Youssou N'Dour: parrain des Nuits d'Afrique.

Youssou N'Dour est le parrain des vingtièmes Nuits d'Afrique, festival organisé du 13 au 23 juillet à Montreal (Québec). Le chanteur sénégalais s'est produit en ouverture avec son groupe Le Super Etoile de Dakar.

Ses fans le retrouveront également dans les bacs français avec la sortie du Live 8 at Eden: Africa Calling le 31 juillet 2006. Ce CD rend compte du concert Africa Calling organisé par Peter Gabriel le 2 juillet 2005, parallèlement à neuf autres concerts donnés un peu partout dans le monde. Aux côtés de Youssou N'Dour, on trouve sur ce disque des prestations de Tinariwen, Angélique Kidjo, Daara J ou encore Geoffrey Oryema.

Robert Fripp "Exposure"

(DGM)

English guitarist Robert Fripp first made a name for himself playing with the original lineup of progressive rock band King Crimson, but his work on David Bowie's 1977 "Heroes" album and his association with producer/musician Brian Eno extended his credibility with a new generation of New Wave musicians.

The result led to work with a variety of musicians, including Peter Gabriel (himself a progressive rock refugee) and singer Daryl Hall.

First released in 1979, Fripp's "Exposure" album was hailed as an avant punk "Sergeant Pepper" and featured contributions from Hall, Gabriel, Eno and Phil Collins, among others. The original version of this album is making its first appearance on CD, remastered by Fripp.

The CD includes a second remastered disc that restores Hall's vocals on several tracks and adds several bonus tracks. Hall's vocal contributions to the original album were noteworthy performances and the addition of even more Hall vocals is a welcome find.

EMI expands Blue Note to all adult music

NEW YORK, July 19 (UPI) -- EMI is restructuring its adult pop music, jazz and classics, grouping them as multigenre music for over age 25 under the Blue Note Label Group in New York.

Longtime Blue Note jazz label chief Bruce Lundvall will be president and chief operating officer of the new group."My vision is to create and sustain the leading position in the sophisticated 25-plus music market," Lundvall said. "This move will streamline and organize our staffing to maximize our penetration of these key markets."

Senior Vice President and General Manager Ian Ralfini of the Manhattan label will assume general manager duties for the Narada label, which is moving from Milwaukee to New York and merging with the Manhattan label, Daily Variety reported.

Narada has Americana/roots music on Back Porch, new age music on Higher Octave and Peter Gabriel's World Music label, Real World. All classical crossover artists will also move into Ralfini's group.

Zach Hochkeppel, who had been vice president of marketing for EMI Jazz & Classics, has been promoted to general manager of Blue Note, supervising releases on the Blue Note, Metro Blue and Narada Jazz labels.

The 2006 DVD Hall of Fame Inductees

These DVD champions are going to a better place.

As the annually updated list of the top 100 DVDs of all time hits stands in the August issue of Home Theater magazine, we thought we'd take a moment to honor the number-one picks from each category in last year's ranking. We purge these "best of the best" titles each year to help keep the list current, although they still receive our highest recommendation: Buy them all as part of your own ultimate DVD library.

Best Music DVD

Peter Gabriel: PLAY (Rhino) Gabriel is a consummate musician and showman, and this collection spanning the glory days of music video has been jaw-droppingly remastered in DTS 96/24, including "Sledgehammer," perhaps the best music clip ever. (Also a contender for Best Audio)

(...)

Solid State Logic moves into video

“It’s our intention to make Solid State Logic a major player in the integration of video and audio within production environments,” says SSL’s Managing Director Antony David. “The MediaWAN platform is the springboard for a range of new products that will leverage our expertise in both areas. This move is a further example of SSL’s invigorated entrepreneurial spirit since its acquisition by Peter Gabriel and David Engelke.”

Narada record label to leave city for New York

Distribution business will stay; other jobs to be cut or transferred . The Narada record label, the Milwaukee area's most prominent connection to the music industry, is being moved to New York. While a distribution business will remain here, the rest of the Narada jobs are either being eliminated or transferred, Jeanne Meyer, spokeswoman for EMI Music, which owns Narada, said Tuesday.

A few people were dismissed Tuesday at Narada's Glendale headquarters. The rest of the cuts and transfers will be completed by next March, Meyer said. About 30 people work at Narada, with about half of those at the distribution business, Music Design. The dismantling of Narada here will end local involvement with a 23-year-old label that helped spread the popularity of "new age" music. Narada since has broadened to include a variety of artists, chiefly instrumentalists, in such genres as jazz, Celtic and world music. The shutdown in Milwaukee comes as EMI moves to unite its adult-oriented music labels under the Blue Note banner. The company will still use the Narada name, Meyer said.

She said EMI would step up efforts to market to music buyers 25 and older. "We're applying a lot more talent and resources to the artists on the roster," Meyer said. " . . . It's essentially turning up the volume a little bit." Three years ago, Narada employed about 70 people, but EMI cut staff sharply at a time when companies were seeing sales plunge amid increased downloading of music from the Internet, much of it illegally. The drop in disc sales since has flattened, Meyer said.

In a statement, EMI executive Bruce Lundvall said the reorganization of the company's adult music labels would streamline staffing and help the firm capture as much as possible of the over-25 market. "Moving the Narada Label Group to New York further enhances our ability to attract talent to these music genres," Lundvall said.

