Category Archives: contemporary music

Best releases of 2013 | Pieter de Rooij’s Top 15

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01. Anupama Bhagwat (India) – Ether | Raga/Hindustani
Anupama Bhagwat


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02. Valentina Lisitsa (USA) – Rachmaninov: The Piano Concertos | Western Classical
Valentina Rach concerti


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03. Valentina Lisitsa (USA) – Valentina Lisitsa plays Liszt | Western Classical
Valentina plays Liszt


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04. Sarah Jarosz (USA) – Build Me Up From Bones | Bluegrass/Folk/Americana
Sarah Jarosz


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05. Buika (Spain) – La Noche Mas Larga | Flamenco/Jazz
Buika La Noche


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06. Rokia Traoré (Mali) – Beautiful Africa | Blues/Rock
Rokia Traoré


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07 Anais Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer (USA) – Child Ballads | Folk
Child Ballads


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08. Debashish Bhattacharya (India) – Beyond the Ragasphere | Raga/Hindustani/Crossover
Debashish Bhattacharya


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09. Anoushka Shankar (India) – Traces of You | Raga/Crossover
Anoushka Shankar


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10. Natacha Atlas (Belgium/UK) – Live in Toulouse | Arabian pop
Natacha Atlas


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11. Valerie June (USA) – Pushin’ Against A Stone | Folk/Blues/Soul
Valerie June


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12. Jyotsna Srikanth (India) – Call Of Bengalore | Raga/Carnatic/Crossover
Jyotsna Srikanth


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13. Eva Quartet & Hector Zazou (Bulgaria/France) – The Arch | Crossover/Experimental
Eva Quartet & Hector Zazou


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14. Hilary Hahn (USA) – In 27 Pieces : The Hilary Hahn Encores | Western Classical
Hilary Hahn


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15. Various Artists (Brazil) – Daora: Underground Sounds of Urban Brasil | Hiphop/Afro/Dub
Daora

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For those funky lines and great soulgrooves… MonoNeon! (my favourite bass player on YT)

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Gosh, I really love this guy’s playing. I embedded only two examples here, but he has tons of stuff on his YouTubechannel. It’s Dywane Thomas Jr., as an artist going by the name of ‘MonoNeon’. He’s a young bass player from the United States. I found his videos a year ago on YouTube.
Yes, once I stumbled upon his channel I couldn’t of course miss his funny colourful presentation and his peculiar way of playing (and dressing up) his instrument – while being right handed, Dywane plays a right-handed bass guitar upside down with the left hand! – but right from the start I was infatuated by his bass playing alone. Awesome funky lines and soulgrooves all over the place.
It’s also obvious from MonoNeon’s videos that he’s an adventurous musician, looking for ways to try out new things and further develop his playing. Outside of his blues- soul- and funky homebase his playing of other genres is also pretty amazing. He knows his Zappa and his Coltrane and he even does a few videos where microtonal playing is involved, ranging from Indian raga-related to modern Western stuff.
I made a YouTube-playlist with a great selection of his videos, you can play my playlist from here. Otherwise, you can of course also visit his channel. This dude’s playing is a real delight, so check out what he’s got in store for you. Enjoy!

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Amelia Cuni’s beautiful interpretation of John Cage’s ‘Solo for Voice 58: 18 Microtonal Ragas’

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Early September 2012 I heard (and met) Italian dhrupad singer Amelia Cuni in Göttingen, where she did a concert titled Cosmopolit@n Ragas. It was a beautiful musical event in two parts, starting out with Amelia Cuni’s performance of a raga in traditional dhrupad style. Then she took things in another direction by presenting her dhrupad-styled improvisational skills in a very different musical framework: she performed John Cage‘s Solo for Voice 58: 18 Microtonal Ragas. Here I like to share a beautiful recording of Amelia Cuni interpreting this work of John Cage. Enjoy!

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Impressive overtones of Natascha Nikeprelevic

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An artist I’ve been admiring for many years is Natascha Nikeprelevic. With overtone singing as her basic means of musical expression she performs, improvises and interprets contemporary music. For a reference: on her MySpace page she mentions Pina Bausch, Kazuo Ohno, Robert Wilson, Michael Vetter and Karlheinz Stockhausen as her most important influences. Here’s a beautiful excerpt from ‘Alice in Wonderland’, her ‘journey of the human natural voice to the wonderland of synthetic sounds’.


Is there anything Natascha Nikeprelevic can’t do with her voice?

In Natascha Nikeprelevic’s work harmonic melodies and overtone arias emerge from what seem to be amorphous sound structures, noises and almost bizarre atonalities. Since 1997 she collaborates with Michael Vetter. Natascha Nikeprelevic has performed all over Europe and in the Far East and besides performing she also lectures for programmes of musicology, dance/theatre and jazz at several universities in and outside Europe.


An overtone singing workshop led by Natascha Nikeprelevic

If you want to hear from herself about her music and career check out this interview with Deutschland Radio Berlin.


RECITAL’REZITATIV for voice and tambura

And speaking of Natascha’s work, I can’t resist referring to a video and a soundscape I made for fun a few years ago, in which her voice is one of the predominant elements. This one…

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