Month: February 2023

Hear Abby Jeanne’s lively new single, “Know Better” – Aipate

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“Know Better” is the latest release from Milwaukee-raised singer-songwriter Abby Jeanne. It dropped on 25th January via Eraserhood Sound, the Philadelphia-based label with which she is currently working.

A lively pop-soul jam, this single brings to the fore Abby’s powerful vocals and impressive writing. Lyrically, “Know Better” examines the selfishness and uninspiring nature of today’s society.

Jeanne has been sitting on this song for a while but now we get to listen to it in such a captivating form.

Listen & connect wit Abby Jeanne on Instagram.



Kevin Puts, TF3 Among Classical Music Winners At 2023 Grammy Awards

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Composer Kevin Puts and the genre-surfing classically-trained string trip and vocalists Time For Three (TF3) were among the winners in the classical music, opera, music theatre, jazz and visual media/film categories at the 65th Grammy Awards ceremony at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Deutsche Grammophon album Letters for the Future won not one but two Grammys. Letters for the Future comprises the world premiere recordings of two concertos by Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Kevin Puts and Jennifer Higdon. Both works were specially commissioned for genre-surfing classically trained string trio and vocalists Time for Three (TF3), who recorded them for their debut DG album, in company with The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Xian Zhang.

Kevin Puts also won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Contact. His musically rich and technically demanding concerto grew out of experimentation with the ideas of unexplored frontiers and the greater beyond, and was also influenced by the isolation imposed by the pandemic.

The musicians of TF3 – violinists Nicolas (Nick) Kendall and Charles Yang, and bassist Ranaan Meyer – were presented with the award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, a category in which Deutsche Grammophon with albums by Hilary Hahn and Daniil Trifonov had garnered three out of five nominations.

“I send my heartfelt congratulations to Time for Three and Kevin Puts, as well as to everyone else involved in making the outstanding Letters for the Future album,” says Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon.

“The album underlines the desire for brand-new credible music and fresh constellations in classical music. Deutsche Grammophon remains committed to contemporary projects, as illustrated by this year’s nominations for Hilary Hahn and Andris Nelsons with premiere recordings of works by Michael Abels and Sofia Gubaidulina. It is hugely encouraging to see our efforts honored once again by the Recording Academy.”

Also, at this year’s awards, one of the great conductors of the 20th century has been knocked off his perch as all-time Grammy Award winner.

Beyoncé has overtaken Georg Solti to become the most decorated Grammy artist of all time. She made history at the Los Angeles ceremony overnight as she won best dance/electronic album for Renaissance. The win brings her career Grammy total to 32 awards.

The 41-year-old singer also won for best R&B song, best dance/electronic recording and best traditional R&B performance.

British-Hungarian conductor Solti collected a total of 31 Grammys over his career: an achievement which stood for over 20 years. He had been nominated 74 times. The maestro was music director of the Royal Opera House from 1961–1971. In a glittering career he conducted the world’s greatest orchestras, with particular acclaim for his performances of Wagner and Mahler. The maestro won his final Grammy, his release of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The winners in the classical music, opera, music theatre, jazz and visual media/film categories at the 2023 Grammy Awards are as follows:

Best Opera Recording: The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and The Metropolitan Opera Chorus (for Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones)
Best Classical Instrumental Solo: Letters for the Future
Best Classical Solo Vocal Album – Voice Of Nature – The Anthropocene
(Renée Fleming, soloist; Yannick Nézet-Séguin, pianist)
Best Contemporary Classical Composition: Kevin Puts – Contact
(Kevin Puts, composer (Xian Zhang, Time for Three & The Philadelphia Orchestra))
Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance: Attacca Quartet (for Caroline Shaw’s Evergreen)
Best Orchestral Performance: New York Youth Symphony (for works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery and Valerie Coleman)
Classical Producer of the Year: Judith Sherman
Best Engineered Album (Classical): Edwin Outwater and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for composer/DJ Mason Bates’ Philharmonia Fantastique: The Making of the Orchestra.
Best Classical Compendium: Kitt Wakeley for An Adoption Story.
Best Film Music: Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story soundtrack
Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media: Germaine Franco for animated feature film Encanto
Large Jazz Ensemble Album: Generation Gap Jazz Orchestra
Best Musical Theatre Album: The 2022 Broadway Cast Recording of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods
Best Jazz Instrumental Album: New Standards Vol. 1 (featuring Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, Linda May Han Oh, Nicholas Payton and Matthew Stevens)
Best Jazz Vocal album: Samara Joy for Linger Awhile.
Best Improvised Jazz Solo: Wayne Shorter and Leo Genovese.