Another person familiar with the EMI changes said artists often shun signing with labels that aren't in New York, Los Angeles or Nashville, where most of the industry is based. "Artists who are looking for success on a global stage usually find it attractive to go with a label that's located in New York or L.A.," the person said. Employees at Narada's Glendale headquarters have handled the gamut of functions associated with a record label, including marketing, promotion, sales, finance and the discovery and development of talent.

Narada was sold in 1997 to Virgin Records of America, which later was purchased by EMI. Since then, its Web site says, the company has become the main U.S. licensee for Peter Gabriel's Real World Records and developed the Back Porch label for roots rock, alternative country and Americana. Peter Buffett, the musician son of the famous investor Warren Buffett, came to Milwaukee in the late 1980s when he signed a recording contract with Narada. He later left Narada and recently relocated to New York. Narada artists include keyboardist Ramsey Lewis, guitarist Joyce Cooling, singer Kathy Mattea and singer John Hammond.

Survival present à Womad

WOMAD RIVERMEAD 2006 : 28 Juily 2006

Le festival WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance - le ‘Monde de la musique, des arts et de la danse) qui met à l'honneur toutes les formes de musiques, d'arts et de danse des cinq continents a été créé en 1982 par Peter Gabriel. Chaque édition donne l'occasion de présenter à un public international de nombreux artistes talentueux.

A travers ses multiples activités, l'organisation WOMAD, a pour vocation d'informer et de sensibiliser le public aux valeurs et aux potentiels de la diversité et de la multicultularité.

Survival sera présent au festival WOMAD. Venez nous rencontrer et signer nos pétitions !

Programme détaillé (en anglais) sur le site www.womad.org

'Delirium' aims to capture rock arena vibe

It's official: Cirque du Soleil is no longer a cirque.

After 22 years of pushing the boundaries of the traditional peanuts-and-clowns -and-elephants act, Cirque du Soleil abandons the big top in its new touring show , ``Delirium," which plays Worcester's DCU Center on Friday and Saturday. ``All the previous Cirque shows were based on what we call an acrobatic skeleton," said Michel Lemieux , the co creator, with Victor Pilon, of the production. ``But with `Delirium' [Cirque du Soleil co founder] Gilles Ste.-Croix wanted a musical skeleton" -- a show built around music, not circus acrobatics.

In a symbol of its new musical identity, ``Delirium" is the first Cirque show to play sports arenas -- the kind that host Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones -- rather than big-top tents. Typical Cirque shows, like its `` Corteo," which will run Sept. 8 to Oct. 8 at Suffolk Downs, stay in a single location for months. ``Delirium," like a rock concert, plays for one or two nights in each city before moving on. That schedule demands a new level of experience and coordination from the crew and the performers. No one involved in the show is under 18 years of age, and the crew is composed of experienced stagehands. ``The pace of the tour is really fast," admitted Carmen Ruest, director of creation for the show.

``Delirium" celebrates Cirque du Soleil's history even while breaking away from it. The show's 21 songs were culled from the hundreds of original compositions used in previous productions, then re mixed with new arrangements and texts. You might call ``Delirium" ``Cirque du Soleil: The Greatest Hits." OK, so there are still acrobats. And you probably won't see a stiltwalker at a Stones arena show. Ruest, who began her career as stiltwalker in Montreal and still keeps a pair of stilts in her office, takes pride in that fact.

``I'm really happy that we have a stiltwalker," Ruest said. ``He's better than me! But I would go back on my stilts next week if you asked me to." ``Delirium" tells the story of a recluse named Bill who experiences life through his computer and television. Through a series of encounters with a motley cast of characters, Bill learns to break out of his virtual existence.

This narrative of alienation appealed to Lemieux, an artist who works in theater, photography, video, and dance. ``This is a very personal story for Victor [Pilon] and me," Lemieux said. ``Today, we live in a fictional world. This is the story of a man who lives in his mind." Lemieux took his inspiration for the show from the famously bombastic arena acts of Pink Floyd and Peter Gabriel, as well as communal celebrations like raves and sporting events. ``It's catharsis," he said. ``It's quite important to forget our individuality and feel part of a crowd. Especially in this era of fear, when we lock ourselves in our homes, we need to have collective experiences."

By Michael Hardy, Globe Correspondent | July 16, 2006

Reels for peace

It might seem that this moment would be the worst possible time to call for Israeli-Palestinian dialogue as a way to end the conflict, but two documentaries at this year's Jerusalem Film Festival (which began on July 6th and runs till the 15th) both strongly endorse dialogue as the best solution.

Lilly Rivlin's Can You Hear Me? Israeli and Palestinian Women Fight for Peace and Ronit Avni's Encounter Point focus on how dialogue, even with those with whom you have the most heated and profound disagreement, can bring positive and significant change. The outlook of the filmmakers and the message of their films is extremely similar (the main difference is that Rivlin looks exclusively at women peace activists on both sides), as is the fact that both directors have deep connections to Israel - Rivlin was born in Jerusalem to a family that has lived in the city for seven generations and Avni's father is Israeli - but live in New York. (...)

(...) Encounter Point has been shown at many festivals around the world, including the prestigious Hot Docs festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival, where it recently won the Audience Award. Before making Encounter Point, Avni founded Just Vision, a non-profit organization that aims to widen the influence of both Israelis and Palestinians working for peace. She has produced and written several previous short films in collaboration with filmmakers from Brazil, Africa and the US as part of the efforts of WITNESS, rock star Peter Gabriel's human rights organization.(...)