I’m percolating a longer letter about music, but recently I’ve been cycling through two artists on repeat while I walk to work or cook or do the dishes: Agnes Obel and Orville Peck. I’m going to be thinking about them in tandem for a while, because I started to insist a friend listen to Obel and they responded by insisting I listen to Peck and now their respective (extremely different!) aesthetics shake hands in my heart. Agnes Obel is the cool blue trickle of the first song of hers I heard (“Riverside”) reflected and refracted through “Broken Glass” to her imminent album release later this month; Peck is the vivid, luminous red of stage curtains through a high-saturation filter, Velvet Goldmine meets Johnny Cash at a crossroads to give the devil a soul out of pure compassion without losing their own.
(Yes, sure, it all comes back to red and blue for me, still!)
Anyway! What are you all listening to? What’s good? Have you been introduced to shockingly gorgeous music recently, or revelled in doing that for someone else? Let’s have a listening party.
The official Broadway recording of "Hadestown" came out on Spotify last month, so I've been listening to that almost exclusively for most of the week.
Plus, the composer of Hadestown, Anais Mitchell, also released an album for a side project recently - a folk supergroup called "Bonny Light Horseman". It turns out to be great coffee shop music.
Anais Mitchell has steadily become one of my favourite musicians over the past decade. Almost every one of her albums is worth an intensive listening binge.
I forgot - I DO have one more, and how could I forget? Hero Fisher, with her dark mighty voice and poetic lyrics! Here (holds it out eagerly in two hands) https://youtu.be/sYZv38atlpA
I've been listening to a LOT of Glass Heart String Choir this week, after seeing them perform on Tuesday. Got the chance to see them again this coming Monday as well, which I'm absolutely leaping at. Beautiful sweeping baroque pop, with a gorgeous clear voice, violin and harp.
Ooh! I've been listening to Orville Peck recently too. I've been humming Roses Are Falling for like 3 days straight. I've also been loving Dizzy Spells by Patience because it's great modern dreamy synth pop and good for a cleaning beat. Also, Cheap Queen by King Princess has been on my repeat since it came for the soulful bops that make my queer heart happy.
I love to see what everyone has posted. So many new tunes to check out!
A very special album for me is "Même Pas Peur" by Plume. The music is unique and the lyrics are far from traditional song subjects. It is brings forth a mood on its own
I've been listening to the new album from Sakanaction lately. I missed it when it came out last year, but I'm glad to have found it now. There's an interesting range of music in there.
Also, I've been listening to a lot of the National, particularly their newest album, I Am Easy to Find. I suppose February is that sort of deep voiced melancholy type of month. But there are a lot of guest vocals on this album, and that's been very nice, as well.
Well, thanks to your mention of it on twitter, I've been absolutely smitten with Bonny Light Horseman. Comparing that with Child Ballads--which's prob tied with the broadway Hadestown for my fav Mitchell album has been magnificent. The way that, for me at least, Child seems such a genesis for Bonny, in much the same way the NYTW and concept were for Hadestown. Of course, they're dealing with very different content from Child to Bonny, but the way that Child is this quieter, stripped down version of folk, with guitar and strings, mostly showcasing Mitchell's vocals. But there's beginning to be bits of harmony with Jefferson there, and this idea of putting American sensibility on Scottish and English ballads. And then with Bonny, you're still getting her vocals, but jazzier, y'know? She's willing to play more with tempo, willing to bring in this whole pallet of instruments and play more with harmonies. (I think I'm thinking along this train because I was reading an interview of hers about Child, wherein she fretted about putting American sensibilities on these very European ballads, followed up by another about how she and Eric of Bonny were both such melody-driven vocalists. She was musing about the way in good harmony, the voices can almost disappear into the song, and how neither of them had those kind of easily choral voices, so 'twas a real challenge to create their own version of harmony. And it just got me thinking about how so much of her career, wonderfully, is about treading similar ground, but always looking for new angles, new evolutions.)
