovering starts again. So that might be an explanation for the lack of updates lately! Todays post is a recommendation from a friend. Their first release Diamond Mine that was released earlier this year has been on repeat for quite a while now. Diamond mine is a collaborative album from Domino and Double Six artists, King Creosote and Jon Hopkins. Featuring lyrics and vocals from King Creosote sung over musical backdrops arranged and recorded by Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine is a genuine labour of love, recorded over a number of years without the pressure of deadlines, whenever Jon and KC could get together. Intended to be heard as a single experience, Diamond Mine produces a near classical suite of emotion ranging from cracked despair to patched-up euphoria. Described by King Creosote as a ‘soundtrack to a romanticised version of a life lived in a scottish coastal village’, the record weaves in slices of Fife life, bike wheels, spring tides, tea cups and café chatter to produce a beautiful, unique and timeless album. Don't miss out!

@ London, UK

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Rachèl Louise

Today's post has been in the queue for at least a few weeks, it never got posted when I was finishing my bachelor thesis. Rachèl Louise was born 20 years ago in the heart of Utrecht. Growing up in a family of professional musicians, Rachel’s dream of making her own musical contribution to the world was natural. Her musical talent became evident when at the age of 5 she sung as a featured soloist in a Dutch children’s choir. During her childhood she sang for numerous Dutch and English CD-, DVD- and television productions. Rachel Louise left at the age of 17 for California to continue her education at the famous Musicians Institute in Hollywood LA. Here she was able to develop her own style, and with the help of industry professionals and an inspirational networking environment, work on her musical talents in writing, performing and recording. Now she is back in the Netherlands and working on her debut album. Rachel Louise is a singer/songwriter with pop influences, comparable to Maria Mena, Adele en Sara Bareilles. Together with international producers from Los Angeles, Hamburg and the Netherlands, Rachel Louise is spending this year on the release of an EP with a selection of her repertoire. She will be promoting her music with a series of ‘living room concerts’, small-scale but intimate gatherings with all the ingredients of a personal party: drinks, snacks and live music in an intimate atmosphere in ‘living rooms’ throughout the Netherlands. Recently Rachel appeared on several radioshows, and has already been referred to as one of the new talents from Holland.

@ Utrecht, NL
♫ Singer-songwriter, Pop

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Amatorski

In the first few years after I discovered last.fm I visited it everyday. But when it became part of CBS and got all the region restrictions and a lot less free playable music I stopped coming to the website so regurarly. A few days ago I discovered they are finally introducing a friend finder, so let's hope it's the beginning for more innovations. What did not change about last.fm is the perfect recommendations for similar sounding artists. As a few hours ago, I discovered today's featured belgium formation Amatorski with last.fm recommendations! Amatorski is a young Belgian band formed in 2008, with a melancholic and narrative style, and some reminiscences of Portishead, Sigur Rós, or Radiohead. Amatorski consists of Inne Eysermans (songs, producing, voice, piano, guitar, accordeon), Sebastiaan van den Branden (guitar, programming, voice), Hilke Ros (double bass, synth bass, voice), and Christophe Claeys (drums, vibraphone, trumpet).Though their name means ‘amateurs’, they reached the finals of the Belgian rock contest Rockrally in 2010. The intimate song "Come Home" hit #1 in ‘De Afrekening’, the alternative hit chart on radio station Studio Brussel. In 2010 they released the Same Stars We Shared (Amatorski debut) EP. Their debut longplayer TBC was released in May 2011. You can listen them in full on their Bandcamp.

@ Gent, Belgium
♫ Alternative, Folk

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Jesse Thomas

Today, while procrastinating from writing my bachelor thesis, I found a new favorite singer-songwriter, while browsing on coffee and Starbucks. Jesse Thomas was featured as "Pick of the Week" at Starbucks back in February. I immediately fell in love with her distinctive smokey voice, whimsical catchy songs and easy to relate to lyrics. Jesse Thomas is an L.A. based singer-songwriter originally from Covington, Kentucky. Late 2008, after graduating she packed up her bags and moved to Los Angeles by herself not knowing a soul when she arrived. After a few open mics around the valley and home-recorded demos, she met producer Jim Roach. Last year's spring Jesse finished up her debut “Hazel EP” which hit iTunes and stores nationally in September 2010. The album debuted in the top ten of the singer/songwriter charts and was featured on iTunes "New and Noteworthy," as well as the "Indie Spotlight." Both her Hazel EP and the "Hearbreaker Sessions EP" are amazing and made it really hard to choose two songs to feature, because I honesty love them all. Jesse already has opened for John Mayer, Owl City, Lights, and Angel Taylor. And since Jesse is back in the studio recording her debut full length album I am sure we will be much more from her. I cannot wait!

@ Covington, USA
♫ Singer-songwriter