Wednesday 16 November 2011

Jónsi - Gathering Stories - New Song! ~ 1st Listen

:LINK:
Extract from NPR.org


Both with Sigur Rós, and in his solo work, Jónsi has always made music that captured the human adventure. Early on, it was obvious that this music would have a profound effect on the making of "We Bought A Zoo." In preparation for making the movie, we gave all the actors and crew members a copy of Sigur Rós transcendent documentary, "Heima," (Icelandic for "home"). We all watched the film and listened to the music, and it quickly seeped into our own journey in filming the real-life story of Benjamin Mee's book. The actors listened to the music during their takes; it was immediately part of the film's DNA. Even the signs guiding our crew members to the set revealed our inspiration "Heima." During filming, I sent Jónsi a photo of one of the signs. He wrote back with characteristic enthusiasm. On our last day of shooting in April, I contacted Jónsi again and asked him if he was interested in scoring the film. I sent him a copy of the script, and a Quicktime of one of the scenes. The story affected him. He'd already begun composing new music for the film when he arrived from Iceland with his toy sampler keyboard and a headful of ideas.
His first theme for the movie fit perfectly. Within a week, Jónsi had composed a series of themes that would reflect everything we'd hoped for. In his music were all the highs and lows and passionate in-betweens of the film itself. Over the course of several visits to Los Angeles, Jónsi sculpted and orchestrated a soundscape with elements I'd never had in a movie before: bells, strings, cymbals, toy pianos, even melodies played through a small Dictaphone. The instinct that began the movie had come full circle. On a warm fall night in October, we finished. The e-mail he sent last night before boarding the plane back to his home in Iceland says it all: "It was such a blast." And so it was. Here, with thanks from an inspired director, and special gratitude to Alex Somers, who helped shine it through a prism of love and wonder, is Jónsi's first score for film. This is his music for "We Bought A Zoo."
Cameron Crowe
October 2011

Monday 14 November 2011

Other Lives - privé sur le Mouv 03.11.11













Other Lives - privé sur le Mouv 03.11.11

A new find for me, Other Lives are such a great band, beautiful folk rock type complex yet simple interesting songs with great melodies. Their first album S/T had me captivated from the first song :)

Set List: (The tracks themselves aren't named, you can update the tagging yourself if you wish)



1 - As I Lay My Head Down
2 - Dark Horse
3 - Old Statues
4 - Landforms => Desert
5 - For 12
6 - Tamer Animals
7 - E Minor
8 - Weather
9 - Dust Bowl III
10 - Unkown
11 - Black Tables
12 - Unknown
13 - I Wanna Sniff Some Glue (Ramones Cover)
14 - Unkown
15 - The Partisan (Leonard Cohen cover)


[MF] Audio - download
[MF] Video - p1   p2   p3
WWW
More coming from Other Lives soon...

Friday 4 November 2011

The Loudness Wars...

16,000 Metallica sign an online petition to re-master Metallica's new album because its too loud !
BBC streamed program about this
Maybe you've listened to a CD recently that's been SO loud its unpleasant to listen to. Recently even some acoustic /vocal albums Ive heard have suffered badly from this. Anyway, hope you find it interesting :)

Emeralds - Demo 1 & 2

Probably more for fans as these rare demos are not quite in the same league as 'What Happened' or 'Does It Look Like Im Here' (Links to listen to)
[MF] Demos 1&2

Thursday 3 November 2011

Jónsi - We Bought A Zoo OST ~ info




















as reported previously, jónsi has spent some time working on the original motion picture soundtrack for the forthcoming cameron crowe movie “we bought a zoo“.
today sees the announcement of details of the soundtrack that comprises of over 30 minutes of brand new music from jónsi – the soundtrack comprises of two new songs from jónsi: “ævin endar” (life ends) & “snærisendar” (end of a rope) as well as nine shorter “theme” pieces, plus reimagining’s of songs from jónsi’s debut solo album “go”. the soundtrack also includes “hopipolla” by sigur rós.
here is some words about the soundtrack recording process:
“[jónsi] arrived from iceland with a toy sampler keyboard and a headful of ideas,” says cameron. “within a week, [he] had composed a series of themes that would reflect everything we’d hoped for. in his music were all the highs and lows and passionate in-betweens of the film itself. the instinct that made the movie come full circle.”
cameron’s relationship with jónsi and sigur rós goes back almost as far as the band’s position in the international spotlight, to 2001 and the director’s much-noticed inclusion of three of the band’s songs in the hugely successful tom cruise film ‘vanilla sky’. cameron has long heralded the band and their filmwork, to the extent that the secret project name for we bought a zoo was, in fact, ‘heima’ in honor of the band’s 2007 tour film.
“early on it was obvious that [sigur rós’] music would have a profound effect on the making of we bought a zoo,” says cameron. “in preparation for making the movie, we gave all the actors and crew members a copy of sigur rós’ transcendent documentary, ‘heima’.”
even ahead of getting jónsi on board as composer, we bought a zoo was broadly ‘temped’ with jónsi’ solo material. it’s an open secret that cameron would encourage matt damon, scarlett johansson and the other actors on the movie to listen to specific songs by the band to create the right energy for a scene.
“the actors listened to the music during their takes; it quickly became part of the film’s dna,” says the director.
perhaps even more potent is the fact that the closing scene of we bought a zoo is a cinematic homage to a specific moment in ‘heima’ when gleeful crowds stream in a sigur rós show in the far north of iceland or, in this case, the newly opened zoo.
among the original score and new songs is ‘gathering stories’, a song co-written by jónsi and cameron, in something of a collaborative first for the notoriously private icelander. orchestral arrangements on the score have been handled by previous jónsi working partner, and ‘reader’ soundtrack composer, nico muhly, who brings his quixotic genius to the string and brass sections.
here is the tracklisting for the soundtrack:
we bought a zoo soundtrack
01. why not
02. aevin endar – jónsi *new track
03. boy lilikoi – jónsi
04. sun
05. brambles
06. sinking friendships – jónsi
07. we bought a zoo
08. hoppipolla – sigur rós
09. snaerisendar
10. sink
11. go do – jónsi
12. whole made of pieces
13. humming
14. first day
15. gathering stories – jónsi *new track
the movie is released in america on the 23rd of december – the soundtrack is available to pre-order now from amazon.com with a release date of december 13th

~from Jonsi.com 2nd November 2011