Thinking of other things: have you heard any Jason Isbell? He's from the American deep south, blends folk and gospel and bluegrass as seamlessly as most people breathe, and has been blowing my mind for months. My absolute current fav of his--which changes constantly; asking me about my fav music is so very much like asking about my fav book; a constant fluidity of answers--is Stockholm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny7NA9zeUTE
And because three things make a post--if I'm remembering that right from my long-ago lj days *g*--the other thing that delighted me this week was the broadway cast recording of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. It's about the flowering and then slow implosion of a marriage, told in brilliant nonlinear fashion, with Jamie going forward from the beginning while Kathy reflects back and mourns from the end. I think it was Sondheim that said that excellent music is poetry with melody to complement, and that fits Five Years to a tee: he puts all these universal human emotions of love and bitterness and grief and joy into a crucible, and what you get is this concentrated, molten fourteen song mix that still leaves me breathless. And the vocalists are just sublime. The way the show's staged, apparently--I've never gotten to see but would love! to--they're very rarely acting opposite one another, b/c of the opposing timelines. And yet, Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott give these separately compelling performances that somehow crystalize into a perfect whole. If you haven't listened: https://open.spotify.com/album/6xRraUlXlqv1bsWioqYEyQ (if you have, well, I've gushed to verbosity; I hope you'll forgive me b/c it's fresh and I'm very gleeful.)
I am so excited to check out these two artists! I have never heard of them. :D :D
Through your recommendation, I have started reading the Myth & Moor blog. I have really enjoyed Terri's music recommendations. I started building a playlist to house them as I read it: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Q5Ali9F0RTtyfrSanQzA8. They have been the background music to my Winter. =)
OH, this's marvelous!!!!!! I've been wanting to check out the blog, and wondering how in the world I was gonna keep track of the music I inevitably adored; and then you came along with this magnificent pre-prepared catalog. <333333333 you a lot rn and am bookmarking for later.
OH, this's marvelous!!!!!! I've been wanting to check out the blog, and wondering how in the world I was gonna keep track of the music I inevitably adored; and then you came along with this magnificent pre-prepared catalogue. <333333333 you a lot rn and am bookmarking for later.
Spotify year in review said I spent most of 2019 listening to Max Richter. There's the lovely and haunting "Luminous" and "the end of all our exploring," the sweeping "Mrs Dalloway: War Anthem," and the more modern "Orlando: Modular Astronomy." I can always find something of his to suit the piece I'm working on.
Richter was one of my most delightful discoveries of 2019. I don't usually immediately buy albums--even with someone like Anais Mitchell, who probs became my overall fav artist of the year, it took me several listens of her work to know I wanted to own it. But by the second time I'd listened to his recompositions of Four Seasons, I knew it had to be in my music library, and it continues to be in almost constant rotation. One of my goals is to get through the rest of his catalog this year. I'm particularly intrigued by Blue Notebooks, cause I also adore Tilda Swinton, and by Sleep, cause damn it's such! a magnum opus. But honestly, everything he's turned his hand to--particularly music interspersed with classic lit readings--fascinates me. There's already such a thin line between music and poetry, and for him to embrace the connection even more thoroughly delights and inthralls me.
Huh, the reply button is mysteriously missing on your posts, so I'm putting this here instead.
Julien did the shaking (I was very happy with the foaminess, but I have a sufficient aversion to raw egg that I didn't want to see her actually adding it, haha), but I think we mostly just added everything at once. What technique are we missing out on? :D
And re Boskone - that makes sense! Maybe I'll see you at readercon instead. :) (And yeah, I was excited to see Max on the programming! It'll be great to finally get to say hello. And upgrade to a double-signed copy of Time War, obviously.)
Probably my favourite newly-discovered music is MUNA's I Know A Place, which rapidly became one of my favourite songs. I also want everyone to listen to Christopher Tin, because his albums are absolutely marvellous and his soundtrack for Offworld Trading Company remains my favourite writing music.
PS: Reporting back on the cocktails - main takeaway is that egg whites were a big success. We tried, let me see, a gimlet, a bee's knees, and a whiskey sour, then started experimenting. I think the most successful was a whiskey sour but with maple syrup instead of sugar syrup. I also successfully made my two cocktail stand-bys (manhattan & cosmopolitan). I had no idea mixing drinks was so easy (and fun). This is extremely dangerous knowledge. :D
PPS: You won't be at Boskone by any chance, will you?
HOORAY FOR COCKTAILS! How are you deploying the egg white? Doing a dry shake (without ice) first, or second, or?
I made a bourbon sour with maple syrup last week as a stop-gap & was pleasantly surprised, but my fave sweetener in sours is still burnt honey syrup all the way. Just so much richer & more fragrant. But maple syrup has the benefit of being sufficiently liquidy to not need any other manipulation, so good to know it's there as a pantry staple!
