Category: video

Jamie xx, “Gosh”

Jamie xx, “Gosh” from the Album “In Colour”

James Thomas Smith, known professionally as Jamie xx, is and English musician, DJ, record producer and remixer. He is known for both his solo work and as a member of the English indie pop band “The xx”.

He has been described as a “driving force” behind the xx, contributing to the group’s significant commercial and critical success. As a solo artist, he has been recognised with a 2015 Mercury Prize nomination, and a 2016 Grammy Award for Best Dance/ Electronic Album nomination for his debut album “In Colour”.

Arnald Amar, “Salvacci Denducci Pace”

Armand Amar, “Salvacci Denducci Pace” from the Album “Bab’Aziz”

Armand Amar is a French composer who grew up in Morocco. He plays congas, the tabla and the zarb. His works are focused particularly on Eastern music. He is the author of several ballets and soundtrack films such as “The Trail”, “Days of Glory”, “Earth from Above”, and “Home’. In 1994 he founded the label Long Distance with his partners Alain Weber and Peter Gabriel.

Bonobo, “No Reason”

Bonobo, “No Reason”, Featuring Nick Murphy

Simon Green , known by his stage name Bonobo, is a British musician, producer, and DJ based in Los Angeles.  He debuted with a trip-hop aesthetic, and has since explored more upbeat approaches while experimenting world music and jazz. His electronic sound incorporates the use of organic instrumentation, and is recreated by a full band during his live performances.

Fauve, “De Ceux (Of Those)”

Fauve, “De Ceux (Of Those)”

Fauve is a French arts collective of music and videography established in 2010 in Paris. It is an open collective containing at times more than twenty members: musicians but also visual artists, theater technicians, and comedians. On stage, the collective is represented by five musicians and a video artist, all remaining anonymous.

The name of the band inspired by “Les Nuits Fauves (Savage Nights)”, a 1992 France drama film written and directed by Cyril Collard. Its first release was the EP “Blizzard” which won the INOUIS Award as the discovery act of the festival Decouvertes du Printemps. The collective’s first album is called Vieux Freres, Part 1 and Part 2, released separately. . 

“We’re from those who aren’t noticed

Ghosts / transparent  people / tools

We’re from those who aren’t taken into account

We’re from those who are chosen by default”

Shanghai Restoration Project, “The Wandering Song”

Shanghai Restoration Project, “The Wandering Song” Featuring Zhang Le

This song is a remix of one of the two theme songs form the 1937 Chinese film “Street Angel”. The song “The Wandering Songstress” was composed by He Luting based on an older urban Suzhou ballad named “One Who Knows Me Well”. The lyrics for the film’s song was written by Tian Han. The actress Shou Xuan, playing the role of Xiao Hong, sang this song in the film.

The original song is one of the most notable of the Chinese popular songs from the 1930s and 1940s. It has been described as a song that has a lingering fame in China like “As Time Goes By” from the 1942 film “Casablance” has in the United States.

Ibrahim Maalouf, “Red and Black Light”

Ibrahim Maalouf, “Red and Black Light”, Live at Zenith Nantes Mertropole, 2016

Ibrahim Maalouf is a French-Lebanese trumpet player, composer and arranger. He was born in Beirut, Lebanon and now lives in Paris, France. He is the son of trumpeter Nassim Maalouf and pianist Nada Maalouf, nephew of the writer Amin Maalouf and grandson of journalist, poet, and musicologist Rushdi Maalouf. He is noted for playing Arabic music with quarter tones on the trumpet, which is a rare skill pioneered by hsi father and Don Ellis in the 1960s.

In July 2010, he was awarded the Instrumental Revelation of the Year at the French Jazz Music Awards (Victoires du Jazz), and more recently was awarded Best World Music Artist at the French Music Awards in 2014. Ibrahim teaches improvisation at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris. (Paris Regional Superieur Conservatory).

Shanghai Restoration Project, “Nanking Road”

Shanghai Restoration Project, “Nanking Road”, 2005

The Shanghai Restoration Project is a contemporary electronic music duo of Chinese Americans Dave Liang and Sunfan based in Brooklynn, New York. The group’s music is inspired by the Shanghai jazz bands of the 1930s, combining traditional Chines instruments with hip hop and electronica. Their 2014 album entitled “The Classics” was a collection of 1930s and 1940s Shanghai jazz standards in electronic format featuring vocalist Zhang Le.

Kenneth Bager, “Fragment Eight”

Kenneth Bager, “Fragment Eight”

Camera: Christopher Haering; Editing: Felix Drawe; Production Coordinator: Trung Le Kien

Kenneth Bager is a Danish musician and record producer with hsi beginnings as a DJ. In 1994, he released a compilation called “Music for Dreams” which featured Peter Gabriel and Michael Nyman and other musicians. His critically acclaimed debut album “Fragments From a Space Cadet” in 2006 won him the Danish Statens Kunstfond Award.

Perry Blake, “This Time It’s Goodbye”

Perry Blake, “This Time It’s Goodbye”

This song is in the soundtrack of the French-Belgian romantic drama film “Presque Rien (Come Undone)” directed by Sebastien Lifshitz. It depicts the stormy holiday romance between two 18 year-old guys and what remains of that relationship eighteen months later.  It stars Jérémie Elkaïm as Mathieu and Stephane Rideau playing the character of Cedric. Rather than having a clear, chronologically ordered narrative, the movie switches between the summer and the winter plotlines, depicting the differences in Mathieu’s life at both points.