Review: Sora - Celtic / World Music with an Angel Voice

We're on a Celtic kick at the moment - not least 'cos of the free website giveaway that a musician / band or artist can win over at Kilted Chaos - but specifically because this week we've been listening to the music of Sora.

Sora is a Canadian Celtic / World singer songwriter who's new album Heartwood has just been released; you can hear it streaming on MySpace by clicking on the image below.

Immediate reference points are Enya & Loreena McKinnitt but Sora is all about the voice - and what a voice; it reminds me of the double edged broadsword that William Wallace wields in Braveheart - which could sound pretty scary but she has the control to harness its power & deliver some of the simplest and cleanest melodies I've heard in a long while. My mum would absolutely love this.

Sora's music can be found on a number of web sites, but her MySpace page is probably the easiest - there are 10 tracks available for streaming from Heartwood and they're all worth getting to know. Quick note on her production and the musicianship of her band - they're great! You can buy Heartwood from CDbaby

One of the things that I think Sora does well is the use of her video blogs - she has an infectious personality and is clearly passionate about what she does - you can see them on her website and her facebook page. Her website looks as though it could use a hand as getting around is a little difficult - she should definitely enter this competition.

Sora's official web site is www.soramusic.ca.
ReverbNation

Sigur Rós - amazing music2work2

Sigur Rós is a name I’ve been seeing for a while – immediate references would be Radiohead meets Enya but bands from many different genres reference them as influences. I’d made a mental note to check them out and found myself last week on youtube watching – Glósóli. If you’re not in a rush and you have 6 or 7 minutes to spare – check out the video below – I think the music and video are stunning.

Sigur Rós: Glósóli

If you want to put a huge smile on your face and you have another 5 minutes – check out Hoppipolla – it leaves me grinning and full of hope.

I believe that music is good for you; quite literally, that just having it on within earshot is like a primer that juices your brain and helps you do things. The most prevalent type of music in society today is a 3 or 4 minute long idea that is designed to catch and hold your attention, which is great a lot of the time, but not always.

One of the ideas behind music2work2 is that I can find song lyrics distracting when I’m reading or writing – not all the time, but when I am creating something new or absorbing a particular idea, it’s those words that I want to focus on – not the singer’s story. I like the idea of longer form music, of having a theme that is continuously developed, that changes dynamically and which evokes emotion. The beauty of Sigur Rós is that the lyric is in Icelandic, incomprehensible to me and therefore perfect music to work to.

Of course, up until recently it has been hard to learn about and find music like this – it’s not designed for the current music industry. But things have changed; my music discovery has little to do with radio, nothing to do with television and everything to do with my computer, the one radio show that I do listen to (WMBR's ZoëRadio) I often end up catching the podcast. I get my music through email, from RSS, from websites and of course friends. If you dig Sigur Rós – tell someone about them – write your own post or tweet this one – you’ll be doing them a favor.

Let the Right One in

Taking a little side step from Music to comment on a recent movie that I had the pleasure of watching courtesy of Jason Calacanis and the team at Mahalo - a kick ass human powered search engine - algorithms don't have feet! "Let the Right One in" is a Swedish horror movie, it has a vampire in it - which helps - but it's more about themes like: isolation, youth, men with beards and being very fucking cold - you can almost feel the chill coming through the screen.   There is one brief reference to Brezhnev which helps date the movie - but I'm guessing it was the General Secretary's pre-Abba days - bleak would be a fair description of the world portrayed in the movie.

Check out the trailer below:

I dug it - but you really don't want to be watching this movie in a hurry - it is paced as slow as a slow thing - the clip above probably contains 80% of the entire action in the movie - and the movie's 2 hours long. If you dig the whole Bergman thing and enjoy intelligent movie making - then check it out - if you're looking for mindless escapism then this is probably not for you.