Laurie Anderson- Homeland (2010)

http://www.mediafire.com/?o81psbwqdxsozvd

As an artist and a violinist, I am unabashedly infatuated with Laurie Anderson. And if you are reading this, I don't need to talk about how awesome she is.

"Homeland" is interesting in that it is a document of a performance that she performed on tour for awhile. I love that idea--the "tour" first with the album later. And Homeland is also interesting because it's just weirdly dark, but also really accessible. It's clearly about the entire 9/11 paranoia.

Musically, it has songs that could allllmost end up on the radio, though most of it is pretty atmospheric. At times it feels like an "Americana" soundtrack, with lots of lonesome fiddles playing together and against each other. And the awesome voicebox is back, which makes at least one song in particular feel wonderfully creepy.

"In America, we like solutions. We like solutions to problems. Companies with experts ready to solve these problems. Only an expert can solve these problems."


Can you comprehend that she's married to Lou Reed? That still seems so strange to me. Also kind of funny that Art21 just featured her. Hey Laurie, thanks for being an amazing artist for 30 years. It's cool if we throw you a bone now, right?

Leif Fairfield- The Infamous Sun Drips Extended Play Disc Written by The Sleeping Sea (2011)

http://www.mediafire.com/?bj1716o1mh71jow

Cincinnati-based Leif Fairfield plays as a member of the band The Sleeping Sea. When he joined, he was given an EP of songs that were to be recorded "in the future," but being impatient, he created his own versions of these songs before the whole band could do it.

Sun Drips EP sounds like a cross between his solo recordings and his alias I Do. The disc features the usual violin and layers of voice, but with plenty of internet found sound, dub music leanings, and video game references. In true Fairfield fashion, it goes from ridiculous to pretty in a matter of minutes, and his covers range from respectful to complete re-interpretations (including his "cover" of "Rain Drips" that posits David Bowie-like vocals over the opening theme for the Nintendo game The Adventure of Link). It flows together as a single disc, and songs have multiple versions.

Check out the band photo!

Also a graphic designer, he created the album artwork. Yay!

Aaron Martin- Worried About the Fire (2010)

http://www.mediafire.com/?lwqyrhy8nzt3bbr

Aaron Martin made one of those records that i wish i had made. It's moody, airy, deep, creepy, breathy, and beautiful. Very sparse instrumentation that somehow feels both ethereal and Appalachian. Think of bowed saws, looped violins, nebulous electronics, and sparseness. Or, imagine "Brian Eno: Music for Tall Forests in The Snow."

This is one of those amazing albums that can be listened to actively or passively, as background music or meditation music.

Highly recommended. I need to check out more of his stuff.

Laurie Anderson- Big Science (1980)

http://www.mediafire.com/?gnb19beaxav3v91

I am starting to prefer artists who straddle different genres, ideas, or modes of expression. Sometimes, the result is a very fabulous aesthetic that leaves all parties feeling a little bit awkward. And that is fantastic.

It's hard to describe what Laurie Anderson does, exactly. One of her earliest musical performances was her playing violin on a street corner wearing ice skates embedded in giant blocks of ice. When the ice had completely melted, she stopped playing violin (see an amazing continuation of that here).

She might be the only artist/violinist you have ever experienced. You might say her main language is performance, but when she started putting out albums, it demolished that idea. Big Science is a strange collection that mashes together violin parts, vocoder, pop hooks, spoken word, singing, poetry, sound... they're not really "songs" per se, perhaps not even music, really... but what to call them?

Big Science--surprisingly--had a massive radio hit, "O Superman (For Massanet)." That has to be the strangest "song" that ever landed in the top 5 (and a surreal-beautiful video). Yet more evidence that the 80s were a far superior decade for music.

Rayon De Lune- Aromates/ Michele Claude

http://www.mediafire.com/?3wr2jo88k45mpk8

This is a hard cd to sum up, but it's one that is really amazing. It's apparnetly a French group, but they definitely are drawing from a variety of musics in the region.

I'm not doing it justice. But if you have any interest in jazz, Arabic/Andalusian, gypsy, and eastern classical music, give it a listen.

Here is Amazon's description:
"Michèle Claude and his Ensemble Aromates had a French hit album in 2005, Jardin de Myrtes, which appeared on both classical and pop charts for several weeks. Now this exciting artist and his group offer what is possibly an even better album, combining the musical idiom of Al Andalous in Spain with the timbres of the organetto, psaltery, harpsichord, and a rich selection of percussion instruments. Ensemble Aromates consists of classically trained musicians evolving into different musical horizons--medieval, baroque, contemporary, jazz, gypsy, and salsa. They love improvising, and pay tribute to musicians from all traditions, oral and written."

Leif Fairfield- Facts of War

Leif Fairfield- Facts of War (2011)

http://www.mediafire.com/?m4mqviii9hj1fsa

Troubadour musician Leif Fairfield first cut his teeth with the 2005 "Delaware Sessions," a Berkeley-birthed cd that made pop music really tiny, basing songs around plucked violin and tentative vocals. Facts of War is his first full length offering since (with a smattering of EPs scattered throughout) and finds the emotional attachment cranked up a few notches, with some improved musical chops. An audio chronicling of his relocations from San Francisco to Knoxville to Cincinnati, this cd is full of screechy noise, darker lyrics, and pop sensibilities.

This cd squishes the devotional with the confessional, blurring the personal with the projected. And like all of Fairfield's cds, it has at least one song about suicide and/or dying. Go figure.

Think of it as a sound lasagna, with layers of violin and effects, filled with vocal harmonies, and drizzled with a small sprinkling of acoustic string instruments. Recommended for fans of Andrew Bird, Grizzly Bear, and Brian Eno.

Featuring Peralta Pirates Bryan Maurer and Matt Kronbach, plus Cincinnati staple Sonic Elf.