museradio.fm blog

The future of museradio.fm

Olivia — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 11:10:33 +0000

It has been almost a year since we launched museradio.fm and we’re constantly racking our brains and trying to figure out if we can turn this labour of love into a business.

So after many discussions, much debate and advice from people who know more than us (there are not many around but we did find some ), we have decided to take the bold step and go for a subscription model. The ‘everything-free-all-the-time’ model that has seen the internet grow at a phenomenal rate is clearly unsustainable and people are beginning to understand that for quality, you have to pay.

Before you start typing your exclamatory comments, let me just mention that there will still be free content on the site and that the monthly subscription, which will give you access to all the past playlists and some exclusive content, will be ridiculously cheap! Less than a pint at the pub in fact. Plus we will be bringing you a brand new site with vastly improved features as well as great podcasts spotlighting some of our favourite artists.

OK, now you can type your comments! We would love your feedback on this, so please drop us a note below or send us an email at olivia (at) museradio (dot) fm or lilly (at) museradio (dot) fm.

Buy from Amazon

Lilly — Tue, 04 May 2010 11:09:39 +0000

You can now buy museradio.fm playlists and CDs that we recommend through Amazon.

Most people have their card details in Amazon, which makes it super easy to use.

We also like the fact that you can buy CDs, not just MP3 because sometimes there are albums that are great from start to finish.

As always, we will only recommend a CD when we think its really worth being part of your collection, never for just one good song.

Let us know if you think or new Amazon store is useful.

Kroke playing at the Southbank Center 30 May

Lilly — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:08:41 +0000

Kroke (Yiddish for Krakow) are a very talented Polish klezmer-inspired group made of up 3 old friends classically trained on viola, accordion and double bass. The word klezmer generally makes me think of frenetic brass ensembles, however in relation to Kroke the term can be misleading. Their sound is much broader, encompassing Jewish, Middle Eastern, gypsy and classical traditions. The mood is romantic and lyrical, tangible coming out of old traditions but not confined to them. They have done a number of interesting collaborations with different musicians and a track was recently featured on David Lynch’s last film, Inland Empire.

The first album that I got into and like as a whole is Seventh Trip. You can listen to a the song “Take It Easy” on the playlist Gourmet Waltz (track 3).

You can buy tickets to concert on the Southbank Website: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/find/music/gigs-contemporary/tickets/kroke-and-nigel-kennedy-52600

Marta Topferova on April 9 at Green Note in Camden

Lilly — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:20:43 +0000

I forgot to mention in my last post what day Marta Topferova is playing- its Friday April 9 at the cozy venue Green Note in Camden, London. Buy tickets here:

http://www.greennote.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=877&Itemid=6

Listen to a live clip of her singing the beautiful Grano de Arena

Ethiopiques Vol. 21- Emahoy Tsegue Maryam

Lilly — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 19:10:47 +0000

A beautiful treasure of an album with a great story.

Emahoy Tsegue Maryam is an unusual Ethiopian composer and pianist. Born as Yewubdar Gebru in 1923 Ethiopia to an upper class family, she was sent to study in Switzerland where she first learned the piano. When the Ethiopian Emperor Hallie Selassie forbid her from continuing her musical education in England, she was so heartbroken that it led her to secretly leave her family and join a monastery at the tender age of 19! She has been a nun ever since, continuing to play and compose through the years, and donate the proceeds from her music to help children and those in need. She currently lives in Jerusalem and might have gone undiscovered had it not been for Frances Falceto’s Ethiopiques Series.

If you havent heard it, imagine an improvisation of classical Western romantic piano, modern jazz, and Ethiopian music (although i dont know what Ethiopian religious music sounds like, it is one of her loves and influences!). Her compositions subtly combine different traditions and yet are more than the sum of parts they absorbed, creating something that sounds deeply familiar and yet strangely new. They are haunting, soothing, atmospheric and penetrating. One can hear something of Chopin’s Nocturne and Satie, yet also the sparse improvisational style of some modern jazz. In the words of someone else: her music “filters the traditional Ethiopian pentatonic scale through classical technique– in the end sounding like impressionistic jazz.”

