Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, also known as T-E-E-D, released a new track yesterday. It’s based on a mainstream and quite catchy electro loop accompanied by a pleasant vocal line which makes it sweet & easy for background music. Also, it gives me an opportunity to show you an old, random photo from Barcelona that I don’t think I ever posted here. Click it for big. If you want to.. I mean, I know it’s kind of weird.


Peephole, Barcelona 2009


T-E-E-D – Dream on
(2011)

click the picture below to download it for free. Or click here if you want updates from T-E-E-D.

Clown Entr’acte

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In the end of my trip around South America in 2008, I teamed up with a Chilean theatre company that was touring Bolivia and Peru. They were setting up their show for free, inviting less privileged children and families to share the art of clown and comedy with them. By printing posters, spreading the word and simply inviting people directly from the street, beautiful venues would be filled with people of all ages that normally wouldn’t visit, or never had been in a theatre. They wanted to share smiles, they said. Because all children deserve to experience clown at some point. Also, this was not the circus kind of clown, it was the mime kind of clown that plays on the art of communicating emotions to the audience using carefully directed body language and dynamic improvisation. Without words. Accompanied only by sound effects and the direct feedback from the audience. It was a great show.

At one point, shortly after I had met the group, the sound technician had to go back home. There, in Peru, I suddenly had a job, controlling the sound and lights for a one hour clown performance. I had seen the show once before and I was guided through the acts in terms of: “when I put my hand up, the lights fade to red and this track starts, ok?” that was kind of it. With my notes and vague understanding of sound controls I was completely in charge. And it was just insanely exciting and fun.

Stand Getz & Charlie Byrd
Jazz Samba LP (1962)

I discovered The Jazz Samba disc by Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd many years ago. With this experience, however, it now has a priceless nostalgic value that strikes me every time my iPod shuffles to it. At the minute 9:27 in the video above, “O pato” starts. This was the song that was used between the acts and in the intermission. I must have heard it hundreds of times over without ever getting tired of it. And today it reminds me of how simple and beautiful things can be.

Working as a sound technician and travelling with clowns was a time of contemplation, where I learnt to accept that happiness and having fun is all that actually matters in the end. No matter what they tell you.

Yellow Forests and Sound

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I’m going to Gothenburg and I’m very happy to be sharing this trainride with my new headphones.

The frequencies that are audible for the human ear range between 20 and 20.000Hz, which is the excuse most headphone producers use for only covering that range of frequency response. However, what happens when you get hold of a pair of headphones that respond down to 5Hz, is that you can actually feel the music.

The pleasure of deep sound is a sweet priority of mine, and I’m on this train with my new love, Bersarin Quartett.


Bersarin Quartett – Oktober
Bersarin Quartett (2008)

Bring on the weekend

I know it’s just tuesday, but Class Actress is releasing her new album today, and you want to know about that, right? She’s from Carpark Records, the same label that brings us the enchanting tunes of Toro y Moi, Beach House and Memory Tapes. The video for Weekend is a mix of collarbones, beautiful lingerie, peep-show styled soft porn and retro party. Happy beats & synths. Just what you need when dreaming about the weekend.

Class Actress – Weekend
Rapprocher (2011)

Performing under the moniker Class Actress, Elizabeth Harper’s latest album, Rapprocher, sounds a bit like what would happen if Dave Gahan, Oscar Wilde, and Madonna curled up together in the corner of a dark bar for some heartbreak-fueled debauchery. The follow-up to her 2010 EP, The Journal of Ardency, Rapprocher is an 11-song odyssey about the tumultuousness of the heart. It’s a lovelorn tale that’s dark and weary, with just enough synth to make it danceable. Lyrical sadness is skillfully applied to the disco beats and feel-good melodies scattered throughout the album.

Source:BlackBook

Hurry up, we’re dreaming.

M83 is planning to release their new double-CD, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming, tomorrow. There are as many as 22 songs on it, with intro and outro included. I have gotten hold of a stream of it, in case you want to have a listen to the album before you get it. And for those of you who have Spotify, click here. I have really been enjoying it as the background music at work today (I love the intro!) and I can’t wait to really listen properly to it.

My music world always explodes in the autumn, perfect for dark mornings and cold days when you can choose to sit inside without feeling bad about missing out on the sun. This album will probably be a good companion this winter, together with a huge cup of tea and some candles.