Bill Fay returns totally awesome new song and new album "Countless Branches" on Dead Oceans

Bill Fay is one of the greatest songwriters of all time.

You know, the best things usually happen in their own time and place. For instance, fifty years after he first tiptoed a toe’s tip onto the British experimental folk scene, the ever-elliptical and enigmatic Bill Fay is returning (at his own damn pace, thank you very much) with a new album.

The legend’s latest (and third release since resurfacing back in 2012) is entitled "Countless Branches", and it’ll will be released January 21 via Dead Oceans on CD, LP and Deluxe 2xLP sets. On it, Fay “collects compositions drawn from the trove of material [he] has amassed over 40 years,” adding “newly written words and melodies” to previously unfinished songs.

Alongside the announcement, Fay has unveiled a Emily Scaife-directed video for the album’s first single “Filled With Wonder Once Again.” Commenting on the clip’s creation, Scaife explains: “I wanted to create a dreamy, warm world that melted reality into abstraction and filled the audience with wonder, while conveying themes of cycles/phases — both of the tree (inspired by Bill’s Countless Branches) as well as the planet more generally. I combined several techniques: hand-drawing shapes and parents in nature; animal skins, organic textures, and coloured gels and slides on overhead projectors to produce soft dappled washes of light.”

But whoa, whoa, whoa. Just take it easy. Sure, you can watch the clip for “Filled With Wonder” down below and pre-order "Countless Branches" here from Dead Oceans. But there’s really no need to HURRY. Relax. Take a few breaths first. Slow and steady wins the race, you know.



Countless Branches’ countable tracklist:

01. In Human Hands
02. How Long, How Long
03. Your Little Face
04. Salt Of The Earth
05. I Will Remain Here
06. Filled With Wonder Once Again
07. Time’s Going Somewhere
08. Love Will Remain
09. Countless Branches
10. One Life
11. Tiny - Bonus Track
12. Don’t Let My Marigolds Die (Live in Studio) - Bonus Track
13. The Rooster - Bonus Track
14. Your Little Face (Acoustic Version) - Bonus Track
15. Filled With Wonder Once Again (Band Version) - Bonus Track
16. How Long, How Long (Band Version) - Bonus Track
17. Love Will Remain (Band Version) - Bonus Track

Can’s Damo Suzuki announces rescheduled 2020 North American tour

Onetime Can vocalist Damo Suzuki had to postpone his 2019 tour due to visa issues, but he’ll be back this spring for the Big Ears festival and has now announced a tour around it. Dates kick off March 19 in Chicago and include stops in Milwaukee, St. Louis, Memphis, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Toronto, New Haven, NYC, Philly, Baltimore, Miami and more.

There are two NYC shows: April 16 at The Dance and April 17 at Market Hotel. Tickets for those shows go on sale Friday, January 24 at 11 AM and 10 AM respectively.

On this tour, which has him billed as Damo Suzuki’s Network, he’ll perform with different local musicians he calls Sound Carriers in each city, often ones he’s never performed with or met before the show. Collaborators have not been announced yet, but the 2019 tour was to have had him working with CAVE, Quintron, MMOSS, Greg Fox, and more at various stops. Stay tuned. All dates are listed below.

Damo Suzuki Network with the Sound Carriers – 2020 Tour Dates:

08.02.2020 The Netherlands Den Haag Grauzone Festival
12.02.2020 UK Coventry The Tin Music and Arts
13.02.2020 UK Manchester Yes
14.02.2020 UK Bristol Rough Trade
15.02.2020 UK Lewes Con Club
16.02.2020 UK London Lexington
27.02.2020 Germany Berlin Arkaoda
29.02.2020 UK London Old Bath
04.03.2020 Italy Milano Ohibò
05.03.2020 Italy Torino Circolo della musica
06.03.2020 Italy Ravenna Bronson
07.03.2020 Italy Pisa Lumiere
08.03.2020 Italy Roma Monk
19.03.2020 USA Chicago, IL Empty Bottle
20.03.2020 USA Milwaukee, WI The Cooperage
22.03.2020 USA St. Louis, MO Off Broadway
24.03.2020 USA Memphis, TN The Hi Tone
26.03.2020 USA Knoxville TN Big Ears Festival
27.03.2020 USA Atlanta, GA 529
28.03.2020 USA Asheville, NC The Mothlight
30.03.2020 USA Lexington, KY The Burl
31.03.2020 USA Indianapolis, IN Square Cat Vinyl
02.04.2020 USA Columbus, OH Ace Cups
03.04.2020 USA Cleveland, OH Grog Shop
05.04.2020 USA Grand Rapids, MI Pyramid Scheme
07.04.2020 Canada London, ON Call the Office
08.04.2020 Canada Toronto, ON The Garrison
14.04.2020 USA New Haven, CT The State House
16.04.2020 USA New York, NY The Dance
17.04.2020 USA Brooklyn, NY Market Hotel
18.04.2020 USA Philadelphia, PA Kung Fu Necktie
19.04.2020 USA Baltimore, ND Ottobar
21.04.2020 USA Charlotte, NC Snug Harbor
23.04.2020 USA Jacksonville, FL 1904
24.04.2020 USA Orlando, FL Will’s Pub
25.04.2020 USA Miami, FL 777 Mall
30.05.2020 Germany Düsseldorf Weltkunstzimmer

