La Blogothèque and Andrew Bird

This blogg will tell you about a fusion of two very good things. First of all you have the amazing makers of "Take-away-shows" La Blogothèque and the Andrew Bird. I first became aware of La Blogothèque though videos they made for Beirut. They are all simply breathtaking. The concept is that an artist plays live and walks around and gets filmed. I have always though thought that I have to look for more videos by La Blogothèque, but I always forgot, until today when my kind friend posted a link to their site at Facebook. Andrew Bird is exactly the same, a musician that I always wanted to check out more and always like when I hear him, yet forget to check out more. So, here I found the combination of two very great things: Andrew Bird and La Blogothèque. It's quite lovely. Oh, and I love the whistling :)

This is a link to the general site, and if you have a look around you can also find other amazing stuff, included... Beirut :)

Great musicians and great songs: Beirut - Nantes

Beirut is an artist that friends of mine discovered at the Roskilde festival 2 years ago. They all came home with their eyes looking like if they had seen an angel when they talked about the Beirut-concert. There was basically so much chatter about Beirut all summer that it took me a few months before I could really sit down and listen to it myself. And man... It's amazing.

Beirut is really Zach Condon. Apart from being incredibly cute and angle like looking ha has a passion for music and a talent for music that is just beyond almost anything.
From what I heard in an interview on Norwegian tv, he started playing one instrument and then all friends and family would give him their instrument. It all ended up in his little bedroom and it was so full of instruments that he had to take away the madras during the day and lay it down in the middle of the room at night. The result was that he every morning would step on something as he woke up and break a lot of expensive equipment.

Zac's little bedroom was in Santa Fe, New Mexico and from there he ventured into the world and found music from Eastern - Europe on the way. This results in a very exceptional mix of folk and balkan music with accordian, ukulele, tubas etc.

Zac was to tour Europe again in the summer of 2008 but had to cancel. Of what I gathered the man was just to tired to go on any more, and made a wise choice to just relax. He is now back with a double EP instead and you can read more about the current state of things here.

But more than all of the above... Zac is his voice, I think and the way he sings it, but also with such a great sense of timing and arranging. I give you three versions of my favorite song "Nantes.

First the version that is on the album:



Then two more versions of live music video things from Paris. One more improvised than the other in a way. Look at the passion for the music :)
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