For the latest music news and exclusive features, check out uDiscover Music.

uDiscover Music is operated by Universal Music Group (UMG). Some recording artists included in uDiscover Music articles are affiliated with UMG.

Dragon’s Eye Recordings Cuts a Unique Path Through Experimental Music

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LABEL PROFILE
Dragon’s Eye Recordings Cuts a Unique Path Through Experimental Music

By

Ted Davis

·
February 06, 2023

Take a casual scroll through the Bandcamp label page for Dragon’s Eye Recordings, and things look mostly cohesive. United by neat, photo-centric covers, the music that the label has released over the course of the last 18 years tends to fall under the larger ambient umbrella. But there is one outlier: A 1989 medley from an artist named George Winston called “Bread Baker’s Stomp.” Held up alongside so many avant-garde albums, its inclusion might seem like a mistake—maybe a stray upload that somehow ended up pinned to the wrong label profile. But lo and behold, that oddity is, indeed, supposed to be there.

Since 2005, Dragon’s Eye has been helmed by Yann Novak. But the label was actually founded by his father Paul—a bohemian baker who moonlighted as a radio DJ—in ‘80s Madison, Wisconsin as a vehicle for releasing the aforementioned endeavor. Fast forward 26 years, and the younger Novak is following in his father’s footsteps. After cutting his teeth partying in the ‘90s Midwest rave scene, he felt inspired to pursue a career as a musician as his tastes slowly began skewing more experimental. When Novak needed a home for a dance piece he’d scored for a friend, he realized that he had no strong connections in the music world—so he decided that it would be fun to resurrect his father’s old passion project. Slowly but surely, his work on this new iteration of Dragon’s Eye led to a treasure trove of groundbreaking music from artists all over the world.



After Novak relocated from Seattle to Los Angeles near the end of 2008, he hit the ground running. He found himself in a crew of talented left-field musicians that was even more robust than the one he had been able to access in the Pacific Northwest. His sunny homebase proved rejuvenating for him—the opposite of the demoralizing slog so many people associate with life as a creative in the Southern California metropolis.

In 2018, Novak implemented a policy to only accept demos from under-represented voices. The releases that have followed have all been from LGBTQ+, female/non-binary, disabled, and/or neurodivergent artists. “The big change was that I really tried to stop curating the aesthetics of the label,” he says. “I felt like, in order to uplift marginalized voices, I also needed to trust that they knew better than I did what was relevant in their community.” As a result, the sonics of the label have spun out in a ton of exciting directions.

Novak actively invites submissions from any musician who meets his criteria, and he counts it as a win when a recording project he’s backed goes on to a bigger label, seeing himself as a mentor for artists who want to reach the next level in their careers. The fruit of Novak’s years of hard work has resulted in a nurturing space for musicians looking to find their footing in a challenging corner of the industry. In celebration of the label, here are just a few highlights from the Dragon’s Eye catalog to date.

Various Artists
Paper: Dragon’s Eye First Anniversary



Dragon’s Eye has released a dozen anniversary compilations, which began tapering off when Novak realized that they were a ton of work to put together and had a tendency to stall his momentum with other albums. Nonetheless, when surveying the label’s catalog, it makes sense to start with the 2006 collection Paper, a six-track record put together at the end of the imprint’s first year. “We did it alongside two nights of performances at a gallery called Gallery 1412 in Seattle,” Novak says. “[The artists on] Paper was the label’s roster at the time.” The compilation features contributions from Son Of Rose, Wyndel Hunt, Tyler Potts, Heavy Lids, Ear Venom, and Novak himself. Oblique and airy, it offers proof that, while countless musical trends have come and gone, Dragon’s Eye has stayed true to its roots.

