Misaki Itō, (commonly known as Misia and stylized as MISIA), is a Japanese singer and songwriter. Born in Nagasaki, Misia moved to Fukuoka at the age of 14 to pursue a recording career. There, she continued her secondary education and briefly attended Seinan Gakuin University before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She was […]
Eric Satie
Eric Satie (who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884), was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an undistinguished student and obtained no diploma. In the 1880s he worked as a pianist in café-cabaret in Montmartre, […]
Lene Lovich
Lene Lovich was born Lili-Marlene Premilovich in Detroit, to an English mother and American father of Serbian descent. After her father had health problems, her mother took the 13-year-old Lovich and her three siblings to live in Hull. She met guitarist/songwriter Les Chappell when they were teenagers, and he became her longtime collaborator and life […]
Ólafur Arnalds
Ólafur Arnalds is an Icelandic multi-instrumentalist and producer from Mosfellsbaer, Iceland. He mixes strings and piano with loops and beats, a sound ranging from ambient/electronic to atmospheric pop. He is also the former drummer for Hardcore punk and metal bands Fighting Shit, Celestine, and others. In October 2007, Ólafur’s first solo album Eulogy for Evolution […]
Toshiko Akiyoshi
Toshiko Akiyoshi is a Japanese-American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. A local record collector introduced her to jazz by playing a record of Teddy Wilson playing “Sweet Lorraine.” She immediately loved the sound and began to study jazz. In 1952, during a tour of Japan, pianist Oscar Peterson discovered her playing in a club […]
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated as QOTSA) is an American rock band formed in 1996 in Seattle, Washington. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, who has been the only constant member throughout multiple lineup changes. Since 2013, the lineup has consisted of Homme alongside Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar, lap […]
Newen Afrobeat
Newen Afrobeat is an Afrobeat band that started in 2009 in Chile. Newen Afrobeat revisits Fela Kuti’s musical heritage. The word Newén means ‘strength’ in the Mapuche language. Their incendiary live show consists of 15 musicians, fronted by a powerful trio of female singers/songwriters, and oozes high energy. They bring their own unique musical vocabulary […]
The Amalgamation Choir
Τhe Amalgamation Choir was spawned from the workshop “The power of your voice” by Vasiliki Anastasiou, which took place at Fengaros Music Village 2014 and 2015. The all-female a cappella choir is based in Cyprus, and it’s directed by the remarkable Greek-Cypriot vocalist and composer Vasiliki Anastasiou. The independent 20+ member all-female community choir now […]
Swing Girls
Swing Girls is a Japanese 2004 teen comedy film directed and co-written by Shinobu Yaguchi. The plot follows a group of inept high school girls who form a big band. The cast includes Juri Ueno, Yuta Hiraoka, Shihori Kanjiya, Yuika Motokariya and Yukari Toyashima. The film ranked 8th at the Japanese box office in 2004, […]
Astrud Gilberto
Astrud Gilberto was a Brazilian samba and bossa nova singer and songwriter. She was raised in Rio de Janeiro. Her father was a language professor, and she became fluent in several languages. She immigrated to the United States in 1963 and settled there permanently. Astrud sang on two tracks on the 1963 album Getz/Gilberto with […]