Archive for the ‘Ethnic Fusion’ Category

Its one occasion when musicians gather at the local level to produce music, and another when top performing artists from around the globe unite in a music festival that reaches the attention of worldwide audiences and achieves a high level of acclaim.

Johannes Linstead is an Award Winning Canadian guitarist and multi instrumentalist proving his acclaimed talents once again by his current release.  Showcasing his lively artisanship on Spanish guitar, Mistico becomes the well centered focal point and international meeting place for dedicated music professionals uniting from Canada, Spain, Cuba, Greece, Iran, and Venezuela.

Recently winning Best World Album & Best Instrumental Album – Acoustic in ZMR’s 2009 Awards, plus ranking #1 at eMusic.com’s World Music & Jazz / Blues charts, gives the few people not familiar with the quality of his work a little more insight.

Mistico is the successful album that commands much respect, not only by the heart beating origins of another chart topping project by Johannes and his extraordinary Contemporary Latin guitar rhythms, but Mistico becomes an extravagant music festival with top international artists performing by his side. 

Listing just the highlights of his music career, Johannes was recognized in the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards as Guitarist of the Year, had 4 Top Ten charting albums at Billboard, Best World Album JUNO Awards nomination, and 4 Best Album awards at NAR & NAV.  With over 500,000 albums sold worldwide, the long list of awards, nominations, and credits in entirety reaches a length most artists strive to achieve in a lifetime.

Johannes Linstead has a musical style not easy to categorize since Contemporary, Latin, Flamingo, Mediterranean, and World are just some of the essential New Age influences that when synchronized with a vast array of percussion instruments, seamlessly integrate into stylish musical scores that could be more easily categorized using the word festive.

The Happy Song ( Felicidad ) begins this rare international festival of  11  original songs with up-tempo flare, neatly tailored to the elevated atmosphere of the occasion while giving Johannes his first opportunity to sport the masterful guitar melodies for which he has become famous.  The accordion composition smoothly introduces a heightened amount of ambience to the opening number with much fanfare, while groove rhythms in Rico ! move gracefully in counter beat with beautiful electric guitar runs, congas, and bongo drums to interlock in dramatic fashion.

Leisurely strides in Night Dance rely on a crisp Latin styled melody with moderate vocals to generate a nice distinction to a more casual Twilight, where the sheer beauty of guitar melodies lend themselves to a veiled feel of lively sophistication.  Otros Mundos embraces percussion claves, congas, bongo and timbale while playing rhythmic intermediary companion with guitar melodies expert runs through well defined chords.

All She is ( Ella Es ) brings a light breeziness into the storyline, while Coconut Girl outlines positive imagery of the spirited occasion making up this festive album.  Rhumba styled Santa Maria with accordion harmony extends a tantalizing impression of solidarity to the sunny and joyful affair.

Durango brings the talents of many artists into the lively exotic mix, where dejembe, doumbek, and bongo percussions dispense the glitter, while guitar and accordion intermezzos engrave the melodic sparkle.  1000 Veils conveys energetic rhythms and palmas ( hand clapping ) to make a striking contrast to violin’s and Spanish guitar’s well structured verses.

Mistico ( Title Song ) enters an extravagant linage of passion where violin and doumbek perpetuate the energetic tempo and warm festive atmosphere, uniting with resolute harmony while synchronizing to become positively dazzling. 

Much like the territorial borders the world musicians in attendance encountered during the album’s production, Mistico crosses many borders itself, achieving an extravagant repertory for everyone who listens to this celebratory fiesta of music.  Viva Mistico !

The global musicians uniting to form this international festival alongside Johannes Linstead include Anastasios Bigas, Frank Marcos Aular, Jalidan Ruiz, Jordan Abraham, Geoff Hlibka, Yosvani Castaneda, Sina Khosravi, and Laura Fernandez.

Visit johanneslinstead.com to sample / purchase or visit his Amazon.com pages here.

Middle picture copyright Bigstockphoto – Siart. Below picture copyright Johannes Linstead

Eric Mouquet, the Deep Forest veteran, has posted a 5 minute long prelisten to his upcoming album Deep Africa. It has now been made available on Deep-Projects.com.  

From what I can hear the album will be closer to the World genre than new age music – with plenty of African singing (and not just samples as in the classical Deep Forest albums). But, as with Deep Brasil, there are segments that are obviously very true to the old Deep Forest sound too – so new age music fans have a lot to look forward to here.

As always, Eric Mouquet is expected to give his fans a treasure chest of ethnical sounds – just like he has on his previous albums.

Be sure to visit mr. Mouquet’s Facebook page too.

