Bruce Xiaoyu Liu, winner of the 2021 Chopin Piano Competition

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Montrealer Bruce Xiaoyu Liu has won first prize in the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition. The 24-year-old pianist was born in Paris; he moved to Canada with his family at the age of six. Liu is a graduate of the Conservatoire de Montréal, where he studied under Richard Raymond. He had already won the Concours OSM in 2012 and the Prix d’Europe in 2015. The Chopin Piano Competition was created in 1927 and is held every five years. In 2015 Charles Richard-Hamelin, another Conservatoire de Montréal graduate, had won the second prize. Watch and–more importantly–listen to Bruce Xiaoyu Liu perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, during the competition final.

Folk Pop

Joseph Edgar – Sirène, sirène

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Joseph Edgar tells us a tall tale–unless it’s a dream?–about a siren… From his “Peut être un rêve” abum. He designed, edited and directed the clip.

Dark Pop / Electro

Aiko Aiko – Al Lat

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Deep pop duo Aiko Aiko was founded by Nada Aiko and Pascal Holper in Vienna, in the early 2010’s. Al Lat comes from RADICAL NOPINION, their second album, being released these days. Pascal Holper directed this clip where Björk’s universe seems to have been hijacked by Trent Reznor.

Avant Folk / Psych-Folk

Monsieur Doumani – Koukkoufkiaos

by Rédaction PAN M 360

In this clip directed by Anna Fotiadou, cypriot trio Monsieur Doumani roams the aisles of a library, blowing to pieces the « Silence! » instruction with their lysergic chords. From Monsieur Doumani’s fantastic new album, Pissourin.

Electronic / Jazz

Makaya McCraven – Frank’s Tune (aka De’Jeff’s Tune)

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Makaya McCraven is a drummer, producer and beat expert from Chicago. On Deciphering the Message, he pays tribute to Blue Note’s legends – Burrell, Mobley, Blakey, Silver and so on – by remixing some of their tracks. McCraven obviously doesn’t bask in nostalgia, far from it. Frank’s Tune – remix title: De’Jeff’s Tune – comes from the album Easterly Winds by pianist Jack Wilson. The clip was directed by the Rising Agency.

Peggy Gou – “I Go”

by Rupert Bottenberg

The Berlin-based but proudly South Korean DJ/producer Peggy Gou, whose discography includes the noted Once EP on Ninja Tune and a DJ Kicks compilation, released “I Go”, the second of her summer singles on her own Gudu label already in early July. The official video arrives a month later, but it’s worth wait. Created by Gou with animator Inji Seo, it’s a strange and sexy nautical adventure soaked in saturated lime and magentas.

Africa

Fulu Mikizi à Nuits Sonores 2021

by Rupert Bottenberg

The band’s name means “garbage music”, but it’s no reflection on the amazing, inventive sounds of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Fulu Miziki. Energetic avatars of eco-freakyAfro-punk, their instruments are built from scrap scavenged from Kinshasa’s trash yards, likewise their outlandish costumes, equal parts warriors of the wasteland and Japanese space monsters. Currently based in culturally supercharged Kampala, Uganda, the band made the best of the pandemic lockdown, as their forthcoming EP Ngbaka will surely confirm in November.

In the meantime, they are at last back on the road, captured here in late July at the Festival Nuits Sonores in Lyon, France.

Electronic / Experimental / Contemporary / Noise

Fennesz live@grillx

by Michel Rondeau

A concert by one of the pioneers of electro-noise, recorded on Wednesday, December 8.

A concert by Fennesz at Vienna’s Grill X, recorded for the general public on Wednesday, December 8 with a few cameras, one of which allows us to see what is displayed on his computer screens. A rather meditative performance during the first half, all in half-tones, but it becomes a little more animated afterwards, without ever falling into anything that would be overwhelming, even when he grabs his Fender Jazzmaster. Listen to it on headphones, with the volume turned up, to get a better taste of all the subtleties of its overlapping pointillist strata.

Contemporary Jazz / Free Improvisation

Three duets courtesy of Banlieues bleues

by Michel Rondeau

The French festival Banlieues bleues offers free webcasts of three concerts pairing musicians experienced in free improvisation.

Until December 18th, the Banlieues bleues festival (in the Seine-Saint-Denis area of the Parisian suburbs) is offering free webcasts of three concerts presented at the end of November under the theme The Bridge : les amis américains, with three duets pairing musicians experienced in free improvisation.

The first, lasting some 26 minutes, features veteran double bassist Joëlle Léandre and the double bassist, also French, Bernard Santacruz.

https://youtu.be/-KzFGQJKnLw

The second, lasting 35 minutes, pairs New York hip-hop MC and producer Mike Ladd with France’s Mathieu Sourisseau on guitar.

https://youtu.be/kg-IQxu9Pk4

The third, 57:30 minutes, features pianist Benoît Delbecq on piano and virtuoso singer Claudia Solal, a duo that earlier this year released a highly successful album, Hopetown, on the Rogueart label.

https://youtu.be/b-gCNbP9JZc

Enjoy your shows!

Avant-Rock / Electronic

Battles: “Sugar Foot”

by Rupert Bottenberg

The anti-Covid anime insanity of Battles’ “Sugar Foot” video is, shall we say, transformative.

The New York City band (a duo these days) that made math-rock sexy are back with a video for “Sugar Foot”, off their 2019 album Juice B Crypts. The track features extra weirdness, in the form of the distinctive alto-tenor vocals of prog-rock icon Jon Anderson of Yes, and input from Taiwanese electro-shamanists Prairie WWWW. The video is the creation of Japanese animation team AC-bu, contributors to the notoriously bizarre anime satire Pop Team Epic, and it portrays a Great Space Robot Festival, taking place to avenge all the concerts and festivals cut short by Covid-19 in the last year.

Contemporary / Minimalist

Angèle David-Guillou: “A Question of Angles”

by Rupert Bottenberg

The synchronicity sparkles between Angèle David-Guillou’s new compositions and Maurice Béjart’s classic choreographies.

To accompany the release of her new album A Question of Angles, composer Angèle David-Guillou has cobbled together a couple of videos for the album’s first two tracks. They’re both with borrowed footage from celebrated choreographer Maurice Béjart’s 1971 ballet Le Sacre du Printemps. The haunting title track, below, attends an entirely feminine passage from the ballet, while the fierce “Valley of Detachment” accompanies its masculine counterpart. The synchronicity sparkles between David-Guillou’s new music and Béjart’s classic choreographies.

Indie Pop / J-Pop / Poetry / Pop-Punk

Haru Nemuri: Midem 2020 performance

by Rupert Bottenberg

The punk poetess of J-pop, Haru Nemuri, gives it her all in solitude for the French trade fair’s virtual edition.

The annual music trade fair in France, Midem (Marché International du Disque et de l’Edition Musicale), switched to virtual mode for its 2020 edition this past June, as have most music festivals and industry events. Japan’s Haru Nemuri was among the participating artists at Midem this year, and now shares her performance, a 15-minute melange of premium J-pop, skate-punk, dramatic electro, and passionate poetry, taken from her recent album Lovetheism. Created in solitude, Nemuri’s words and music – effusive pleas for empathy and connection – are nonetheless hypersocial, so there’s something especially poignant about her giving it her all, alone in a room with only cameras for company (and a microphone stand, for air-guitar purposes).