Boskone -- I keep thinking, oh yeah, hey, why not, it's not that big a drive, it abuts on to my Reading Week, but I'd be driving by myself and I'm still not emotionally up to trying to cross the border alone. So alas, not this time. I've still never been to a Boskone, and would really like to some time. I hope you enjoy it! Pretty sure Max will be there!
I sing along to Familiar a lot lately, but I hadn’t been paying attention enough to know Obel had a whole album coming out. (Exciting!) Other than that, I feel a bit underqualified for this thread. My main repeat artist is (still!) Sofi Tukker, a playful and danceable New York-based duo (I’ll be seeing them live with my sister in April). The other thing I’m repeating of late is this fantastic DJ set from Kampire, which makes a joyful soundtrack for the morning walk to the transit stop. https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=708
Ha! I hope your co-named friend and you enjoy the vocal work on Canvas, Margot's last album. My Danish ancestors would be ashamed of me, that I ever implied they weren't Scandinavian.
Oh, dear. I think I was conflating Obel's bio with another artist I heard around the same time and figured she was German. Denmark is absolutely Scandi!
I have been years-in-love with a certain strain of Scandinavian ethereal vocal music. And I count Obel there, even if she's not technically regional. Aurora, Tiny Dragon, groups and musicians of similar ilk have made my time in cars and at work a foggy woodland of aural texture.
Last night my partner and I saw a neat show pairing looping vocalist Margot MacDonald (https://www.margotmacdonald.com/) and classical guitarist Piotr Pakhomkin, ostensibly collaborating and weaving strange soundscapes from their disparate genres.
Ahhh, now the question becomes: which ONE? (I've loved HADESTOWN so much in so many iterations for almost the whole last decade).
If it's the Broadway one, do yourself the enormous joy of also digging up the NYTW soundtrack -- Hades & Persephone are the same, but you'll have an astonishingly different experience of Hermes, a little more Persephone, a little less Orpheus & Eurydice. It's not all the songs from the show, but it's the core of it, & it's amazing.
I recently bought Thomas Benjamin Wild, Esq.'s album; it's very hipstery, ukelele and vocals, but it's upbeat, jaunty, and his breakout hit is "I've No More Fucks to Give." So that's fun.
I keep meaning to listen to Orville Peck and haven't gotten around to it yet! Lately I've been on an unusual-for-me pop binge (Halsey's new album), but I also have been rediscovering my love Angelique Kidjo--her cover album of Talking Heads' Remain in Light is PHENOMENAL.
SUZANNE HE'S AMAZING!!!! I was hooked from the opening beat. Just absolutely stunning dimension, such a gorgeous voice, such power. Gotta look up these good recs!
I LOOOOOVE Agnes Obel. I’ve been listening to lots of Susanne Sundfør over here, as well as an old album of Martin Denny’s tiki classics—outdated, slightly problematic (white guy tiki music 👀), but one hundred percent cheesy and totally relaxing.
Sawbones by Anna Meredith just blows me away. That ecstatic rising energy.
Also gone back to listening to some old Danny Schmidt songs. There’s a line in Company of Friends about living smitten, which just resonates so much, and for me is about letting yourself unapologetically fall a little bit in love with books or music or people, to make your world a better place.
was so sad and horribly disappointed to hear about the destruction of Ballaké Sissoko’s kora but man is his music phenomenal! Playful and dense and transportive
Oh gosh, I haven't heard of any of these artists mentioned! I'll have to listen to them all, I love discovering new music. Orla Gartland, Tessa Violet, and dodie clark are among my favorites. I've been playing their newest releases on repeat for months on end.
My latest obsession includes a cover of "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" by Rachel Hardy! Nothing like singing along to a nerdy fantasy ballad in the company of equally nerdy friends.
Like most humans, my musical taste finds satisfaction in at least something from pretty much every genre. Still, methinks I'm too much of a metalhead for this crowd. I've never even heard of most of the names being dropped here. I'm going to have to check everyone out.
Most of what I've been listening to lately is BAND-MAID, an all-woman five-piece Japanese metal outfit. Their backstory is adorable--they were all solo artists who came together through a chain of being fans of each others' YouTube work. Their new album came out in December, and I can't stop playing it.