One of the last albums to make a large impact on the BBC radio presenter Charlie Gillett before he passed was this album, Vol 21 of the Ethiopiques series. I don’t remember how it got into my hands, but I selected the track Presentiment from it for the Museum of Everything playlist. Charlie first heard it playing at the actual Museum of Everything in London (the collection of outsider art is now showing in Turin, Italy) and was immediately struck by it. Strangely, it was the one volume of 25 that he was missing in his collection so although he was familiar with the whole series he had never come across this album before! It will always have a special place in my heart as it was an album we shared and was so present in his last days, playing on repeat in his living room one of the last times I visited. We didnt know if Tsegue Maryam Gebrou was still living when we started looking into it, but have since discovered that she is in Jerusalem, still playing at the age of 85.

I wonder, as often happens when I discover something that moves me and is unlike anything I know (as was the case with Orlando Cachaito Lopez’s classic album “Cachaito”), where can I find more stuff like this?!

A good biography of her life is on Emahoy Tsegue Maryam Music Foundation website.

And you can also look at Charlie’s notes on this album on his Sound of the World website forum.

Great description of her work by Thom Jurek

Guèbrou’s meld of blues, classical, and gospel music filtered through a jazz pianist’s sense of time and voicings is unlike anything anyone has ever heard. It’s ethereal yet rooted in the Ethiopian Orthodox sung tradition; it’s gauzy and fluid, yet worldly in its command of the musical languages she has chosen to display. It’s precise and ordered, yet unfettered and free to drift. It feels like songs of praise, prayer, charming conversation, and partying all rolled into a single exquisite voice that contains many.

Eulogy for Charlie Gillett

Lilly — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:20:08 +0000

For the past three years I would go once a week to Charlie Gillett’s studio, in the basement of his beautiful Clapham house. There we would try and go through the mountain of CDs piled up in between his desk and CD player. We never quite succeeded in making the mountain smaller, but we kept it level. These CDs would come in the post, usually several packages a day, and Charlie would diligently and democratically try and give each and every one a chance. Many gems were discovered that way, from albums that hadnt been recommended by anyone in particular, that didnt have good cover art, that had very little chance of surfacing in most contexts. Charlie was often the champion of artists without champions.

In these past few years Charlie has not only been a mentor of sorts, but has come to be a good friend. Having learned of his passing a couple hours ago, I still cannot fully comprehend it. He had become such an important part of my life that I cannot imagine him not being here anymore. Last Wednesday on the telephone we had scheduled for me to go over today, to resume our weekly music listening session. That was the day, a few hours after we spoke, I learned that he was back in the hospital.

There are so many things to say about Charlie, about his role in the world and about his role in my own life. All I can say right now is that he left us too soon and I will miss him every single day.

There are lots of lovely Obituaries about Charlie Gillett available:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/mar/18/charlie-gillett-legacy

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article7066912.ece
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/arts/music/21gillett.html

A BBC radio show:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p006mrjz#p006yz87

His website, Sound of the World, has also become a place for people to leave messages:

http://www.charliegillett.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14084

For bbc radio downloads of Charlie Gillett’s past World of Music shows:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002vsns

A very rough first podcast, that I did in honour of Charlie and Lhasa: Charlie Gillett & Lhasa Tribute

19 March 2010,

Its incredible to see how many peoples lives Charlie touched around the world through his world music show on the BBC world service, and through his 4 decade long career on the radio. People who would tune in weekly, sometimes having listened to his voice for decades, understandably felt close to him. Letters of condolence have been pouring in from everywhere; one has only to look on his website and read some of the letters to see the mark he has made. Music with its incredible power to touch people deeply, and to heal, was the medium through which he entered people’s hearts.

But it was not only the music he shared that endeared him so greatly to so many of us. As has been often mentioned these days, some of the most incredible parts of Charlie’s character was his openness, humility, and tireless curiosity. With his wealth of musical knowledge and taste, Charlie was still always interested to know what I thought, 40 years his junior. Despite his strong tastes, he still would be open to changing his mind about a particular track or new artists he was undecided about- a very rare quality.

