Retour de l’enfant prodigue

Kate Bush — Aerial
Notre cote : 9,5/10

Voici donc arrivé le huitième album dans la carrière de 27 ans de cette incroyable artiste britannique. Découverte à 16 ans par David Gilmour de Pink Floyd, elle prendra le monde d’assaut à 19 ans avec son classique Wuthering Heights.

The Red Shoes, paru en 1993 n’était pas son meilleur opus, mais dès les premières notes d’Aerial, on comprend que ces douze années d’attente en valaient la peine. Il faut savoir que, d’une part, Kate Bush est reconnue pour son perfectionnisme et de l’autre qu’elle a donné naissance à un garçon en 1998 (dont elle parle sur la pièce Bertie).

Sur Aerial, on retrouve la Kate Bush classique. Sans les comparer directement, ce disque m’a donné envie de me racheter ses premiers albums, surtout Lionheart et The Dreaming. Sa musique est totalement originale, ne sent pas le réchauffé le moins du monde. On sent aussi bien la filiation avec le rock progressif qu’avec son côté plus pop.

Cet album se présente comme un album double, mais ce sont vraiment deux disques bien dinstincts et tout aussi excellents l’un que l’autre.

Le premier, A Sea of Honey, contient les pièces plus rock et plus pop, ainsi que le premier extrait, la superbe chanson King of the Mountain. Les autres qui se détachent du lot sont particulièrement Pi — seule Kate Bush pouvait chanter les chiffres du nombre Pi! — et A Coral Room.

A Sky of Honey, le deuxième disque, est une oeuvre conceptuelle en 9 parties sur le thème de la lumière et des chants d’oiseaux qui décrit une journée à partir de l’après-midi jusqu’au lendemain matin. Ç’a l’air très ésotérique quand on essaie de le décrire, mais ça donne un résultat tout à fait délicieux pour l’écoute.

Je pourrais vous parler longtemps de ce disque, mais la qualité du travail de Kate Bush parle d’elle-même et la plupart des mots sont superflus...

Gabriel Eyes Genesis

Original frontman says reunion talks are imminent

Will the Lamb lie down on Broadway once more? For years, the former members of Genesis have said that they are ready, willing and able to reform the group at original frontman Peter Gabriel's whim -- and for years Gabriel has adamantly refused. Until now. "The odds [of a Genesis reunion] are better now than before," Gabriel tells Rolling Stone. "We're going to have the conversation."

Aside from a one-off concert in 1982, Gabriel has not stood on stage with the classic five-man Genesis lineup since the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour ended in May of 1975. Phil Collins, who had played drums since joining the group prior to its third album in 1971, took over as vocalist in 1976 and lifted the British art rockers to stadiums all over the world. Collins quit the group after 1992's We Can't Dance tour to focus on his successful solo career. Remaining members Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford recruited former Stiltskin vocalist Ray Wilson for the 1997 release Calling All Stations, which fared so poorly that Genesis were forced to cancel a tour of American theaters. The group quietly folded in 1998.

Since then, a large cult of fans (particularly of the Gabriel era) have kept the Genesis flame alive. Phil Collins played with Genesis tribute band the Musical Box -- who recreate the Gabriel era with frightening precision -- when they visited his hometown of Geneva, Switzerland recently. Earlier this week, Collins reaffirmed his desire to drum again for the real thing during a Tel Aviv press conference. Last month, guitarist Steve Hackett told the Chicago Sun-Times that he received a phone call from Genesis management. "There's a movement to put us all together again," he said. "I do think it will happen."

Notorious perfectionist Gabriel warns that any reunion concert would require serious preparation time. "When we got back together in 1982, I don't think we rehearsed," he says. "To really do it properly, we'd have to take more time. It's quite a commitment."

When pushed to definitely say if the group is reuniting, Gabriel remains coy: "I wouldn't put money on it . . . yet."