That sounds amazing!! More women-forward metal for meee! My recommendation streams for metal are very haphazard. I like a lot of the more folk-and-fantasy-adjacent stuff, like Nightwish, etc -- I was recently absorbing every possible version of a new-to-me French/Breton folk song & came across these:
Good goddess, I love these so much. I think you just punted me into a deep YouTube hole of folk metal. Thank you. :D
I honestly had no clue that this genre existed. The closest I've come before is probably Captain Tractor's cover of "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate", which is more straight-up rock than metal anyway, but there's a flute and cannons, so that counts for something.
I've heard of them but haven't gotten to listen to them yet. I'll have to check them out. Not sure if you like punk much but Otoboke Beaver fall in the same theme. They are a faced paced and frenetic Japanese female punk band.
I'm not sure if "Anata Watashi Daita Ato Yome No Meshi" was the place to start with Otoboke Beaver, but damn if it didn't hook me with its unpolished thrash. The video is a lovely middle-finger subversive addressal of marriage tropes in the best, most unsubtle punk tradition. They've got a new fan thanks to you. :)
I also teach & am in the final stages of a PhD! & besides that, most days I find writing easier outside of the home, so will either walk to my office or to a cafe to do so.
The official Broadway recording of "Hadestown" came out on Spotify last month, so I've been listening to that almost exclusively for most of the week.
Plus, the composer of Hadestown, Anais Mitchell, also released an album for a side project recently - a folk supergroup called "Bonny Light Horseman". It turns out to be great coffee shop music.
Anais Mitchell has steadily become one of my favourite musicians over the past decade. Almost every one of her albums is worth an intensive listening binge.
Absolutely agreed about Mitchell, & I really like BLH's first album!
I always get chocked up when I hear "why we built the wall"
So prescient
(I apologise; that was meant to be in my thread and now I can’t delete it!)
I forgot - I DO have one more, and how could I forget? Hero Fisher, with her dark mighty voice and poetic lyrics! Here (holds it out eagerly in two hands) https://youtu.be/sYZv38atlpA
I've been listening to a LOT of Glass Heart String Choir this week, after seeing them perform on Tuesday. Got the chance to see them again this coming Monday as well, which I'm absolutely leaping at. Beautiful sweeping baroque pop, with a gorgeous clear voice, violin and harp.
https://youtu.be/yetmISMSIIk
They're currently touring NZ with French For Rabbits, who are always a dreamy favourite.
https://youtu.be/wjx_WhrAQQM
Ooh! I've been listening to Orville Peck recently too. I've been humming Roses Are Falling for like 3 days straight. I've also been loving Dizzy Spells by Patience because it's great modern dreamy synth pop and good for a cleaning beat. Also, Cheap Queen by King Princess has been on my repeat since it came for the soulful bops that make my queer heart happy.
I love to see what everyone has posted. So many new tunes to check out!
I've been listening to Laura Stevenson's new album The Big Freeze for almost the entire year it's been out. It's just fit my mood for whatever reason
A very special album for me is "Même Pas Peur" by Plume. The music is unique and the lyrics are far from traditional song subjects. It is brings forth a mood on its own
I've been listening to the new album from Sakanaction lately. I missed it when it came out last year, but I'm glad to have found it now. There's an interesting range of music in there.
Also, I've been listening to a lot of the National, particularly their newest album, I Am Easy to Find. I suppose February is that sort of deep voiced melancholy type of month. But there are a lot of guest vocals on this album, and that's been very nice, as well.
Oh gosh if you've been listening to the National you need to read this essay by Helena Fitzgerald: https://griefbacon.substack.com/p/big-divorce-energy
Well, thanks to your mention of it on twitter, I've been absolutely smitten with Bonny Light Horseman. Comparing that with Child Ballads--which's prob tied with the broadway Hadestown for my fav Mitchell album has been magnificent. The way that, for me at least, Child seems such a genesis for Bonny, in much the same way the NYTW and concept were for Hadestown. Of course, they're dealing with very different content from Child to Bonny, but the way that Child is this quieter, stripped down version of folk, with guitar and strings, mostly showcasing Mitchell's vocals. But there's beginning to be bits of harmony with Jefferson there, and this idea of putting American sensibility on Scottish and English ballads. And then with Bonny, you're still getting her vocals, but jazzier, y'know? She's willing to play more with tempo, willing to bring in this whole pallet of instruments and play more with harmonies. (I think I'm thinking along this train because I was reading an interview of hers about Child, wherein she fretted about putting American sensibilities on these very European ballads, followed up by another about how she and Eric of Bonny were both such melody-driven vocalists. She was musing about the way in good harmony, the voices can almost disappear into the song, and how neither of them had those kind of easily choral voices, so 'twas a real challenge to create their own version of harmony. And it just got me thinking about how so much of her career, wonderfully, is about treading similar ground, but always looking for new angles, new evolutions.)
