Category: video

Sam Smith, “Stay With Me”

Sam Smith, “Stay With Me”

Samuel Frederick “Sam” Smith is an English singer-songwriter. He rose to fame in October 2012 when he was featured on Disclosure’s breakthrough single “Latch”, which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart. His subsequent feature—on Naughty Boy’s “La La La”—earned him his first number one single in May 2013.

In December 2014, Smith was nominated for six Grammy Awards, and at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2015 he won four: Best New Artist, “Stay with Me” for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and In the Lonely Hour for Best Pop Vocal Album. At the 2015 Brit Awards, he won the awards for British Breakthrough Act and Global Success. In October 2015, Smith’s composition “Writing’s on the Wall” for the James Bond film Spectre was released, for which he received a Guinness World Record when it became the first Bond theme song to reach number one in the UK.

In May 2014, Smith revealed to the public that he is gay. He acknowledged a relationship—since ended—with actor and model Jonathan Zeizel. At the 2015 Grammy Awards, where he won four categories, he said, “I would like to thank the man that I fell in love with last year – the man who this album is about. Thank you so much for breaking my heart, because you got me four Grammys!”.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Paco Peña, “Flamencura”

Paco Pena, “Flamencura”

Paco Peña is a Spanish flamenco composer and guitarist. He is regarded as one of the world’s foremost traditional flamenco players.

Born in Córdoba, Spain as Francisco Peña Pérez, Paco Peña began learning to play the guitar from his brother at age six and made his first professional appearance at twelve. Encouraged by his family, he left home and began performing throughout Spain as part of a government-sponsored folk music and dance program. This led to calls from professional flamenco companies in Madrid and the Costa Brava, where Peña established himself as a highly regarded accompanist to flamenco dance and singing.

Peña also created the Centro Flamenco Paco Peña in Córdoba, and was responsible for the founding of the now-celebrated annual Córdoba Guitar Festival, which has seen appearances by other flamenco greats such as Manolo Sanlúcar and Paco de Lucía. In 1997 Peña was named Oficial de la Cruz de la Orden del Mérito Civil by King Juan Carlos of Spain.

His most famous compositions include his Misa Flamenca (a flamenco Mass), and Requiem for the Earth, both of which have received great critical acclaim.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Gustavo Santaolalla, “All Gone (No Escape)”

“All Gone (No Escape)”, Composed by Gustavo Santaolalla for “The Last of Us”

The Last of Us is an action-adventure survival horror video game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was released for the PlayStation 3 on June 14, 2013; an updated version, The Last of Us Remastered, was released for the PlayStation 4 on July 29, 2014. Players control Joel, a man tasked with escorting the young Ellie across a post-apocalyptic United States. The original score was composed by Gustavo Santaolalla.

The Last of Us received critical acclaim.  Metacritic calculated an average score of 95 out of 100, indicating “universal acclaim”, based on 98 reviews. GameRankings assigned it an average review score of 95% based on 68 reviews. It is the fifth-highest rated PlayStation 3 game on both Metacritic and GameRankings. Reviewers praised the character development, story and subtext, visual and sound design, and depiction of female and LGBT characters. The game is considered one of the most significant titles of the seventh generation of video games, and has been included among the greatest video games of all time.

Gregory Alan Isakov, “The Stable Song”

 

Gregory Alan Isakov, “The Stable Song” from the Album “That Sea, The Gambler”

Gregory Alan Isakov is a singer-songwriter. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, he immigrated to the United States as a child, and was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, he began touring with a band at the age of 16, and later moved to Colorado. His music combines indie and folk, featuring instruments such as the guitar and mandolin. Some of his most popular songs include “The Stable Song”, “Big Black Car”, and “Raising Cain”.

Isakov has spent his entire life traveling, and as a result, his travels have impacted his songwriting; his songs tell stories of miles and landscapes and the search for a sense of place. Music has been a constant force in his life, as he says, “I’ve always had this sense about music and writing, that I sort of have to do it. Like I’ll implode without it. I probably wouldn’t do it if I felt any other way.”

A great song by a guy with a great voice. Hope you enjoy it.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Mazzy Star, “Fade Into You”

Mazzy Star, “Fade Into You”, 1994

I want to hold the hand inside you
I want to take a breath that’s true
I look to you and I see nothing
I look to you to see the truth
You live your life
You go in shadows
You’ll come apart and you’ll go blind
Some kind of night into your darkness
Colors your eyes with what’s not there.

Fade into you
Strange you never knew
Fade into you
I think it’s strange you never knew

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Patrick Wolf, “Penzance”

Patrick Wolf, “Penzance”

Patrick Wolf is an English singer-songwriter from South London. Patrick utilises a wide variety of instruments in his music, most commonly the ukulele, piano and viola. He is known for combining electronic sampling with classical instruments. Wolf’s styles range from electronic pop to Baroque chamber music.