Peter Gabriel Live 8 At Eden Africa Calling

Dorrie Williams-WheelerBellaOnline's 1980s Editor

Peter Gabriel is an artist who has clearly been influenced by African music. This was evident since the 80's. For the video for his song "In Your Eyes" he was joined live on stage by African singers and dancers. It was no surprise when Peter Gabriel organized Live 8 At Edden Africa Calling.

Some may recall there was a bit of an outrage when the line-up for the Live 8 concerts were announced. Many complained that there were not enough African, or African-American music artists on the roster for an event that was to benefit Africa. Bob Geldof expressed that this was due to the fact that he didn't want to lose viewers, Peter Gabriel even recalls a conversation he had with Gabriel about the topic. The statement in the booklet reads, "I telephoned Bob Geldof to see if we could increase the African element on his show. Bob's reply was that their job was to gurantee that billions of eyes around the world watched their programme and heard all of the messages, and that any unfamiliar names whether they come from Africa, London, or Tasmania might well lose viewers."

Obviously, Peter Gabriel disagreed. The Live 8 at Eden event was organized and included in the Live 8 fold. The concert was recorded on July 2nd, 2005. Peter and the events organizers decided that all of the performers should be African. Therefore, unless you are familiar with African musicians you may not recognize the names of many of the performers on the set list. The two disc CD includes performances from the artists and a speech from Nelson Mandela. The booklet includes the text of Mandela's speech.

It's a really great DVD for people who may be interested in African music. Artist featured on the DVD include Thomas Mapfumo, Mariza, Moudou Diof Beyeza Shishka, Youssou N'dour, Geoffrey Oryema, and many more. The DVD also includes a 28 minute documentary. You can view more about the DVD at here. In other Peter Gabriel news, Still Growing Up: Peter Gabriel Live & Unwrapped, a two-DVD set, from Rhino Entertainment arrives in stores on November 22nd.

Peter Gabriel Live E-cardDigging In The Dirt WMA Format
Sledgehammer Live WMA format
Peter Gabriel Official Website

Phil Collins : "I'm open for it"

British pop star Phil Collins posing for photographers after arriving in Tel Aviv on Sunday. (AP)

Pop legend Phil Collins arrives in Israel ahead of farewell concert

By Haaretz Service

British singer and songwriter Phil Collins said on Sunday he would be open to a reunion of his old band Genesis, a day before he is set to perform in Israel as part of his what he calls his final tour. "I'm open for it," said Collins, 54, the most prominent international music star to perform in Israel since the start of the Intifada more than five years ago. "I'm happy to sit behind the drums and let Peter (Gabriel) be the singer. If (a reunion) happens, I'll be there. If it doesn't happen ... it would just be because there are too many things in the way," Collins told reporters in Tel Aviv.

Collins' concert on Monday in Jaffa, a quarter of Tel Aviv, is part of his "First Final Farewell Tour." He said that he would stop touring "soon" in order to be able to spend more time with his family, but would like to continue to record music. Collins said he wasn't afraid in Israel. He performed in Lebanon a day earlier. "I wish it wasn't like this," Collins said of the conflict. "I sit and watch stuff on the television, I think, 'Why, why, why.'"

Groups like progressive rockers Jethro Tull, boy band Westlife and metal bands Megadeth and the Scorpions, have performed in Israel during the uprising. Other artists, such as Madonna, have cancelled planned concerts, though she visited Israel last year on a Kabbalah pilgrimage.

The progressive rock group Genesis formed in 1967 and were internationally successful for more than 30 years. Collins, the band's first drummer, took over as singer after Gabriel quit the group in 1975 to become a solo artist. Collins left in 1996 to concentrate on his own solo career having already scored solo hits in the 1980s with such smash hits as "Against All Odds", "Easy Lover", "Another Day in Paradise" and "In the Air Tonight". After a shuffle of band members, including an Israeli drummer, Genesis finally called it quits in 1998.

Réunion de Genesis ?

Réunion de Genesis, au tour de Gabriel d’être intéressé

Le leader original affirme que des pourparlers sont imminents en vue d'une réunion.

