Month: April 2024

Belle and Sebastian are a Scottish indie pop band formed in Glasgow in 1996. Led by Stuart Murdoch, the band has released twelve studio albums. They are often compared with acts such as the Smiths and Nick Drake. The name “Belle and Sebastian” comes from Belle et Sebastien, a 1966 children’s book by French writer […]

Gemma Rogers is a London-based indie pop artist. Rogers’ lyrics combine the mundane with the apocalyptic: ‘New day’s dawning, Grandpa’s snoring, last night’s embers on tv’. They range between apathy – ‘turn the pages, nothing changes’ – despair – ‘doctor doctor help me please’ – and some sort of nihilistic hope’. But delivered in casually […]

“Águas de Março“ (“Waters of March“) is a Brazilian song composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim in 1972. Jobim wrote both the Portuguese and English lyrics. The lyrics, originally written in Portuguese, do not tell a story, but rather present a series of images that form a collage; nearly every line starts with “É…” (“It is…”). […]

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) are an English electronic band formed in Wirral, Merseyside, in 1978. The group consists of founding duo and principal songwriters Andy McCluskey (vocals, bass guitar) and Paul Humphreys (keyboards, vocals), along with Martin Cooper (keyboards, saxophone) and Stuart Kershaw (drums). Regarded as pioneers of electronic music, OMD combined an […]

Graham Nash is an English-American musician, singer and songwriter. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and Crosby, Stills & Nash. He was born in Blackpool, to where his mother had been evacuated from her hometown of Salford when World War II began. The […]

Serenade No. 13 for Strings in G major K525 is one of the most popular compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German title means “a little night music” which indicates a genre of entertainment music, which was traditionally performed in the evening and often outdoors. The “Kleine Nachtmusik” is, however, written for a chamber music […]

Bessie Smith was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the “Empress of the Blues”, she was the most popular female blues singer of the 1930s. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, she is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and […]

Minoru Muraoka was a Japanese shakuhachi player. He became well-known for using the shakuhachi to play jazz music, which was influential on popularizing the instrument in contemporary Japanese music. Minoru Muraoka was born in 1923 in Yamada, Japan. Muraoka learned from folk singer Tansui Kikuchi to play folk songs in the classical style of Nakao […]

Umefolk is one of the largest folk music festivals in Sweden, and is held every year in February. It is a festival for everyone that are interested in traditional music and dance; we create meeting places for old and young, amateurs and professionals, dancers and musicians. The festival has a wide program with concerts, dancing, […]

“All Right Now” is a song by English rock band Free, released on their third studio album, Fire and Water (1970). It was released by Island Records, a record label founded by Chris Blackwell. Released as the album’s second single, “All Right Now” peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and number four […]