
© Noga Erez (via YouTube)

© Noga Erez (via YouTube)

© Noga Erez (via YouTube)
Recently rediscovered Noga Erez through her relatively current single Nails (feat. Missy Elliott) and I can’t fathom how nonfamous she still seems to be despite her obvious talent.
Just listen to the new song and those amazing performances of ‘Views’ and ‘End Of The Road’ from her 2021 Album ‘Kids’ —which is still available as limited coloured vinyl:

© ECM Records (via YouTube)
Bordeaux Concert is a special document from Keith Jarrett’s last European tour. Each of Jarrett’s 2016 solo piano concerts had its own strikingly distinct character, and in Bordeaux the lyrical impulse is to the fore.

© Amistat (via YouTube)
Please treat yourself kind
Give yourself a gentle year
The next lines we’ll receive from you will tell the storm has cleared
Folks, we’ve entered melancholic-music-season again! Let’s celebrate with this hauntingly beautiful stripped-down version of Brave by Amistat recorded during a Live Session From Home.

© NPR / FKJ (via YouTube)
It’s about looking for a way out. Out of the adult mind. Well here I am, not being able to move much, with limited choices. Pretty much like when I was a kid, but where did my innocence go? Is it all in the head? Let’s pretend I know nothing then. Like when i first started. Let’s do it just for the play.
The recently released album ‘VINCENT’ by Vincent Fenton aka French Kiwi Juice –respectively the abbreviation FKJ– was the soundtrack of our trip to Italy lately. Last week the vinyl version of the wonderful album dropped, and the American nonprofit radio company NPR published an amazing tiny desk (home) concert with the french multi-instrumentalist and singer. I recommend everything; a trip to Italy, the album –especially in the form of the double LP– and of course the NPR concert.

© ARD / Alligatoah (via Youtube)
Ich mix’ uns Grippeviren mit Brausetabletten /
Nur wenn wir außer Gefecht sind, könn’n wir auch mal relaxen /
Ich verschiebe die Termine bis in alle Ewigkeit /
Viel zu viel zu tun für das bisschen Lebenszeit /
— Alligatoah feat. Felix Brummer – Beinebrechen
ardmediathek.de/video/friends-of-mdr-sputnik/friends-of-alligatoah

© ANTI / Fleet Foxes (via YouTube)
me by myself on the longest night of the year… honoring the loneliness of 2020 with a nylon string and some songs new and old.
In December 2020 on the winter solstice —just a few days after New York declared a state of emergency because of COVID-19 and forced a wide lockdown, Robin Pecknold performed acoustic arrangements of “some songs new and old” from various albums of his band Fleet Foxes as well as a Nina Simone cover (‘In The Morning’) and a traditional tune (‘Silver Dagger’) at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn. The recording of the live stream finally got a proper digital release –on Spotify for example– with physical formats to follow in Spring 2022.
A Very Lonely Solstice is a haunting depiction of the isolation a lot of us experienced in one way or another throughout the last two years and another beautiful cultural-historic document of our time. Furthermore, it’s the perfect score for dark winter days and a wonderful alternative to the more traditional –and often cheesy– Christmas time songs.

© The Howl & The Hum / Kobalt (via YouTube)
Hostages (Live Alternate Version) is probably one of my favourite songs this year, Human Contact is very likely one of my favourite albums this year –the studio version I missed in 2020 as well as the current live version– and The Howl & The Hum is most definitely my favourite band discovered this year. I might have a little crush on those lads.