Thinking of other things: have you heard any Jason Isbell? He's from the American deep south, blends folk and gospel and bluegrass as seamlessly as most people breathe, and has been blowing my mind for months. My absolute current fav of his--which changes constantly; asking me about my fav music is so very much like asking about my fav book; a constant fluidity of answers--is Stockholm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny7NA9zeUTE
And because three things make a post--if I'm remembering that right from my long-ago lj days *g*--the other thing that delighted me this week was the broadway cast recording of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years. It's about the flowering and then slow implosion of a marriage, told in brilliant nonlinear fashion, with Jamie going forward from the beginning while Kathy reflects back and mourns from the end. I think it was Sondheim that said that excellent music is poetry with melody to complement, and that fits Five Years to a tee: he puts all these universal human emotions of love and bitterness and grief and joy into a crucible, and what you get is this concentrated, molten fourteen song mix that still leaves me breathless. And the vocalists are just sublime. The way the show's staged, apparently--I've never gotten to see but would love! to--they're very rarely acting opposite one another, b/c of the opposing timelines. And yet, Norbert Leo Butz and Sherie Rene Scott give these separately compelling performances that somehow crystalize into a perfect whole. If you haven't listened: https://open.spotify.com/album/6xRraUlXlqv1bsWioqYEyQ (if you have, well, I've gushed to verbosity; I hope you'll forgive me b/c it's fresh and I'm very gleeful.)
I am so excited to check out these two artists! I have never heard of them. :D :D
Through your recommendation, I have started reading the Myth & Moor blog. I have really enjoyed Terri's music recommendations. I started building a playlist to house them as I read it: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Q5Ali9F0RTtyfrSanQzA8. They have been the background music to my Winter. =)
OH, this's marvelous!!!!!! I've been wanting to check out the blog, and wondering how in the world I was gonna keep track of the music I inevitably adored; and then you came along with this magnificent pre-prepared catalog. <333333333 you a lot rn and am bookmarking for later.
OH, this's marvelous!!!!!! I've been wanting to check out the blog, and wondering how in the world I was gonna keep track of the music I inevitably adored; and then you came along with this magnificent pre-prepared catalogue. <333333333 you a lot rn and am bookmarking for later.
Spotify year in review said I spent most of 2019 listening to Max Richter. There's the lovely and haunting "Luminous" and "the end of all our exploring," the sweeping "Mrs Dalloway: War Anthem," and the more modern "Orlando: Modular Astronomy." I can always find something of his to suit the piece I'm working on.
Richter was one of my most delightful discoveries of 2019. I don't usually immediately buy albums--even with someone like Anais Mitchell, who probs became my overall fav artist of the year, it took me several listens of her work to know I wanted to own it. But by the second time I'd listened to his recompositions of Four Seasons, I knew it had to be in my music library, and it continues to be in almost constant rotation. One of my goals is to get through the rest of his catalog this year. I'm particularly intrigued by Blue Notebooks, cause I also adore Tilda Swinton, and by Sleep, cause damn it's such! a magnum opus. But honestly, everything he's turned his hand to--particularly music interspersed with classic lit readings--fascinates me. There's already such a thin line between music and poetry, and for him to embrace the connection even more thoroughly delights and inthralls me.
Steve Roach— who does a lot of meditative stuff that fits Eno’s original definition of ambient music, the “cusp between melody and texture”— is now releasing a lot of material under https://steveroachexclusive.bandcamp.com/ . If you're starting out with him, I’d suggest THE MAGNIFICENT VOID. https://steveroach.com/Music/discography.php?albumID=28 I am also quite fond of TO THE THRESHOLD OF SILENCE. https://steveroach.bandcamp.com/track/to-thethreshold-of-silence-available-as-individual-download
In psychill, I am still delighted with Crystal Vibe’s album, CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT. https://crystal-vibe.bandcamp.com/releases If you enjoy that, there is a lot more in that vein available from Altar Records. https://altar.bandcamp.com/
I've very much been enjoying the music on The Last Blog: https://www.thelast.blog/
Huh, the reply button is mysteriously missing on your posts, so I'm putting this here instead.