Pinkcourtesyphone
A Ravishment of Mirror



Pinkcourtesyphone is a microsound project from Los Angeles neomodernist innovator/composer/Dublab DJ Richard Chartier. His album A Ravishment Of Mirror came out in 2014, when Dragon’s Eye was making its brief second attempt at trying to release CDs. Novak took a step back from the label in 2013, but returned motivated at the start of the following year, funding four releases via Kickstarter. This is one of them. Chartier had just launched this now-revered alias and moved to L.A., where he and Novak ended up neighbors. Drawing from queer icons and Hollywood’s twinkling glamour, A Ravishment Of Mirror is a borderline-Lynchian auditory homage to the sprawl—a dubby, captivating slice of unearthly ambience.

Lawrence English + Stephen Vitiello
Fable



Fable is another album that emerged during Dragon’s Eye’s Kickstarter era. It’s a collaboration between acclaimed sound experimenter/Room40-founder Lawrence English and multidisciplinary punk guitarist/visual artist Stephen Vitiello—the second record they ever made together. “I’ve known Lawrence for 10 or 12 years now,” Novak says. “He stays with us every time he’s in L.A., and if you’ve ever bought anything from Room40 in the last three years, I’ve probably shipped it to you.” Across seven tracks, English and Vitiello weave together field recordings, modular synthesis, and acoustic-electric instrumentation, creating haunting mythologies in the process. Like most music that English leaves his mark on, there are some pretty ghostly, unsettling moments here. But in spite of the strange discomfort the duo provoke on Fable, it still lends itself well to deep listening.

Jake Muir
Acclimation



Jake Muir is an artist from L.A.’s San Fernando Valley who now lives in Berlin. He developed a special relationship with sound at a young age, largely as a byproduct of his sunny, naturalistic surroundings. Dragon’s Eye released Acclimation in 2017, when Muir was based in Seattle. The album came about after Muir was invited to do a set at the Georgetown Steam Plant, a historic industrial site that used to power streetcars. The impact of that setting—and the Washington city’s drab environment in general—can be felt in the album’s creaky, reverbed-out tonalities. The two 20-minute musique concrète arrangements are gargantuan and bizarre, a reminder of Muir’s status as an artist who paved the way for current peers like Davis Galvin and KMRU.

Alejandro Morse
Aftermath



Novak’s earliest design inspiration came in the form of the Akira comics, which became a major touchstone for the album art he now uses. “When I started the label, I knew that I wanted to do something like that,” Novak says. Even with this in mind, Aftermath by Alejando Morse—aka León, Mexico musician Edgar Medina—is especially eye-catching. From the lonesome sunset on the cover to the tracks titled after artificial lakes, pollution, and smog, the album finds beauty in the brutalism of climate change. The five minimal cuts are disconcerting examples of the role societal ugliness can play in drone music. 

Ian Hawgood
Memory and Motion



The Dragon’s Eye universe is home to a number of longform pieces. “Pre-streaming, it was much trendier to do these long compositions,” Novak says. “But with the digital format, I like to have people push the limits of it because every other medium has been about the time constraints of the medium. With digital, it’s open to whatever you want to do.” One project in this vein that stands out is Memory and Motion by Ian Hawgood. Clocking in around 28 minutes, the 2021 release is an unearthed live performance from a messy London show that Novak organized back in 2010. Hawgood had arrived at the set hot on the heels of a honeymoon in Indonesia, and this track is influenced by the frantic, thrilling energy of global travel. Centered on gongs and a Max/MSP patch, it’s tastefully subdued and withdrawn.

