The Philosopher's Attic

Music is one of the most visceral and dividing standards of any culture that there is. Ever since the production spans of albums and concert tours have lessened, the explosion of styles and their according subcultures has become a phenomenon like no other in the history of mankind.
According to what you like to listen to, there’s a whole lifestyle that goes with it today. And while that in itself is an interesting observations, it’s not the aim of this post or the new series I am starting today.
Among this major industry and between bill board charts and sales, there are artists that get lost, but not unheard.

Some of these artists deserve a bit more exposure and I thought that by sharing a few of the hidden gems I have waiting in my iTunes library with readers and friends, everyone could be served.

So, sit back and let yourself be inspired by artists and songs that you barely hear on any radio station or in any chart listing.

Madrugada

A group I discovered through my husband who in turn discovered them when he visited friends and working collegues in Norway. The band name is in fact misleading rather pointing to a Spanish dawn rather than Norwegian solid guitar rock with a voice to melt stones and rival with the best from Bryan Ferry to Nick Cave. After four studio albums and waiting for the big break in the US or across mainstream Europe, the band’s guitarist died under unknown circumstances in his flat… they finished their last record titled Madrugada nevertheless and all fans agree: it’s probably their best. Unfortunately it seems like it will also be their last. The group has split up and no notice of a reunion has been announced.
The first video was the first song I got to hear from them and I’ve been under their charm instantly. Melancholic, haunting and with texts as bold and poignant as they get.
In between Albums, they recorded a song for Ane Brun’s Duet album, another fine artist that will be featured here very soon.

Ane Brun and Madrugada

And finally, last year, after the sudden death of their guitarist, the group finished the album with the remaining artists and it is my favourite of them so far.
Listen to this to know what I mean:

Sivert Høyem’s voice holds so many colours, so many shades of emotions and the sound has a feel of something you’ve known for a long time… like your favourite sweater or cardigan, that wraps itself around your soul and heart and leaves no place for superficiality.

• Madrugada on Wikipedia
• Official Homepage
• Madrugada Lyrics

EDIT: RSS Subscribers, please read the original post on the blog to see and listen the embedded videos that apparently aren’t parsing properly here. Sorry for the inconvenience.

yseult Personal, Soulfood art, music

One of my big loves and heartaches at the same time is any kind of irish or celtic music. Heartaches because one of my unaccomplished dreams was to learn the Irish Harp and play the flute or Ullean Pipes in a pub somewhere in the backland of Donegal. Sounds like your average point on a list of things you’d like to do before you die. A bucket list of sorts. The longing in my case however takes on dimensions that can border on the tag of ‘unrequited love’.

Apart from one of my favourite Podcasts, the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast I satisfy my longing and dreams with quite a few folk and irish artists. Of course there are the well known ones such as Enya, Clannad, Loreena McKennitt or even Moya Brennan and Aiofé that quite often make it into the bill board charts – particularly around Christmas – there are some that offer a heartfelt new interpretation of the Irish theme to the lover of such music.

One name that is not so widely known is Kate Rusby. Even if The Guardian and other English Newspapers declared her the most well known folk singers of our times, outside of the UK barely anybody has ever heard of her.
And even if such well known names as John McCusker (who later became her husband) show the level of her work and brilliance in her tone and writing, outside of the folk scene, not one song of her was ever featured anywhere else but on the CD of the Sharpe Series.

Originally from South Yorkshire, born into a family of musicians as is the case with most folk singers or musicians, Rusby is a very discrete artist, again not unlike a lot of artists from this genre. But as Helen Brown wrote in the Daily Telegraph about Awkward Annie (her last album of 2007): Listening to Kate Rusby’s lovely new album, it occurred to me that she’s England’s answer to Dolly Parton. Not in terms of the wigs and the sequins, but in her quaveringly sincere ability to tell a simple, downhome story in a song and make your heart ache for it. No scandals, but so much talent.

The only song to ever make it into the official Chartsin 2006 was ‘All Over Again’ which featured Rusby beside Ronan Keating. A song he redid and resang with other female singers such as Foortje. (Read her biography on her official site from the first link on how much she liked that cooperation.)

After six studio albums and countless folk festivals, Rusby has never lost that spherical shine in her voice which comes naturally and without any superficiality through the headphones. Her music is something to be put on in the early hours of a Sunday morning when the fog hasn’t lifted and exposed the land below. When the idea of a fairy dancing around your garden, gracing it to flower, is not yet burnt away by the midday sun.

Edit: Again it’s impossible to get my RSS to show all the Youtube videos I embedded. So please, head over to the post site to get all the goodness.

yseult Personal, Soulfood folk, music, song

It’s time for another instalment of this series. Hope you like this one, because it’s a precious little pearl.

Eastmountainsouth will for me always be associated with my time in Paris. Forever will I see the snow storms and be reminded of the cold moments I spent in the city of millions, of the pain, but also of the exhilarating tension through which I lived there.

Their version of Hard Times (an old classic that goes back to the Civil War Time, or so it is rumoured) is such an uplifting song that even my solitude of the time couldn’t resist it’s charm.
Unfortunately there’s only a small bit of their version online to be found on Last.fm.

Founded in 1999, the group joined together the vocally astonishing Kat Maslich and the equally amazing Peter Adams. Both singers and writers had Southern backgrounds which can be clearly heard at some points in their album.
They only ever produced on album together under the name of their ‘band’ and which only came out in 2003, years after they had met and started working together. It remains to this day a perfect piece of music that unfortunately didn’t find any succession either by them continuing to work together or by either Adams or Maslich apart.

Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of videos that I could link here online, but you can listen to them on Last.fm or Pandora, their yahoo music site gives all the info you need. But if you trust me a little bit, then you’ll just go and buy the album. it’s worth it.

Not only are their texts of a particular clarity and a touching emotional expression, but their music has something timeless in it’s depths. Something that just can’t leave you cold. Something that can hardly be described other than that certain longing for completeness while valuing your own incompleteness.

I’ll leave you with one of the most amazing songs ever written: So are you to me.

Update:
Meanwhile, someone has put their version of Hard Times on Youtube: Enjoy.

yseult Personal, Soulfood music, song