Reverra-t-on la célèbre formation se regrouper? Depuis des années, les anciens membres de Genesis ont laissé savoir qu'ils sont prêts à reformer le groupe au premier signe de son leader original, Peter Gabriel. Et depuis des années, celui-ci refuse sans détour. Jusqu'à maintenant.

«Les probabilités d'une réunion sont meilleures qu'elles l'étaient auparavant», a déclaré Gabriel au magazine Rolling Stone. «Nous allons effectivement tenir cette conversation.»

Mis à part un unique concert donné en 1982, Gabriel n'est pas apparu sur une scène au sein de la formation classique des cinq musiciens de Genesis depuis la fin de la tournée Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, en mai 1975.

Phil Collins, batteur de la formation depuis qu'il s'était joint à Genesis avant le troisième album du groupe, en a repris les rênes en 1976 en tant que chanteur principal, menant la formation de rockers britanniques raffinés vers un triomphe dans les stades de la planète.

Collins a laissé le groupe après la tournée We Can't Dance de 1992 pour se concentrer sur une carrière solo qui a connu beaucoup de succès. Les membres restants Tony Banks et Mike Rutherford ont ensuite recruté l'ex-chanteur de Stiltskin, Ray Wilson, pour enregistrer l'album Calling All Stations en 1997. Cet album a eu si peu de succès que Genesis a été forcé d'annuler une tournée nord-américaine. Le groupe a cessé ses activités peu après en 1998.

Depuis lors, un groupe important d'admirateurs — férus en particulier de l'ère de Gabriel — ont contribué à maintenir la flamme Genesis en vie. Phil Collins a joué récemment en compagnie de Musical Box, un groupe hommage à Genesis originaire de Sherbrooke qui recréé avec une précision stupéfiante l'ère Gabriel, lors de leur visite dans la ville de Genève, en Suisse, où habite Collins.

Plus tôt cette semaine, Collins a réaffirmé son désir d'être de nouveau le batteur pour le groupe original lors d'une conférence de presse à Tel Aviv. Le mois dernier, le guitariste Steve Hackett a révélé au Chicago Sun-Times qu'il avait reçu un appel des gestionnaires de Genesis. «Il y a un mouvement qui cherche à nous réunir tous», a-t-il dit. «Je crois bien que cela va arriver.»

Perfectionniste notoire, Gabriel prévient qu'un concert de réunion exigerait une préparation minutieuse.

«Lorsque nous avons joué de nouveau ensemble en 1982, je ne crois pas que nous avions pratiqué», dit-il. «Pour faire du bon travail, nous avons besoin de plus de temps. C'est tout un engagement.»

Devant l'insistance des médias à savoir s'il était certain que le groupe se réunirait, Gabriel s'est gardé une certaine réserve: «Je ne gagerais pas mon argent là-dessus... encore.»

Goldfrapp en tournée avec Coldplay

Le duo anglais accompagnera le groupe Coldplay pour sa tournée européenne. Quatre dates sont prévues en France. Goldfrapp a annoncé l'annulation de son concert prévu initialement le 7 novembre à la Cigale, un live qui pourrait finalement être reprogrammé en février 2006. Dans un même temps, le duo se consacre à la première partie de la tournée européenne de Coldplay et sera donc de passage le 17 novembre au Dôme de Marseille, le 18 au Zénith de Toulouse, le 28 à la Halle Tony Garnier de Lyon et le 29 au Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy.

Alison Goldfrapp et Will Gregory, qui ont créé Goldfrapp à la fin des années 90, possèdent déjà trois albums à leur actif ("Supernature", "Black cherry", "Felt mountain"). Ils ont déjà collaboré avec de grands noms de la scène trip-hop tels que Tricky, mais aussi avec d'autres artistes comme Peter Gabriel, Bryan Ferry, ou encore John Parish.