Charlie would always take the time to explore artists that I had recently discovered or was interested in learning about, seeing it as an opportunity to reacquaint himself with forgotten gems, discover something new himself, and also for the sheer pleasure of sharing something he loved with an appreciative audience. He would go into the back room of his studio and pull out a few old records and we would spend a while listening to and talking about that artist. This was often accompanied by the story of having met the artist or knowing of some anecdote that you wouldnt normally come across. He was so generous this way. Im so used to sharing all my new discoveries with him, bringing him questions, and seeking his advice about some compilation I was working on or music event I was planning. It is now one of the painful daily reminders that he is no longer here.

Charlie has been such a big influence in my life, in the development of my music knowledge and taste, in my profession as a music consultant, and as a friend. Someone who was so caring and so honest about his life experiences, he transmitted so much to me, for which I am eternally grateful. I still cant believe that he’s gone forever.

Lilly Ladjevardi

New Playlist- tribute to Malian Photographer, Malick Sidibé

Lilly — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 16:03:42 +0000

We’ve just posted a really infectious collection of West African tunes, new and old, inspired by a wonderful current exhibit of Malick Sidibé photographs curated by Tristan Hoare at Lichfield Studios in West London.

The pervasive sound is celebratory, with entrancing Afro-Cuban rhythms and beautiful vocal harmonies.

Have a listen! A tribute to Malick Sidibe

Back from India

Lilly — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:30:02 +0000

I just returned from two weeks in India, Goa to be precise. Music is everywhere there. Several live music events every night, musicians from around the world gather, experiment, collaborate, DJs galore play in the innumerable tea houses, restaurants and parties, music is an integral part of the many workshops, dance and yoga classes available, it plays on loudspeakers from Temples at night. And of course Indian classical music with its incredibly rich and complex tradition still permeates the landscape.

Being exposed to all this music and having traveled without my own soundtrack, it occurred to me that the music I spend most of my time listening to in London somehow wouldnt make sense in the Goa landscape. Perhaps some of the music I bring to listen to for weekends in the country could be transposed (Indian ragas, classical music), but I had no desire to listen to the 3 min tracks that make up a lot of what I listen to for work in London. It is the sense of time and space btwn a bustling city like London and a place like Goa that is so different and that was reflected in what I desired to listen to. Music to reflect your environment, city versus countryside, cold climate versus hot. Quite an obvious reflection, but a reminder nonetheless and inspiration of different musical perspectives and new museradio.fm playlists.

This morning really enjoying an album by the Indian violin maestro, L. Subramaniam, “Maestro’s Choice, 3rd Series”. Nothing in the world like good Indian ragas.

World music concerts in London

Lilly — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:59:17 +0000

There is a little church, hidden away down a small alley off Bishopsgate near Liverpool station in London. Every week in this church a wonderful man called Wallee Mcdonnell organizes a concert with talented musicians from traditions ranging from Qawaali to Balkan, West African and Kurdish. It is a little gem of a place. St Ethelburga’s Church, 78 Bishopsgate. The music schedule can be viewed online.

Sound of the World – Great music blog

Lilly — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:26:18 +0000

For those of you who enjoy trawling through music blogs, Ive got a very good recommendation: Sound of the World, BBC radio host Charlie Gillett’s website. Charlie has been on the radio for the past 40 years or so, beginning on Capital Radio in the 1970’s, a time when England was into Rock, and where he was playing little known pre-1960’s American music. He’s traveled a long way musically, while never losing his roots so to speak, and currently selects and plays some of the best and least known contemporary music coming from many parts of the world.

These days Charlie has a weekly music program on the BBC World Service (the only music show on the world service!) and focuses mainly on music traditions from around the world. As strange a category as that may seem, he weaves together songs from different parts of the world that speak to one another through rhythm, instrumentation, melody or some less definable but palpable connection.

Im listening to the show currently posted on the BBC World Service site, and the theme is songs sung in languages invented by the singers! The first song is by Julien Jacob from Benin, followed by Rhett Brewer from the US and then DVA from the Czech Republic…

There is a fantastic forum on Charlie’s website, where people share comments on all kinds of topics ranging from live shows to music discoveries, to best youtube music video clips and playlists on spotify.