Julien did the shaking (I was very happy with the foaminess, but I have a sufficient aversion to raw egg that I didn't want to see her actually adding it, haha), but I think we mostly just added everything at once. What technique are we missing out on? :D
And re Boskone - that makes sense! Maybe I'll see you at readercon instead. :) (And yeah, I was excited to see Max on the programming! It'll be great to finally get to say hello. And upgrade to a double-signed copy of Time War, obviously.)
Probably my favourite newly-discovered music is MUNA's I Know A Place, which rapidly became one of my favourite songs. I also want everyone to listen to Christopher Tin, because his albums are absolutely marvellous and his soundtrack for Offworld Trading Company remains my favourite writing music.
PS: Reporting back on the cocktails - main takeaway is that egg whites were a big success. We tried, let me see, a gimlet, a bee's knees, and a whiskey sour, then started experimenting. I think the most successful was a whiskey sour but with maple syrup instead of sugar syrup. I also successfully made my two cocktail stand-bys (manhattan & cosmopolitan). I had no idea mixing drinks was so easy (and fun). This is extremely dangerous knowledge. :D
PPS: You won't be at Boskone by any chance, will you?
HOORAY FOR COCKTAILS! How are you deploying the egg white? Doing a dry shake (without ice) first, or second, or?
I made a bourbon sour with maple syrup last week as a stop-gap & was pleasantly surprised, but my fave sweetener in sours is still burnt honey syrup all the way. Just so much richer & more fragrant. But maple syrup has the benefit of being sufficiently liquidy to not need any other manipulation, so good to know it's there as a pantry staple!
Boskone -- I keep thinking, oh yeah, hey, why not, it's not that big a drive, it abuts on to my Reading Week, but I'd be driving by myself and I'm still not emotionally up to trying to cross the border alone. So alas, not this time. I've still never been to a Boskone, and would really like to some time. I hope you enjoy it! Pretty sure Max will be there!
Was just looking at Obel's upcoming tour dates with Dead Can Dance, aagh. Four hours isn't a long drive for that, right?
I just got turned on to Brittany Howard's solo stuff; she was (is?) with the Alabama Shakes.
OMG DEAD CAN DANCE! I haven't thought of them in ages -- I listened to them a loooot in the mid-2000s! Wonderful to see they're touring again!
I sing along to Familiar a lot lately, but I hadn’t been paying attention enough to know Obel had a whole album coming out. (Exciting!) Other than that, I feel a bit underqualified for this thread. My main repeat artist is (still!) Sofi Tukker, a playful and danceable New York-based duo (I’ll be seeing them live with my sister in April). The other thing I’m repeating of late is this fantastic DJ set from Kampire, which makes a joyful soundtrack for the morning walk to the transit stop. https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=708
oh wow, Hero Fisher is AMAZING! Thank you!!
Nooo nothing could underqualify you for this thread! Thank you for these recs!
Ha! I hope your co-named friend and you enjoy the vocal work on Canvas, Margot's last album. My Danish ancestors would be ashamed of me, that I ever implied they weren't Scandinavian.
Oh, dear. I think I was conflating Obel's bio with another artist I heard around the same time and figured she was German. Denmark is absolutely Scandi!
Ahh whew! I believe she's been living in Berlin for some time but is Danish, yes!
I have been years-in-love with a certain strain of Scandinavian ethereal vocal music. And I count Obel there, even if she's not technically regional. Aurora, Tiny Dragon, groups and musicians of similar ilk have made my time in cars and at work a foggy woodland of aural texture.
Last night my partner and I saw a neat show pairing looping vocalist Margot MacDonald (https://www.margotmacdonald.com/) and classical guitarist Piotr Pakhomkin, ostensibly collaborating and weaving strange soundscapes from their disparate genres.
Wait, does Denmark not count as Scandinavia? (I knew Finland didn't but -- has Scandinavia & the World LIED to me?!)
Grinned reading that rec coz my dear friend who's visiting me right now is named Margo MacDonald! Gotta give her a listen.
Agnes Obel is such a good sound. I am now pleasantly excited by the forthcoming album I did not know existed. : )
I've been listening to the soundtrack from Hadestown - I'm not a huge theater music person, but damn, it's gorgeous.