Nature's girl

Kate Bush's land of plenty

KATE BUSH "Aerial" (Columbia)

Kate Bush 's music could serve as the soundtrack to a cherished children's fable. On "Aerial," the eccentric singer's first album in 12 years, her glowing melodies and breathless vocals set a graceful backdrop for lyrics that address magical washing machines, enchanted forests, witchy incantations, and that most mythic of heroines, Joan of Arc. All this may sound too precious, infantile or just plain daft for words. But the sophistication of Bush's music, the inventiveness of her arrangements and the credibility of her pop persona more than carry her through.

What a loon this woman remains.

Twenty-seven years ago, Kate Bush emerged as pop's most left-field diva - a kind of proto-Bjork, one whose sound Tori Amos ripped off (and dumbed down). From the start, Bush's semi-classical music, storybook lyrics and ghostly voice made her a compelling character as well as an elusive one. More than a decade ago, Bush quit music to raise a child. Now she has returned with a work that feels quintessential. It's a tale told in two disks, the first housing seven songs that mine memory and childhood perception. The second luxuriates in the power of nature.

On both, Bush's music evolves slowly, creating mood pieces that draw from classical music and folk. At times, her sound suggests Peter Gabriel mixed with Pink Floyd. On the first CD's standout cut, "Bertie," Bush melds chamber music with her most blatant foray into traditional British folk to date. "Pi" - a salute to the spiritual possibility of numbers - is driven by a haunting pulse of a beat, while "Coral Room" relies on Bush's solo piano playing.

Bush finds a lyrical highlight in "Mrs. Bartolozzi," a recollection from her childhood in which nothing more momentous happened than an encounter with mud that necessitated extra use of the washing machine. Yet Bush's telling of the story nails the way children can become entirely enveloped by the most mundane of experiences. Bush raises this simple tale to the level of opera. The second CD presents a pastoral tone poem that chronicles a day spent in nature from late afternoon to dawn. Bush's interpretation shows the careful composition and beauty of a well-realized still life.

On the surface, Bush's vision of the world may seem terribly idealized. But, buried below the surface, there's a tension in her yearning to capture the vitality and reach of consciousness. As with any Bush disk, it will take time for listeners to work their way into her world. But once you're in, you may be reluctant to break the spell.

Peter Gabriel Plugs In

New studio effort will deal with "birth and death, with sex in the middle"

Peter Gabriel tends to take a long time between projects. His last release, 2002's Up, took nearly a decade to record. "A mere lightning flash for a snail," quips Gabriel. With a wide array of projects in the works nowadays -- from a live DVD and documentary to the new studio album, I/O -- Gabriel seems to be picking up that pace.

First up is the second DVD to document his 2002-2003 Growing Up World Tour. This new release features an entirely different track listing than the first, 2003's Growing Up Live, including rarities such as "San Jacinto" and the new track "Burn You Up, Burn You Down."

The set also features the documentary Still Growing Up Unwrapped, filmed by his daughter Anna, about Gabriel's life on the road with his two daughters and then-newborn son Isaac. "It took a few weeks for him to get used to having a camera in his face all the time," Anna says of shooting some twenty-eight hours of footage of her father. "It was a very easygoing tour -- I wanted more drama!"

Also in the works is a new album called I/O, which stands for input/output. "At the moment, I'm trying to write principally about birth and death, with the sex in the middle," Gabriel says.

He has been working steadily over the last few months on the new songs with a minimal crew, including longtime engineer Richard Chappel and percussionist Ged Lynch. This time around he's chosen to produce the sessions himself. "My mental process is so slow," he says, "that it's not really fair to take that time out of anyone else's life."

Among the 150 tracks Gabriel has in various stages of gestation is a reworking of the 1986 B side "Curtains," which he decided to revisit after the song received thousands of votes on an online poll to determine his last tour's set list. "I had pretty much forgotten about it," he explains. "So I pulled it out, found stuff I liked and did it again."