Netflix Nabs Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein Drama

Netflix will back Bradley Cooper’s upcoming drama about Leonard Bernstein, the legendary conductor and musical maestro behind “West Side Story” and “Candide,” Variety has confirmed.

The film was initially set up at Paramount. It has an A-list lineup of producers, including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, and Todd Phillips. Kristie Macosko Krieger from Amblin will also produce.

However, the project doesn’t sound like a commercial slam-dunk, at least not on paper. Younger generations likely draw a blank when Bernstein’s name comes up (if it comes up at all), and Spielberg’s remake of “West Side Story” is already scheduled to come out in 2020. There’s also a Broadway revival of the show, signaling that we may have entered an era of peak-Bernstein.

There was a chance that Bernstein mega-fans’ cups could have runneth over even more. At one point, Jake Gyllenhaal and Cary Fukunaga were partnering on a rival Bernstein project, potentially setting up a “Volcano” vs. “Dante’s Peak”-style standoff. Alas, those plans were eventually abandoned when it became clear that the public appetite for stories of composers and conductors who died three decades ago might be limited.

Having Cooper’s project launch on a streaming service could help it avoid being judged merely on its box office performance. Netflix will give it a limited theatrical release before debuting it on its platform. The streaming giant clearly thinks it has another potential awards contender on its plate. This year, Netflix backed “The Irishman,” “Marriage Story,” and “The Two Popes,” all of which landed major Oscar nominations.

The untitled film is Cooper’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated smash, “A Star Is Born.” He will produce, co-write with Josh Singer (“Spotlight”), and star as Bernstein. The film will span over 30 years, telling the story of the marriage between Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre. They had three children together, but Montealegre knew about Bernstein’s affairs with other men before and after their wedding.

Cooper earned the rights from the Bernstein Estate and has been working closely with his children, Jamie, Alexander and Nina for the past two years.

Deadline first reported that Netflix was backing the picture.

Actress Linda Collins Making Waves in Hollywood with Strong Performances in Film and TV

Established working Actress Linda Collins has been quite busy in 2019 so far; appearing with lead roles in several important and interesting projects of note - specifically “In My Eyes”, a film about a young man with Cerebral Palsy going to college and the anxiety that he carries with him (an Official Selection at LIIFE), “Three for the Road”, a comedy about three independent, intelligent women from completely different backgrounds who come together seeking spiritual enlightenment (directed by David Patrick Wilson, an Official Selection and Finalist as Best TV Episode in the Portland Comedy Film Festival) and Horror film by Director Terry Wickham, “Gruesome Threesome”; where a young couple have a fun online video chat, while watching an anthology horror film. What begins as innocent entertainment leads to a horrific conclusion. Collins has worked with Wickham before; on “Double Vision”, about a couple who once dated and reconnect after a decade apart whose bliss is shattered by pure terror. At the same time, two women who are business partners have been having issues professionally, which leads to an unimaginable terrifying outcome.

The latter three films have been selected to screen at the Hells Kitchen NYC Film Festival in January 2020.

Linda can also be seen in other upcoming productions including a principal role in 21st Century Vision Films crime thriller “The Stable” - playing a gritty nightclub owner/head of a human-trafficking ring.

In 2020, Linda plans to star in many TV shows, more movies and become the star she was meant to be!!

Linda Collins was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Olivia Watson Beaty, a pianist, vocalist, and Sacred Music Director and father Gaylon Patterson, a Lt. Colonial in the Air Force reserves, and Production Manager at McDonald-Douglas Aircraft. Her heritage includes Scottish, Irish and Native American on both sides. Linda exhibited an early aptitude for acting and music, and her siblings often created and performed plays for their parents while in grade school. Her earliest at home role was as Cupid in the family Valentine's play.

She was in the Thespians Club in high school, performing in school productions, and her talents subsequently won her scholarships to the University of Alabama, Duquesne University (BM, summa cum laude), and Northern Illinois University (Master of Music degree) where she was inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi honor society.

