September 2nd, 2010 / 0 Comments
On today’s flight from Calgary to Glasgow, I found myself sat next to Sarah (from Australia) on my left and Alistair (from Dundee) on my right, all three of us proud gingers. We named our row Team Ginger and spoke for most of the flight about food, politics, and chasing love around the world. Shortly before breakfast, I fell asleep for an hour or so and had a repeat of a dream from childhood, the one where I’m flying through the air over glowing cityscapes at night (which reminded me of this little demo that came out on a children’s compilation last year that I lost track of somewhere along the line). Getting off the plane in Scotland felt like coming to a home I’ve been away from for far too long.
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More: Dispatches, Friends, New Music, Places
August 7th, 2010 / 0 Comments
In studio, watching FOONYAP record the base tracks for her gorgeous ‘The Blue Lagoon’, waiting for the other string players to arrive. My wisdom teeth sores are killing me, so it’s nice to just watch someone else at work. Later on tonight, hot springs and maybe even a gondola ride up a mountain. We’re spoiled by where we live – we’re spoiled by one another. I can’t wait for the world to hear what Foon’s up to.
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May 16th, 2010 / 0 Comments
The festival is over, and last night’s party lasted until some point this morning. While everyone slept, I took a bicycle along the coast, riding through small Swedish villages along the seaside. Swans the size of my bike swam in the water and the air cleared my lungs. I bought a sunflower and some baking. Back at the house in the early afternoon, everyone was waking slowly, and it was time to pack up bags and make the boat. Now there are very few of us left — tomorrow, we’ll all have returned to mainland Sweden, to Stockholm and Göteborg. Adieu, Visby.
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May 14th, 2010 / 0 Comments
The annual Ljudvågor festival in Visby premieres new classical works by the students of the Tonsättar Skolan on the harbour. Not only is the city filled with the sound of music (Notes? Who needs them! Tuned instruments? Over-rated!), but each flat seems stuffed with musical instruments on every surface. It matters not if you can really play them, and each room of the house (we’re staying in one built in the 1300s, previously a monastery — when renovated, they discovered children’s corpses underneath) is typically bursting with different songs simultaneously. Here then, a sample listen to the sounds of Hampus Norén’s place.
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May 13th, 2010 / 0 Comments
When you tell a Swedish person you’re going to Gotland for a week, their eyes widen and they speak of the island that awaits you in hushed tones. A security guard at the train station even put me first in the queue when I told him where I was going — he was born here, and was adamant that it was still the “most beautiful part of Sweden”. I’m here in Gotland (in the capital of Visby) for a new music festival, in which my friend Hampus Norén is premiering new works. Last night we heard his beautiful first composition in a grand old church. This morning we walked along the town’s medieval walls, came back, and played the piano (this piece performed by the amazing Christine Everö). If the best way to start a tour is in an Icelandic hot spring, surely the most perfect way to end it is with escape to Gotland.
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January 25th, 2010 / 0 Comments
One of my fondest memories of growing up in Canada involves John Weldon’s 1979 short film The Log Driver’s Waltz (viewable at the National Film Board of Canada’s incredible website (here). The song (originally written by Wade Hemsworth), was performed for the film by sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle and became such a quintessential Canadian cultural artifact that I can’t think of a time when this tune hasn’t been a part of my understanding of Canada itself. For a time, we performed ‘If Only I Were a Painter, I’d Paint for You the Moon’ from Songbook as a two-part medley with ‘The Log Driver’s Waltz’, and at our 2008 Sled Island show at Central United Church in Calgary, our friend Kris Ellestad asked us to back him up on a full run-through. We post it here in memory of Kate McGarrigle, who died last week.
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January 18th, 2010 / 6 Comments
Like it or not, Calgary is the city in which we live, and it’s the city that brought us all together. Sure, considering what’s going on up North to Alberta’s tar sands and the knowledge that by living here one is – in at least some way – attached to the disastrous oil machine, it’s sometimes hard to feel all that proud about it. But, it’s still important to look back at the good things that have come out of Calgary from time to time, right? Good things like Jann Arden, which leads to even better things like our new side project MANN HARDEN. And so, we give to you, our non-Calgary friends who doubtlessly missed our one and only show, MANN HARDEN (all songs by Jann Arden). (Foon on mandobird, Annalea on drums, Peter on guitar, Kenna on guitar, Mark on violin). This one’s for you, Calgary.
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