In a break from tradition, Gabriel is contemplating taking the new songs on the road before laying down their final versions. "What I've always wanted to do is finish the songs, get them arranged for the band, tour for a month or so, then record them," he says. "That would give me a different type of immediacy -- because sometimes when I work and work on stuff, people feel that it loses some of its flair."

His next tour may be a significantly more stripped-down affair than prior ones: "I would like to try maybe just me and a percussionist, or a percussionist and bass. It's good sometimes to let go of your crutches."

Andy Greene (Posted nov. 03, 2005)

All the world’s a stage show

Pop: All the world’s a stage show

Musician, multimedia magician and family guy, Peter Gabriel is a man without frontiers, says Robin Eggar (The Sunday Times)

How does one describe Peter Gabriel? In Japan, they would probably declare him a national treasure, which would make him curl up in embarrassment.

For ever curious, he is a polymath with the ability to communicate ideas in a musical and visual way that few other artists either try or succeed in doing. There is the musician, whose work evolves in traditional rockbiz cycles: a piece of music (the album Up, released in 2002), followed by a spectacular live show (Growing Up), packed with cutting-edge theatricals such as singing upside down or wearing a suit of lights, is followed by a smaller-scale tour with simpler effects and the emphasis firmly on the music. A DVD of these tours, Still Growing Up, complete with an insightful documentary by his eldest daughter, Anna, is released tomorrow.

For the many who have never got beyond the storming soul-funk of Sledgehammer, Gabriel is an unacquired taste, too clever by half. Popular musicians are supposed to react viscerally, not intellectually. Gabriel can be emotional — Biko, his tribute to the murdered black South African activist, remains powerful 25 years later — and personal. The testosterone-laced Digging in the Dirt was inspired by his journey into therapy, while Come Talk to Me was a plea to his younger daughter Melanie, who sings backing vocals on tour.

“When I got interested in working on myself,” he explains, “I realised that it was part of what I was looking for in the music. With I Grieve (on Up), I was trying to build an emotional tool that could be useful in times of grief. Everybody has tracks that fulfil certain emotional criteria, but while those it resonates with can get to a deeper place, this element of my work probably turns off as many people as it attracts.”

Then there is the other Gabriel, the one beneath the celebrity radar, the composer of film soundtracks, the creator of interactive CD-Roms, the record company boss and cyber-entrepreneur. He employs 70 people, most at the residential studio complex outside Bath that is home to Real World Records, a world-music label, and the administrative hub of the Womad festival, which has been going for more than 20 years.

Gabriel’s latest project is as musical director for the opening ceremony of the 2006 World Cup in Berlin. He will contribute songs, but whether these will include an anthem is undecided. He is working with the multimedia artist Andre Heller and Philippe Decouflé, the French choreographer who masterminded the 1992 Winter Olympics shows in Albertville and, before that, the French revolution bicentennial. “That was fantastic. The government trusted artists,” he says. Having been responsible himself for the Millennium Dome’s musical entertainments, he won’t be drawn into a swipe at our government.

Gabriel is a man of dry wit and old-world charm, overlaid with shyness. He is a collector of arcane knowledge and holds liberal, humanitarian views that he supports with both hard cash and actions. He has spent the past 20 years on a personal search to understand himself. He eschews praise and hates the hard sell. He prefers to talk about the ideas that orbit his head — of individual transport pods, of art hotels and of how, 15 years ago, he predicted that, one day, we would buy music over the telephone. His music and file-sharing service, OD2, which attracted clients such as BT and Microsoft, was sold last year after he and his partners recognised Apple now ruled the industry.

The slush pile of abandoned projects Gabriel has accumulated is huge. His friends include futurologists such as Peter Schwartz, who predicted Al-Qaeda might use an airliner as a living bomb, technologists and philosophers. British to the core, Gabriel gets extremely embarrassed at the mention of the g-word. “I don’t totally reject the term genius — just insofar as it refers to me,” he says.

“I bring stuff to the party, but when I work with Robert Lepage, who designs my live shows, or Stephen Johnson (the video director on Sledgehammer), I think there is a superior intelligence at work.”