Ahhh, now the question becomes: which ONE? (I've loved HADESTOWN so much in so many iterations for almost the whole last decade).
If it's the Broadway one, do yourself the enormous joy of also digging up the NYTW soundtrack -- Hades & Persephone are the same, but you'll have an astonishingly different experience of Hermes, a little more Persephone, a little less Orpheus & Eurydice. It's not all the songs from the show, but it's the core of it, & it's amazing.
I recently bought Thomas Benjamin Wild, Esq.'s album; it's very hipstery, ukelele and vocals, but it's upbeat, jaunty, and his breakout hit is "I've No More Fucks to Give." So that's fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqbk9cDX0l0
I keep meaning to listen to Orville Peck and haven't gotten around to it yet! Lately I've been on an unusual-for-me pop binge (Halsey's new album), but I also have been rediscovering my love Angelique Kidjo--her cover album of Talking Heads' Remain in Light is PHENOMENAL.
SUZANNE HE'S AMAZING!!!! I was hooked from the opening beat. Just absolutely stunning dimension, such a gorgeous voice, such power. Gotta look up these good recs!
I LOOOOOVE Agnes Obel. I’ve been listening to lots of Susanne Sundfør over here, as well as an old album of Martin Denny’s tiki classics—outdated, slightly problematic (white guy tiki music 👀), but one hundred percent cheesy and totally relaxing.
Sawbones by Anna Meredith just blows me away. That ecstatic rising energy.
Also gone back to listening to some old Danny Schmidt songs. There’s a line in Company of Friends about living smitten, which just resonates so much, and for me is about letting yourself unapologetically fall a little bit in love with books or music or people, to make your world a better place.
"Living smitten," that is utterly beautiful. Thank you!
was so sad and horribly disappointed to hear about the destruction of Ballaké Sissoko’s kora but man is his music phenomenal! Playful and dense and transportive
Just looked this up -- so horrible. Another instance of TSA overreach & abuse. Thanks for the rec though!
Oh gosh, I haven't heard of any of these artists mentioned! I'll have to listen to them all, I love discovering new music. Orla Gartland, Tessa Violet, and dodie clark are among my favorites. I've been playing their newest releases on repeat for months on end.
My latest obsession includes a cover of "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" by Rachel Hardy! Nothing like singing along to a nerdy fantasy ballad in the company of equally nerdy friends.
Like most humans, my musical taste finds satisfaction in at least something from pretty much every genre. Still, methinks I'm too much of a metalhead for this crowd. I've never even heard of most of the names being dropped here. I'm going to have to check everyone out.
Most of what I've been listening to lately is BAND-MAID, an all-woman five-piece Japanese metal outfit. Their backstory is adorable--they were all solo artists who came together through a chain of being fans of each others' YouTube work. Their new album came out in December, and I can't stop playing it.
That sounds amazing!! More women-forward metal for meee! My recommendation streams for metal are very haphazard. I like a lot of the more folk-and-fantasy-adjacent stuff, like Nightwish, etc -- I was recently absorbing every possible version of a new-to-me French/Breton folk song & came across these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_JxZiLtG9c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pdGLsFjRSM
I lack the genre-knowledge to tell whether or not they're doing anything interesting or innovative but I sure do listen to them!
Good goddess, I love these so much. I think you just punted me into a deep YouTube hole of folk metal. Thank you. :D
I honestly had no clue that this genre existed. The closest I've come before is probably Captain Tractor's cover of "The Last Saskatchewan Pirate", which is more straight-up rock than metal anyway, but there's a flute and cannons, so that counts for something.
I've heard of them but haven't gotten to listen to them yet. I'll have to check them out. Not sure if you like punk much but Otoboke Beaver fall in the same theme. They are a faced paced and frenetic Japanese female punk band.
I'm not sure if "Anata Watashi Daita Ato Yome No Meshi" was the place to start with Otoboke Beaver, but damn if it didn't hook me with its unpolished thrash. The video is a lovely middle-finger subversive addressal of marriage tropes in the best, most unsubtle punk tradition. They've got a new fan thanks to you. :)
I've been listening to Zeal & Ardor lately.
Just curious. Since you're a writer, why do you need to walk to work?
I also teach & am in the final stages of a PhD! & besides that, most days I find writing easier outside of the home, so will either walk to my office or to a cafe to do so.