Various Artists
Touch



Touch is one of the most exciting compilations that Dragon’s Eye has ever released, with a tracklisting that boasts contributions from underground favorites like Alexandra Spence, Viv Corringham, and KMRU. It came to life remotely, spurred on by a yearning for physical contact that was robbed by pandemic isolation. “That is all the work of Tomoko Hojo, whose piece ‘fall asleep’ appears on the album,” Novak explains. “She actually created that compilation herself and brought it to me. I was, like, ‘I love all these artists. Of course I’m gonna say “yes” to releasing it.’ We did it in, like, two months.” Novak’s contributions mostly came in the form of communication support, shifting his schedule to help expedite the record, and enhancing the striking, resplendent photograph that adorns the cover. It highlights what a quietly supportive resource he is for his community.

Braulio Lam
Apertura







. 00:10 / 00:58

Braulio Lam’s Apertura is a recent Dragon’s Eye standout. Built around gorgeous flutters and unidentifiable burbles, the combination of time-stretched guitars and found sound samples make Apetura play like a Fennesz record stripped of the Austrian glitch artist’s trademark distortion. “I don’t know how someone can be as prolific as Bruno,” Novak says, “because he’s been putting out a lot of stuff, and everything is as good as this record.”

The Days of Knights | CRB

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On a recent bitterly cold Sunday afternoon, I armed myself with a cup of cocoa and fluffy throw and rewatched a 2001 movie, billed as a “medieval comedy adventure.” A Knight’s Tale is the improbable story of a young squire who decides to impersonate his royal knight when the knight dies unexpectedly. As the story unfolds, we also meet a young Geoffrey Chaucer who becomes part of the wannabe knight’s entourage and, by the movie’s end, supposedly gets the inspiration for the first of his Canterbury Tales. It’s a fun romp, complete with the rock group Queen’s “We Will Rock You” as part of the score! A wonderful way to spend a winter’s afternoon.

It also got me thinking about music about knights, pre-Queen, that is. Here are a few pieces that come to mind:

English composer Henry Purcell teamed up with librettist John Dryden to create a five-act opera simply titled King Arthur in 1691. While the opera-with-spoken-text is about the King we know from “…and the Knights of the Round Table,” it is not about that phase of Arthur’s life. Purcell’s tale concerns itself with a battle between Arthur’s army and the Saxons who have abducted his fiancé Emmeline. A recording we favor at the station is Thomas Hengelbrock conducting the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in the “Suite from King Arthur.”

Franz Schubert’s opera, Fierrabras, the Overture of which you can hear on WCRB from time to time, is the story of a Saracen (or, Moorish) knight whose fictional story intertwines with the real Emperor Charlemagne and his court. Both Carl Maria von Weber and Schubert were asked by the major opera house in Vienna to contribute an opera each in an effort to start expanding the genre in the German language. Weber’s came first and got such a poor reception that Schubert’s 1823 contribution was shelved, but the Overture lives on. Here it is with Christian Benda conducting the Prague Sinfonia.

It’s always struck me as curious that Schubert made no attempt to recreate the music of, or even to include a more general nod to, the sounds of the Early Middle Ages, which would have been heard during the time of Charlemagne. Fierrabras sounds like the music of Schubert’s day.

Richard Strauss was so inspired by Miguel de Cervantes’s 1605 novel, The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, that he composed a tone poem about it. Strauss followed the action in the epic novel closely, starting with Don Quixote reading so many books about chivalrous knights that he becomes delusional, believing he is a knight himself. The approximately 45-minute long piece, with a solo cellist inhabiting the title character, has an introduction, main theme, 10 variations that cover the main parts of the story, and a grand finale. Variation No. 10 is entitled “Duel with the knight of the bright moon.” Here is Staatskapelle Dresden, conducted by Rudolf Kempe, featuring cellist Paul Tortelier.