Gabriel believes that technology will free society, not bind it, a belief he inherited from his father, Ralph, an electronics engineer. He has always been an early and enthusiastic adopter of new technology, whether it was the Fairlight music computer in the 1980s, or CD-Roms that mixed art and sound in new, interactive paths.

A visual man, who somehow found music as his medium, Gabriel insists that everybody is an artist, and that we can learn creativity like a language. “There is this reverence for talent, this perpetual search for star quality. I hate the term: it’s bullshit. Sure, some people have a facility to do things, but nobody need feel excluded. The other day, I was kicking a ball around in Sardinia (he has a house there) with a few locals, and Gianfranco Zola (the former Chelsea and Italy star) joined in. It was quite clear that he had a totally different level of ability, but it didn’t exclude the rest of us from getting pleasure.”

On the Still Growing Up Tour, Gabriel loved surrounding himself with his family. As well as his grown-up daughters, he has a four-year-old son, Isaac, from his second marriage to the Irish sound engineer Meabh Flynn. He was always a devoted father, but his first marriage was turbulent.

Second time around, he is relaxed and content, with less to prove and more time to do it in. There is always a laptop at the breakfast table, so when Isaac asks where kiwis come from or how space rockets fly, the answer can be Googled, along with pictures, in seconds. “It certainly deals with that parental moment when you have to admit, ‘I don’t really know that one,’” Gabriel says.

Then he adds: “I was talking to the Google guys, and they said the person in my house who knows most about me and my buying habits is my search engine.”

The man is a cult figure, a reluctant star who, despite seven-figure sales, would invest his money in a new DVD (which is why he understands the medium better than most) rather than the more obvious trappings of success. “I’ve been quite shy, the introvert with an extrovert side. I think the entertainment world is full of characters who need to be noticed, who need to project this other thing in order to get some balance internally. I don’t need to take as much succour from fame as I once did. If it was all gone, I’m sure I’d get pissed off if there were restaurants I couldn’t eat at any more.

“I always liked Joseph Campbell’s ‘Follow your bliss’ idea — if people follow what makes them happy, they’ll often find the right way of making a living and being happy. I think it works for me,” he says, smiling. “I’ve been very lucky. I’ve never had to do a proper job in my life.”

With that, he retreats upstairs to work on some music. It is 7pm. In his hand is a carrier bag, from which protrude the ears of a stuffed animal. Best not to ask.

Still Growing Up — Live and Unwrapped is released on Warner Music Vision tomorrow

Get the SSL Sound For Free

Solid-State-Logic LMC-1 compressor plug-in – given away

LMC-1 did we mention its FREE!

It’s no coincidence that SSL mixing consoles are often the desk of choice for the final mix stage of a recording project. The sound that many producers crave is due in part at least to the Listen Mic Compressor. Originally designed to prevent overloading the return feed from a studio communications (reverse talkback) mic, its fixed attack and release curves are eminently suitable for use on ambient drums mics and so became abused by SSL users for that very purpose.

SSL have modeled the LMC-1 as a plug-in in AU and VST formats (Mac only folks – sorry) and are currently offering it as a free download via their website. Free stuff? Where do I get it? Right here: http://www.solid-state-logic.com/

About SSL Long-time SSL user Hugh Padgham was one of the first to capture this new drum sound on tape,while working with Steve Lilywhite on Peter Gabriel’s ‘Intruder’, he told Mix magazine:*

"On a normal console, you have a button to press to talk to the musicians in the headphones, but you did not have a button to press for us to listen to the musicians. To do that, you'd plug a microphone into a spare channel on the desk and listen to your musicians through that. But the SSL had a reverse talkback button and there was a microphone hanging up in the studio already, a dedicated input into the reverse mic input on the console. And on this microphone, they had the most unbelievably heavy compressor, so you could hear somebody who was over in the corner.

