Marianne Faithful: interview in The Guardian

Marianne Faithful is interviewed in The Guardian about her career and her new album She Walks in Beauty, on which she recites poems by William Keats, Percy Shelley, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Thomas Hood and Alfred Lord Tennyson. accompanied by musical arrangements by Warren Ellis, Brian Eno, Nick Cave and Vincent Sega. It might her last album, after COVID-19 ravaged her lungs:

Maybe that’s over. I would be incredibly upset if that was the case, but, on the other hand, I am 74. I don’t feel cursed and I don’t feel invincible. I just feel fucking human. But what I do believe in, which gives me hope, I do believe in miracles. You know, the doctor, this really nice National Health doctor, she came to see me and she told me that she didn’t think my lungs would ever recover. And where I finally ended up is: OK, maybe they won’t, but maybe, by a miracle, they will. I don’t know why I believe in miracles. I just do. Maybe I have to, the journey I’ve been on, the things that I’ve put myself through, that I’ve got through so far and I’m OK. Does that sound really corny?

Words about music (569): Cliff Burton

We do what we want. We don't care what anyone else thinks.

Cliff Burton

Facing Mountains: "Echo Returns" video

Dutch composer Xander Slikker has unveiled a video for Echo Returns, the opening track from his debut album Season's End by his Facing Mountains project. The clip was directed by Roman & Florian de Rijk.

» facingmountains.net

HCTF review of Season's End.

Almost Sex: Rest Up

Brooklyn based folk-pop duo Almost Sex go for less more on their new single Rest Up. Multi-instrumentalist Nick Louis and architect and singer HW LaSota found a catchy motif on the acoustic guitar and with handclaps and a bit of whistling they wrote a song about taking a break from the rush of everyday life - something that makes sense almost everytime in hindsight.

» almostsexmusic.com

HCTF review of Charmer.

Deleyaman: "Exil" live video + poetry & music w/ Fanny Ardant

Watch French dark wave band Deleyaman perform Exil" during a live session @ Trianon Transatlantique in Sotteville-lès-Rouen on October 23, 2020. It's a track from their latest album Sentinel. Filmed and edited by Renaud de Foville.

On January 29 they will accompany actress Fanny Ardant during a poetry reading and play their own music as part of web series hosted by the Maison de la Poésie in Paris:

« C’est l’angoisse de la séparation qui s’épand par tout le monde et donne naissance à des formes sans nombre dans le ciel infini. C’est ce chagrin de la séparation qui contemple en silence toute la nuit d’étoile en étoile et qui éveille une lyre parmi les chuchotantes feuilles dans la pluvieuse obscurité de juillet. C’est cette envahissante peine qui s’épaissit en amours et désirs, en souffrances et en joies dans les demeures humaines, et c’est toujours elle qui fond et ruisselle en chansons. »

L’Offrande lyrique, Rabindranath Tagore, traduit par André Gide.

Ces émotions douces et amères qui nous secouent ne sont-elles pas universelles ? Ne sont-elles pas l’essence même de notre existence ? Deleyaman, groupe franco-américain dans la veine céleste de Dead Can Dance, aborde ces questions vibrantes, parle d’art, d’amour, de beauté et de contemplation comme des réponses à nos contraintes existentielles. C’est une amicale collaboration artistique entre le groupe et Fanny Ardant qui a donné naissance à cette création. Au travers d’un texte lu, elle dialogue avec le groupe sur une musique créée par Deleyaman. Avec le son du doudouk, le groupe d’Aret Madilian interprétera les titres français de sa discographie.

» deleyaman.com

HCTF review of Sentinel.