Euterpe's Notebook

Half British, Half Australian, ‘Allo Darlin is totally fun, and that comes through on their recent release,Europe. The record has a blissful pop easiness about it, and that’s refreshing. Neither twee nor pretentious, Europe is full of catchy pop hooks and pithy songwriting. Here I talk with bassist-vocalist Bill Botting.

Pianist  and media personality Christopher O’Riley keeps himself busy, to say the least.  He hosts NPR’s “From the Top,” a show celebrating classical music among children. He performs around the world, and is noted for playing shows as eclectic as one comprised entirely of Schumann and Elliott Smith pieces. A constant innovator of both classical and pop music (notably Radiohead), O’Riley is also stunningly well-read and in possession of a winningly dry sense of humor. Here, he talks about his eclectic new record  Shuffle. Play. Listen., what band is the “wannabe Radiohead,” stair machine reading, and his love of Skinny Puppy.

On the second part of our Peter Broderick interview, we discuss Peter’s latest multimedia extravaganza!  Check it out here.

The American-born, Berlin-based composer Peter Broderick has been at it again.  He scored a dark film called Confluence with a soundtrack bearing his trademark, lush sound, even as it dipped into the same darkness that the film projected.  Mr. Broderick was nice enough to give a two-part interview, somewhat about that, and somewhat about his February, 2012 release,
http://itstartshear.com.
Read the first part of the interview here, and stay tuned for part two!

Hello all–

Thanks for reading this. I wanted to apologize for having a slow week here at Euterpe’s Notebook. I’ve been under the weather and, more excitingly, have received promotions at both The Rumpus and PopMatters, so I’ve been swamped with that work.

But I have not forgotten this site, and I won’t. I have a great two-part interview with Peter Broderick that I’ll be posting next week in honor of his new album, and I have plenty of other surprises in store for you. Thanks for bearing with me.

xoxo

Nils Frahm is an exceptionally gifted German pianist, composer, and recording engineer for many contemporary luminaries, such as Peter Broderick and Dustin O’Halloran. His own music is extraordinarily intimate, perhaps due to his tendency towards capturing ever bit of ambient sound–breathing, fingers on keys, the squeak of his bench all make it into the mix on his latest record, Felt, which also features a piece of felt dampening the strings. I was fortunate enough to speak with Frahm here.

Red Horses of the Snow, a duo formed in 2008, has released their first proper album, Territories, after releasing an album of demos several years back. I spoke with the band here.