"One day, Phil (Collins) was playing the drums,” Hugh recalls, “and I had the reverse talkback on because he was speaking, and then he started playing the drums. The most unbelievable sound came out because of the heavy compressor. I said, 'My God, this is the most amazing sound! Steve, listen to this.' But the way the reverse talkback was setup, you couldn't record it.

So I had the desk modified that night. I got one of the maintenance guys to take the desk apart and get a split output of this compressor and feed it into a patch point on the jack field so I could then patch it into a channel on the board. From there, we were able to route that to the tape recorder."

Now you can experience the Listen Mic Compressor within the comfort of your own workstation software and see what sounds it’ll lead you to create. If you discover something really great – like a radical new distorted oboe sound then be sure to let us know.

* View the original MIX article: mixonline.com/mag/audio_phil_collins_air/

Live 8 at Eden - Africa Calling DVD details

From Monsters and Critics.com

DVD News

Live 8 at Eden - Africa Calling DVD details
By M&C News

We have added details and some media from the \'Live 8 at Eden - Africa Calling\' DVD.

The event was organized by Peter Gabriel and held at the Eden Project in Cornwall, South West England. It was one of ten concerts that took place around the world as part of Live 8 in support of the campaign to Make Poverty History. Produced in association with WOMAD, the day featured an exclusive line-up of some of Africa’s finest artists, performing in the spectacular setting of Eden. This film is the record of a unique day in celebration of the music and spirit of Africa.

Any profits that arise will be donated to charities nominated by the participating artists.

\'Live 8 at Eden - Africa Calling\' arrives on DVD November 1, 2005 (Out now in UK).

Summary of Live 8 at Eden: Africa Calling

An Extraordinary Line-Up of the Biggest Names in African Music including Performances By Dido and an Introduction By Angelina Jolie, organized by Peter Gabriel for this years’ Massive Live 8 Event.

DVD Features

Songs Performed: Africa Calling Concert MedleySamson (Africa Calling Mix) - ThomasMapfumo and The Blacks UnlimitedKuvarira Mukati (Africa Calling Mix) -Thomas Mapfumo and The BlacksUnlimitedHeesteena (Africa Calling Mix) -Maryam MursalBarco Negro (Africa Calling Mix) - MarizaTaireva (Africa Calling Mix) -Chartwell DuitroLumbul (Africa Calling Mix) -Moudou Diof and O FogumBeyeza (Africa Calling Mix) - ShikishaLapowny (Africa Calling Mix) -Geoffrey OryemaLand Of Anaka (Africa Calling Mix) -Geoffrey Oryema with Peter GabrielMbani (Africa Calling Mix) - SyiyayaSet (Africa Calling Mix) -Youssou N’dour Et Le Super Etoile7 Seconds (Africa Calling Mix) -Youssou N’dour Et Le Super Etoilewith DidoBirima (Africa Calling Mix) -Youssou N’dour Et Le Super EtoileAngelina Jolie Introduces:Namengue (Africa Calling Mix) -Coco MbassiAfirika (Africa Calling Mix) -Angelique KidjoTombo (Africa Calling Mix) -Angelique KidjoWa Winjigo Ero (Africa Calling Mix) -Ayub Ogada And UnoChet Boghassa (Africa Calling Mix) -TinariwenAmidiwan (Africa Calling Mix) - TinariwenAmassakoul (Africa Calling Mix) -TinariwenFontofrom Chant (Africa Calling Mix) -FrititiWallow (Africa Calling Mix) -Kanda Bongo ManBilli (Africa Calling Mix) -Kanda Bongo ManNouzha (Africa Calling Mix) -Akim El SikameyaAiwa (Africa Calling Mix) - Emmanuel JalExodus (Africa Calling Mix) - Daara JMic Check (Africa Calling Mix) - Daara JSunu Mission (Africa Calling Mix) - Daara JFinale - African Anthem

BONUS FEATURES: DVD also includes “Africa Calling at Eden” documentary film.