Around 1889 Edward Elgar wrote what he described as a “symphony with chorus and orchestra,” which told the story of The Black Knight in three parts. He envisioned the story where a mysterious knight shows up unexpectedly, defeats members of a particular king’s court in a tournament, and kills the king’s two children. The story never reveals why. It’s an extremely dark tale, but with what was hailed as exceptional music for the time. Sir Charles Groves conducts the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus in the entire 35-minute piece.

Sergei Prokofiev, who was living in Paris in the 1930s, was lured back to Russia with a commission for a new ballet and a promise that if he’d write it, the Bolshoi would perform it. Romeo and Juliet became one of the composer’s landmark works. And the “Dance of the Knights” shows the knights at the Capulet’s masquerade ball. This is a scene from a Royal Opera House (London) production.

At least two pop artists in recent years have “borrowed” the “Dance of the Knights.” You can hear the music clearly from the start of Sia’s 2000 hit, “Taken for Granted,” and 2016’s “Party Like a Russian” by Robbie Williams.

One of the most rousing scores to a knights-themed movie was composed by Miklós Rózsa for the 1953 movie Knights of the Round Table. I remember watching it on our small TV one Saturday afternoon while sitting next to my dad. He was just a kid himself when he watched it on the silver screen and actually mentioned that Rózsa’s score “made the movie as exciting as could be.” Rózsa himself conducts his orchestra in the Prelude.

Those who bore names like Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad and Don Quixote are long past, but the stories, fiction and nonfiction alike, continue to inspire, as does the music to go along with them.

CODA: Here is Queen’s ”We Will Rock You” in the opening to A Knight’s Tale. It was absolutely genius to pair that music with the jousting scene because you just know that if we still had such jousts today, that would be part of the sporting event!



‘I have a scissors and a microphone,’ says Tipperary born TG4 country music singer hopeful

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“I have a scissors and a microphone,” is how Molly O’Connell, county Tipperary’s hope for season 19 of TG4’s Country music series, Glór Tíre, describes herself.

A hairdresser by profession, she is also an emerging name in the Country & Irish scene, having released three singles to date.

Now, she is hoping to secure a place in the semi-finals of TG4’s hit series, Glór Tire, when she returns to perform on the February 7 edition of the show.

Despite being eliminated during her initial appearance, she is back with a chance to enter the semi-finals of the show.

Molly will appear on the first semi-final, to be broadcast on TG4 on Tuesday, February 7 at 9.30pm.

She, along with singers Billy Mac (Fermanagh), Jamie Donnelly (Tyrone), and Florence Given (Tyrone), will be singing to secure the public vote which could allow one of them to go through to the second semi-final on February 14.

Music and performance run deep in the O’Connell blood, and singing is something Molly has been doing for a long time.

“I’ve been singing since I was six in Scór [the GAA’s cultural competition] and Fleadhs,” she says, “and I was blessed to win an All-Ireland in the Scór at a young age.”

From Kilcommon, near Thurles, Molly grew up in a family that loved Irish folk and Trad as much as Country music, and both these elements have deeply influenced her own singing style.

“I would have learned sean nós and Country songs, so my voice is a mix of sean nós and Country,” she explains. “It came from both sides. My dad was in a Country band, The Mellowtones, similar to Big Tom, that kind of genre. They are all trad on my Mum’s side. My Mum taught me my first song, ‘The Old Rustic Bridge By The Mill’. There were five of us in the family and we were put up onto the fireplace as a stage and taught to sing.”

While some of the contestants can boast years of experience on the Country & Irish gig circuit, Molly is a relatively new arrival. However, she has been very much making her presence felt.

“I have three singles out since May 2022, all originals written by Stephen Hamilton,” she says. “I’ve been very lucky to have got on the Cut Loose Country Festival in July 2022, with Nathan Carter, Michael English, and Jimmy Buckley.

“Now, to be asked to be on Glór Tíre, after such a short space of time with my singles being out, I’m delighted. The musicians here are the top Country musicians. To actually get to play in a live band is phenomenal as I would play with backing tracks.” 