After some downtime and work behind the scenes, the new homepage of Deep Projects is now completed and ready for the release of the Deep Africa album in April. Eric Mouquet, the Deep Forest veteran, has done the design himself. On the page he gives his fans an exclusive presentation of his many musical projects, the last being the song Namba le Ndamba with singers from Cameroon (which, by the way, is not a part of the Deep Africa album).

One song is now available from the upcoming Deep China album, the “Won’t last long” track, with the Chinese singer Sa Dingding. It truly is a wonderful song.

In other news, Eric Mouquet will be performing live in Paris with South African singer songwriter Johnny Clegg. Mr. Clegg has been a record artist for over thirty years, and will this spring be releasing a new album on the Universal label. One of the topics for the concert is Eric’s short film project : “Soccer made in Africa”. Tickets for the concert is now available.  

So do visit Deep-projects.com

The perhaps most interesting new age music project around is Eric Mouquet’s Deep Projects.

Mr. Mouquet, the Deep Forest veteran, last year released the magnificent album Deep Brasil (review here), which gave new life to the no. 1 hit Sweet Lullaby and contained several new favorites as well. No wonder it was voted one of the best new age albums of 2008.

And now to some breaking news; the next installment in the project, Deep Africa, will be released in April! Little is known about the new album – but it will for sure be yet another fine ethnic fusion release from Eric Mouquet.

The web page deep-projects.com has received a face lift. The black background is gone, replaced by a fading blue color. As of now, the music shop and the blog are down – but visitors get a nice album art presentation of earlier music projects by Eric Mouquet.

2010 is looking out to be a great year for Deep Projects/Deep Forest fans! An album called Deep China will be released at a later date.

Back in the jungle: Music can take you places far far away by just pressing the play button. The new album from Eric Mouquet of Deep Forest is a good example of this; it is like a one way ticket to the Amazonas. In a way it is the first return to the style of Deep Forest’s ground breaking album titled Deep Forest – with the smash hit Sweet Lullaby – since Deep Forest’s more recent albums didn’t focus directly on the forest and jungle, but more “open spaces” in Eastern Europe (Boheme), South America (Comparsa) and the Pacific (Pacifique, of course). But with Deep Brasil Eric Mouquet takes us into the warm and damp forest once more, to experience the nature and the people. And wow, what a journey it is!

The album is formed by the vocals of Flávio Dell’Isola and Michel Villain, perhaps making Deep Brasil more of a world album than a new age album. But I feel that the vocals make the album more authentic. And yes, there are plenty of typical new age samples here. Remember that Deep Forest almost invented this kind of sample use. And Eric Mouquet is still the king in this respect.

Deep Brazil consists of 14 songs, 55 minutes and 44 seconds all together. The opening track, Amazonia, is simply incredible. The opening synth, the rich pads and forest sounds are a perfect mix. It is as good as Deep Forest ever was. Flávio Dell’Isola’s vocal is great here, and the child voice samples in the end are really tasteful. And the piano at the very end, which perhaps can be called this album’s theme, is sooo beautiful. Track 2, Terra de Indio part one, is a world song with a nice vocal. You can hear the trademark of Deep Forest during the first 10 seconds of the song, and in the end. Track 3, Fazenda, starts with an intense but nice reverb effect. Again the vocals are good, and the arrangement is also first class. There are some happy conversation samples in the end.

Track 4 is titled Cedu do Brasil is also a very nice song, with a powerful melody. Africa Brasil, track 5, is fast and playful. The accordion has almost a Lambada-like feel to it. The African women singing in the background is a good effect, giving life to the African aspects of the song. Track 6, Minas Nascimento, and track 7, Pe De Flor, is more world style. Again the vocal is fantastic.

The songs Goiano, Terra De Indio part 2 and Cerradao (track 8, 9 and 10) are as good as any Deep Forest songs ever was, both in sound and melody. Cerradao contains a cacophony of blowing instruments in the end, which is kinda intense but nice.

And then, lo and behold, the moment we all have been waiting for: Sweet Lullaby Brazilian version! (track 12) I must confess that this was the first song I played when I got the album. The arrangement is light and soothing, like a real lullaby. The synths in the beginning are just right, and the following piano and guitar part is soft jazz at its best. The well known Sweet Lullaby theme has also made a comeback, fresh as a rain drop on a jungle leaf. Wow!

Track 13, Virtual Forest, is the only instrumental track on the album (well, almost instrumental. There are some whisperings here). The intro is a little bit eerie, but that’s ok; all deep forests can be spooky sometimes. But then the album’s piano theme is back, more beautiful than ever.

The last track, Pimenta Do Tempero, is light and a very good completion of the album. All in all Deep Brasil is an incredible album. At the end of the year I will not be surprised to find this album on my top 5 list of 2008. Perhaps at the very top. If I get out of the Brazilian jungle before the new year, that is.

//btfas

You can sample and buy the album on Deep Projects.