singer-songwriters
Agnes Obel, Union ChapelTuesday, 08 November 2011
It’s easy to get lost in the music of Danish singer-songwriter Agnes Obel. As she ended with "On Powdered Ground" singing “don’t break your back on the track”, her piano meshed with a cello and a Scottish harp, making what was already an affecting... Read more... |
CD: Ane Brun – It All Starts With OneWednesday, 19 October 2011
Although Norwegian, Ane Brun’s biggest impact has been in Sweden, where she lives. Since her last studio album, she’s toured and recorded with Peter Gabriel. Her new album again finds her diving off the expected path, throwing herself forcefully... Read more... |
Fatoumata Diawara, Jazz CaféFriday, 14 October 2011
When I first saw this Malian singer-songwriter a few months ago at a showcase gig in a grimly carpeted basement bar in Clerkenwell it was hard to imagine a less appropriate space for such a regally beautiful woman to be found in. Yet within a couple... Read more... |
Nerina Pallot, Shepherds Bush EmpireFriday, 07 October 2011
It’s been a long-standing source of surprise to me how Nerina Pallot continues to operate a whisker under the radar. From the get-go, 10 years back, she’s had the voice, songs and looks to be a star. Maybe a decade ago was the wrong time for her.... Read more... |
Emmy the Great, Pleasance, EdinburghSaturday, 24 September 2011
“Are there any freshers in the audience?" asked Emma-Lee Moss halfway through last night’s set. Two voices raised a muted cheer. Whatever else your average 18-year-old might have been doing, cut loose from the apron strings for the first time in the... Read more... |
CD: Fatoumata Diawara - FatouWednesday, 14 September 2011
Malian singer-songwriter Fatoumata Diawara produces guitar riffs that are like quiet musical mantras from which songs seem to blossom like exquisite orchids. Or at least that’s the effect achieved by a combination of the songs themselves and the... Read more... |
theartsdesk Debate: The Art of PerformanceSaturday, 10 September 2011
To celebrate theartsdesk's second birthday on Friday, we held a panel discussion on The Art of Performance at Kings Place, London, in the Kings Place Festival. Actor Toby Jones, singer-songwriter Mara Carlyle, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani and... Read more... |
CD: Ed Sheeran - +Saturday, 10 September 2011
When I lived in Brighton in the mid-Nineties, a certain type was 10 a penny. Young, stoned, middle-class buskers, acoustic guitar strummers who were au fait with hip hop and able to improvise endless streams of witty wordplay and often to make human... Read more... |
John Grant with Midlake, Royal Festival HallThursday, 08 September 2011
John Grant’s Queen of Denmark was released less than 18 months ago. Yet here it is, already being performed at one these "so-and-so plays such-and-such an album" shows. Does it merit this treatment? Based on last night, yes. This one-off reunion of... Read more... |
The Arts Desk Birthday Event - Join Us on 9/9!Sunday, 04 September 2011On 9 September theartsdesk, Britain's first professional arts journalism site, will be two years old. To celebrate we’re holding a live debate with four leading performers during the Kings Place Festival. An actor, a singer, a dancer and an... Read more... |
Gilbert O’Sullivan: Out on His Own, BBC FourFriday, 26 August 2011
While obviously not as seismic a Top of the Pops moment as Ziggy singing “Starman”, the almost contemporaneous appearance of the flat-capped Gilbert O’Sullivan hunched over his piano as if it were a dying coal fire certainly stuck in my memory as... Read more... |
CD: Lucas Santtana - Sem NostalgiaWednesday, 17 August 2011
I first heard Bahia-born Lucas Santtana on the best compilation of contemporary Brazilian music of the past couple of years, Oi! A nova musica Brasileira. His track “Hold Me In”, an acoustic slice of bossa nova, was a quiet interlude amonst all the... Read more... |