It is certainly an endorsement of Molly’s potential that none other than Louise Morrissey, a legend of Country & Irish music, has chosen to be her mentor for this series of Glór Tíre.

“She is a huge influence,” declares Molly, who adds it is “absolutely amazing” that she will also be duetting with Louise Morrissey as part of the show. 

“I rang my Mum and said, ‘Can you believe it? Pinch me! I’m going to be on stage with my inspiration, Louise Morrissey!’” says Molly. “Back in the day, when we had cassettes, I used to press record when she’d come on the radio and sit down with my notepad and write down the lyrics to her songs live ‘Sliabhnaman’ or ‘Tipperary On My Mind’. Being from Tipperary, she has been the county’s Country Sweetheart. I can’t believe it.”

For Glór Tíre contestants, being on the show is a massive opportunity to gain wider exposure, and the chief way to introduce yourself to the nation’s Country & Irish audience. “It is very helpful to have this show, to give unknown singers a platform, and be shown to the thousands of people who watch this programme,” says Molly. “I would just love to establish myself on the Country scene and prove I deserve a space on that scene, and if I look down and see somebody smiling that is ticking the box. I’m just following through my dreams.”

See www.tg4.ie and follow @glortire on social media for all of the latest news and updates. To listen to Molly’s music go to Spotify and iTunes.



Wet Leg praised online after scooping surprise double Grammy win

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Wet Leg are now double Grammy Award winners, capping a meteoric rise for the Isle of Wight duo since their emergence in 2020.

Flanked by guitarist Josh Omead Mobaraki, bassist Ellis Durand and drummer Henry Holmes, the core duo of Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers appeared stunned as they picked up the gongs for Best Alternative Music Album, for last year’s Wet Leg, and Best Alternative Music Performance, for ‘Chaise Longue’.

“What are we doing here?” said Teasdale, as they collected the latter. “I don’t know, but here we are.” The band, who in their own words started out as “a bit of a joke” in 2019, were apparently not the only ones taken aback by the surprise success, given that they faced stiff competition across both categories from the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Big Thief, Björk, Florence + the Machine and Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

There was, though, plenty of support for the pair on social media. “Love Wet Leg,” said A. C. Newman, leader of Canadian indie rock stalwarts The New Pornographers, on Twitter. “New bands are exciting, so why not give the Grammy to the exciting new band? It’s pop music.” On a similar note, Josh Gardner, commissioning editor of Guitar.com, said: “Find it weird that so many people seem annoyed that Wet Leg won the Best Alternative Album of 2022 at the Grammys last night, when it was – by some distance – the Best Alternative Album of 2022.”

“LOL, are the indie boys pissed off that Wet Leg won awards and beat their darlings?” tweeted Debbie M, under the handle @heavenstobetsie. “Good.” She appeared to be referring to a backlash from fans of Arctic Monkeys, who were nominated in the Best Alternative Music Performance Category for ‘There’d Better Be a Mirrorball’. “So glad to see Wet Leg win these Grammys,” added Jen Chaney, TV critic at Vulture. “That album is just so great.”

The band themselves had been on typically self-deprecating form on the red carpet ahead of the ceremony, reflecting on their recent support slots to Harry Styles in Los Angeles by revealing how they reacted when they heard he wanted them to open the show: “he must be thinking of the band Let Weg.” Now, Styles and the band will have four Grammys between them after last night’s awards, when they team up for the next European leg of Styles’ ‘Love On Tour’ this summer.



Rohan Pradhan on composing songs for ‘Ranjana Unfold’: The music of this film is going to pursue different shades of her life- Exclusive! | Marathi Movie News

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After impressing one and all with his chartbuster songs like, ‘Angaat Aalaya’, ‘Kuni Mhanale’, ‘Aaple Saheb Thackeray’, ‘Saheb Tu

Sarkar Tu

‘ and others, music director

Rohan Pradhan

is all set to compose songs for upcoming biopic ‘

Ranjana

Unfold’ helmed by

Abhijeet Mohan Warang

.