On 27 February 2007, in an interview with thelondonpaper, Wolf raised questions about his sexuality: “In the same way I don’t know if my sixth album is going to be a death-metal record or children’s pop, I don’t know whether I’m destined to live my life with a horse, a woman or a man. It makes life easier.” In a 5 July 2007 interview with the Sydney Star Observer, he confirmed his sexuality: “My sexuality is kind of liberal. I fall in love with men and women. I guess you would call me bisexual. I like to have sex and fall in love—I don’t like giving terminology for my sexuality.” Later, in 2009, Wolf told The Guardian that though in the past he has had relationships with women, he currently identifies himself as gay. As an artist, Wolf reflects that he doesn’t like to worry about whether he makes a record “too gay or too straight or too this or too that.”

In September 2008, Wolf claimed that he was beaten up by security guards for kissing his boyfriend at a Madonna concert in London. Wolf told Electroqueer: “We were beaten up outside Wembley [Stadium], handcuffed. […] The police came and it just went on and on and on. My man’s face covered in blood. […] They totally twisted my arm and my legs – it was just mad. They are currently researching the CCTV – it just really nuts. [— sic] We basically got beaten up by the police.”

On 31 December 2010, Patrick Wolf announced via Twitter that he was set to enter a civil partnership with his boyfriend William Pollock.

This is one of my favorite songs by Patrick Wolf. Enjoy.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Queen and Adam Lambert, “We Will Rock You”

Queen and Adam Lambert, “We Will Rock You” and “We Are the Champions” at the New Year’s Eve Concert in London 2014

Queen + Adam Lambert (sometimes referred to as Q+AL or QAL) is a collaboration between the active members of the British band Queen (Brian May and Roger Taylor) and American vocalist Adam Lambert. As with all other Queen performances since 1997, original bassist John Deacon has declined to participate in the project due to his retirement. This is the first long-term collaboration of Queen since the Queen + Paul Rodgers project ended in 2009.

The collaboration originated when May and Taylor appeared on American Idol in 2009 when Lambert was a contestant. They began performing occasionally in 2011, conducted a short European tour in 2012, and in 2014 announced a world tour, the Queen + Adam Lambert Tour 2014–2015 with dates in North America, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe.

The band performed a special concert, Queen + Adam Lambert Rock Big Ben Live, which was broadcast live on BBC One on New Year’s Eve 2014 and New Years Day 2015. The concert was performed in the shadow of Big Ben in Central Hall Westminster, and the show paused for the chimes of the Big Ben in the New Year countdown and the firework display in London.

Owen Pallett, “Odessa”,

Owen Pallett, “Odessa”, (Caribou Cover)

Michael James Owen Pallett is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist, who performs solo as Owen Pallett or, before 2010, under the name Final Fantasy. As Final Fantasy, he won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds.

From the age of 3, Pallett studied classical violin, and composed his first piece at age 13. A notable early composition includes some of the music for the game Traffic Department 2192; he moved on to scoring films, to composing two operas while in university. Apart from the indie music scene, he has had commissions from the Barbican, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Ballet of Canada, Bang on a Can, Ecstatic Music Festival, the Vancouver CBC Orchestra, and Fine Young Classicals.

On his Final Fantasy releases, Pallett has collaborated with Leon Taheny, who is credited as drummer and engineer. Following the release of Heartland, Pallett has toured with guitarist/percussionist Thomas Gill and more recently with his former collaborators in Les Mouches, Rob Gordon and Matt Smith.

Pallett has been noted for his live performances, wherein he plays the violin into a loop pedal. Pallett uses Max/MSP and SooperLooper to do multi-phonic looping, which sends his violin signal to amplifiers across the stage.

Pallett believes his work is implicitly influenced by his sexuality, saying, “As far as whether the music I make is gay or queer, yeah, it comes from the fact that I’m gay, but that doesn’t mean I’m making music about it.”

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

Nicolas Deveaux, “5.80 Metres”

Nicolas Deveaux, “5.80 Metres”;  Directed by Nicolas Deveaux: Music by Olivier Milton, Released in Paris 2012

As a writer and director of animation films (3D and relief), Nicolas Deveaux has a very personal world around two passions : image and the animal world. In 2003, fresh out of his degree in computer graphics, he directed “7Tonnes2″, a short-film showing a realistic elephant trampoline champion. Its critical acclaim (Annecy Festival) gave him the opportunity to work on mny projects from documentaries to commercials and even amusement park films .

If you missed seeing “7 tonnes2″, that film by Deveaux is also posted on this blog. Check it out.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)