After performing several years as a professional musician in the US and Canada, Linda moved to NYC, and in 2010 began pursuing in earnest her other love - acting. While studying in NYC with renowned acting coach Catherine Gaffigan, she began booking film and television work. Since then she’s booked leading roles in TV Series’ including “I'd Kill for You”, “Stalked”, “Redrum” (Co-starring as Lt. Detective Penny Kimball), “Evil I”, “Monsters Inside Me” (Co-starring as Patricia Nash), and the co-lead role in an episode of True Crime with Aphrodite Jones. She has also appeared in the Feature Films “Burning Blue” (As the on-screen mother to William Lee Scott's character), “Contest” (As a cooking contest Judge), and in the leading role of Edna in Ashley Cintron's production of “Chef's House”.

As a musician, Linda has played Principal Horn in several orchestras including the Huntsville Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony (CA), and Naples Philharmonic (FL) Orchestras, as well as in theatre orchestras for “Fiddler on the Roof” (Herschel Bernardi), “Showboat” (Elaine Stritch and Robert Morse), and “Phantom of the Opera” in Toronto. She also was pianist with many groups including the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Ballet, Chicago City Ballet and Paul Taylor Dance Company, and has performed in numerous national broadcasts for CBC Radio.

Always an activist for the arts, Linda received the honor of a national appointment by Canadian Minister of Heritage Flora McDonald to serve for three years as a member of the Canadian Advisory Committee on the Status of the Artist ( Ottawa, CA) and later was appointed by AFM International President Tom Lee as Assistant to the International President of the American Federation of Musicians in NYC, where she served the international music community for six years.

She has continued to hone her acting skills at the T. Schreiber Studio in NYC with coach Terry Schreiber and Peter Miner, while being booked regularly for various television and film work.

ELLLL channels Blade Runner on the atmospheric ‘POLARBERGS’

The producer nods to Vangelis on her new track.

ELLLL is back on Glacial Industries with a new two-track release.

Following on from the cinematic direction she took on the Glisten EP for Paralaxe Editions, her new track ‘POLARBERGS’ sees the producer channeling the frosty atmospherics of Blade Runner for a chilly ambient outing.

ELLLL debuted on Glacial Industries with the club focused CONFECTIONARY EP earlier this year. She also contributed an excellent remix to India Jordan’s debut release on Local Action, DNT STP MY LV.

POLARBERGS / HOT WHEELS arrives on December 6 and is available to pre-order now.
 

Japanese synthesist Hinako Omori shares debut EP "Auraelia"

Japanese musician and programmer Hinako Omori has released her debut EP "Araelia" via Villette’s Injazero Records.

The London-based synthesist built the EP from four years’ worth of instrumental demos, lyrics and field recordings that she was able to thematically link and mould into songs after experiencing “a strange period of having daily migraines with auras for a month.”



“The physical reaction I was experiencing from the auras – the haziness/blurriness/partial loss of sight and spots of light surrounding every day vision – also seemed to reflect the emotions I was feeling at the time – confusion, lack of clarity, ambiguity, mixed feelings of hope and melancholy…”

The title track ‘Auraelia’ speaks to this same haze via fore-fronted, gently distorted vocals that Omori performs as if giving voice to the aura itself.

Auraelia is available now.

Squarepusher announces first album in five years, Be Up A Hello

Marking a return to the vintage analogue equipment with which the producer developed his sound in the early ’90s.

Squarepusher is back after a five-year hiatus with a new album on Warp.

Be Up A Hello sees producer Tom Jenkinson abandoning the software he developed over 15 years to make albums like Ufabulum and Damogen Furies, instead returning to the equipment he used to define his sound in the early ’90s, including a collection of analogue synths, vintage effects units and a Commodore Vic20.

Since his 2015 album Damogen Furies, Jenkinson has scored a one hour episode of a show on CBeebies and collaborated with James McVinnie on an album of organ music, All Night Chroma. He also formed the speed jazz band Shobaleader One to reinterpret classic Squarepusher tracks.

Be Up A Hello arrives on January 31 and is available to pre-order now. The first single, ‘Vortrack’ and a ‘Fracture Remix’ is out on December 6.

Terr returns to Phantasy Sound with Energy Sync 12″

Electro, disco and acappella.

Brazilian-born, Berlin-based DJ and producer Terr will release her sophomore 12″ for London’s Phantasy Sound later this month.

It’s her second 12″ for the label this year following her exquisitely catchy and addictive debut Tale of Devotion, which featured a remix by Prins Thomas.

No samples are yet available but the label has teased the record as a blend of “electro and disco influences with flawless songwriting”.

Pre-order it here ahead of its November 29 release and see tracklist below.

Tracklist:

01. ‘Energy Sync (club mix)’

02. ‘Energy Sync’

03. ‘Energy Sync (acappella)’