In an exclusive interview with ETimes, music director Rohan Pradhan said, “‘Ranjana Unfold’ is a biopic on legendary Marathi actress

Ranjana Deshmukh

. She has always been a vibrant personality and had a lot of ups and downs in her life. She was from Parel Mumbai and was born and brought up in the same vicinity. I could connect with her personality immediately as I grew up seeing her aura throughout my childhood. So when makers approached us, we were extremely happy to be a part of such a legendary project. This is our second project with them as i had already worked with them for ‘Thackeray’

“I have always tried to do projects that give us an opportunity to explore music in different ways. I always feel people should remember us

Rohan Rohan

as versatile music composers rather than being typecast. And as they say, we are the Musical Kings of Biopic it becomes a great responsibility for us to create a musical world which helps the film in every aspect. I have been very fortunate to be a part of legendary biopics like ‘Sanju’, ‘Thackeray’,

Kashinath Ghanekar

,’ Rohan added.

“Ranjana Unfold’ is a musical and has 4-5 songs which in today’s times is difficult to be a part of. The music of this film is going to pursue different shades of her life and will help the story to move ahead. I am looking forward to bringing this wonderful musical journey in front of the audience soon this year,” Rohan concluded.

Talking about the film, The name Ranjana Deshmukh is at the forefront among the actresses who made the black-and-white era colourful with her all-around acting.

Born in Mumbai, Ranjana entertained her fans by playing various characters from 1960 to 2000. She entered the film industry at the age of five, acting as a child artist in the film ‘Harishchandra Taramati’. At a young age, she won acclaim by playing the lead role in the film ‘Asla Navra

Nakoga Bai

‘.

The film is slated to release on March 3, 2023.

Gonçalo Santana penned a reflectively compelling RnB memorandum with ‘Note to Self’ – Independent Music – New Music

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Swiss RnB visionary, Gonçalo Santana, has spent the last two years spilling soul onto the airwaves with his distinctively potent approach to the genre. At the start of 2023, he released his debut EP, Brainless, which concludes with the reflective philosophy in Note to Self.

Note to Self keeps 90s RnB at its core while elevating the multi-sensory experience with elements of gospel, which will easily leave you pious to the singer-songwriter’s poetic graceful beguile. The neo-classic-ESQUE piano melodies also go a long way in implanting gravitas within the soul-stirring intimate memorandum.

Like the best things in life, there’s a bitter-sweet emotionally complex sentimentality to the quiescent RnB ballad, delivering the definitive proof that Gonçalo Santana is the real sincere deal.

Note to Self was officially released on January 27th; hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast



Tech Junkie Review – Ambient Weather tracks the weather in your backyard

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Tracking the weather seems to be a hobby for so many of us. I don’t know why but I love knowing what the weather is at MY home. I’m a bit of a weather geek. So many of us are. If you’re a fellow weather nerd then the Ambient Weather WS-2902 Home Weather Station is designed for you! I took it for a test at home.

There are two main pieces to the home weather station, the outside weather station and the inside wireless screen that shows you the stats from the weather station. We’ll start outside. The unit itself is pretty easy to put together after pulling it out of the box. The complication will be deciding on a good spot to mount it and pulling out the drill and screws. I picked a spot on my back fence although it may eventually make its way up to my roof. The company has guidelines for best placement to get the most accurate readings. You have sensors galore in the weather station including temperature, wind speed, humidity, wind direction, rainfall, UV levels, solar radiation, barometric pressure, dew point, heat index, wind chill and others.

The unit itself is a pretty decent size but I wouldn’t say it’s huge. You might want to check with your neighbors before you mount it on a fence.

Inside your home you’ll connect the wireless screen. This communicates wirelessly with the weather station outside so you can quickly see all of the info about the weather. It’s pretty self explanatory and an easy way to check on the current conditions quickly.

The techie fun comes when you connect this screen to your WIFI network and the Ambient Weather online service. You can check out the current stats and history from your weather station in the mobile app. You can also look at other weather stations anywhere in the country on their website ambientweather.net

The app is great! It gives you a quick simple look at the current states but also lets you dive deeper into your stats if you prefer. I really like how Ambient Weather does a good job of making this approachable for those of us “non-meteorologists” but also nerdy enough for people who want more.

Overall

This is a great way for many of us weather nerds to track the weather in our own backyard. While the WIFI setup could be a little easier, setting up the weather center itself was very easy. The screen inside your home gives you a great quick glance at the conditions while the Ambient Weather app and website lets you dive deeper into your weather stats.

I’m giving the WS-2902 Home Weather Station a 4 out of 5 geek rating!

The Ambient Weather WS-2902 Home Weather station is available directly from the AmbientWeather.com site for $190.

  

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The Crossing choir, Yannick Nezet-Seguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra

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What a day for Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Two Grammy awards, a matinee performance with Yuja Wang, a contract extension ― and he’s been made into a bobblehead!

The Philadelphia Orchestra music and artistic director was one of several Philadelphia classical Grammy winners on Sunday. He joined the Crossing choir and the Philadelphia Orchestra in winning golden gramophones, dominating the classical categories at the awards ceremony in Los Angeles that preceded the prime time telecast on CBS.

Classical nominees out-performed Philly connected pop, rock, jazz, and gospel musicians up for Grammys this year at the early awards show, which was hosted by comedian and political parodist Randy Rainbow.

Among the Philly acts who didn’t go home with trophies were The War on Drugs, nominated for best rock song for “Harmonia’s Dream,” but bested by “Broken Horses” by Brandi Carlile, who won two rock awards.

Camden gospel choir leader Tye Tribbett lost out in two categories to Maverick City Music & Kirk Franklin. Jazz bassist Christian McBride, jazz duo The Baylor Project, band leader Adam Blackstone and engineer Ryan Schwabe were also nominees but didn’t take home awards.

Jazmine Sullivan also lost in two categories in the early ceremony, but her “Hurt Me So Good” was also up against Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige and Muni Long for best R&B song, which was set to be presented during the nighttime telecast at crypto.com Arena hosted by Trevor Noah.

It was even a tough day for Roots’ drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. He lost out in best audiobook recording for his Music Is History. That Grammy went to Viola Davis for Finding Me, completing her EGOT, meaning she has now won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards.

But while Philly performers on the pop side might be disappointed with their Grammy haul, classical musicians cleaned up.

The Crossing won best choral performance for its Born album. It is the third Grammy win for the Philadelphia-based ensemble.

“For us, it’s just so exciting to see new music recognized like this,” said Crossing conductor Donald Nally. “Michael Gilbertson and Edie Hill’s music — we just love singing it, and it means more people will hear it, they’ll look it up.”

The title track piece, Gilbertson’s Born, was commissioned by Nally and his husband in memory of Nally’s mother. “So there’s something really special about the album which has the name of this piece that is a memorial for my mother and ends up winning a Grammy. She would be thrilled.”

Best orchestral performance went to the New York Youth Symphony’s recording of works by Florence Price, Jessie Montgomery and Valerie Coleman. Coleman has worked extensively with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and it is her Umoja: Anthem of Unity, commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra, that is featured on the album.

The Florence Price Piano Concerto in One Movement on the release is played by Michelle Cann, a Curtis Institute of Music piano professor.

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Nézet-Séguin is conductor of the work that won for best opera recording: Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones with the Metropolitan Opera, which in 2021 became the first opera by a Black composer ever to be performed by the Met.

And he was pianist on the Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene release with soprano Renée Fleming, which won for classical solo vocal album.

After winning a Grammy last year for best orchestral performance, the Philadelphia Orchestra wasn’t nominated in the category this year. But a release on which it performed won in two other categories.

Time for Three — a string trio with Philly roots — won for Letters for the Future with conductor Xian Zhang in the classical instrumental solo category; and Kevin Puts’s Contact won best contemporary classical composition.

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