Not your father's Ramadan

Sengalese superstar Youssou N'Dour, who protested the Iraq war, talks about the beauty of Africa, Sufism and his fight against fundamentalism.

By Larry Blumenfeld

On Sunday evening at Carnegie Hall, Youssou N'Dour was caught between an elderly Senegalese griot and an unhappy soundman. Seems the xalam, a five-stringed Senegalese folk lute, wasn't easy to mike. The opening concert of his four-night series just hours away, N'Dour nonetheless radiated calm.

N'Dour -- the most popular singer in Africa and the archetypal world-music star -- is used to reconciling antiquity with modernity. Besides, he's negotiated trickier divides.

In March 2003, on the eve of the most ambitious American tour of his career, N'Dour simply cancelled. "As a matter of conscience," he wrote in a press statement, "I question the United States government's apparent intention to commence war in Iraq. I believe that coming to America at this time would be perceived in many parts of the world -- rightly or wrongly -- as support for this policy."...

Peter Gabriel: From Genesis to midfield impresario

By Steve James

NEW YORK (Reuters) - He was a progressive rock star in the '70s, an MTV video icon in the '80s and a world music guru for the new millennium. He's also a record producer, songwriter, political activist and musical talent scout. A kind of multi-media artist-rebel -- with many causes. Now Peter Gabriel has a new title -- director of really big sporting extravaganzas.

The world soccer body FIFA has tapped the English musician to organise the opening ceremony for next year's World Cup finals in Germany. The man who only recently became a fan of the game and European champions Liverpool is working on songs for the show in Berlin's Olympic Stadium.

"It's like owning a big playpen and someone else is going to pay for it," Gabriel told Reuters in a recent interview. "I'm not going to be playing (soccer)!" he laughed. "But I was asked to get involved. We're writing some of the music and getting involved in some crazy ideas."

Crazy ideas like the seminal 1987 video "Sledgehammer" that rocketed him to international fame? The video, which won 9 MTV awards, featuring a real-life Gabriel singing his funky homage to the Stax record label, amid a wild 3-D animation landscape of steam trains, bumper cars and singing fruit?

BIG TIME, BIG AUDIENCE

"Well I did have this idea," he said mischievously. "A red curtain across the goal and that would grow to a skirt and we'd attach little tails to footballs so they become like sperm...

"But I don't know if this is an idea that is going to fly!" he grinned, when reminded that NBC fended off complaints last year about the broadcast of the Athens Olympics opening ceremony featuring ancient Greek gods in various stages of undress and simulating naughty acts.

Not to mention the flak CBS took over Janet Jackson's peek-a-boo nipple during the 2004 Superbowl halftime show.

The full-length show the night before the finals begin will be a first for the World Cup, similar to past Olympic extravaganzas, said Gabriel, who is coordinating the event with a French choreographer and a German producer.

"It's a show that anyone who ever won the World Cup is going to be invited to. All the players, (including England's 1966 star) Bobby Charlton, hopefully. Another key element, he said, is that it's in Berlin, "the same stadium where Hitler had the '36 Olympics.

THE LAMB LIES DOWN ON BROADWAY

"It looks different now, but we've had lots of discussions about how much to refer to that," said Gabriel. By "that," he meant Jesse Owens winning four gold medals, Hitler being less than pleased and the foreboding images of Nazi exuberance captured in Leni Riefenstahl's documentary "Olympia."

"I think FIFA just want (to say), 'Anything the Olympics can do, we can do better.' It's a pretty big audience."

Thirty years removed from the gaunt dark-haired singer with the band Genesis, Gabriel, 55, is Yoda-like now, head shaved with a pointy white goatee and piercing blue eyes. Dressed entirely in black, he is sipping tea in a Manhattan hotel suite with his filmmaker daughter Anna, 31.

They are promoting two DVDs: "Still Growing Up -- Peter Gabriel Live and Unwrapped," with songs and behind-the-scenes images from his 2003 European tour and documentary footage that Anna shot and edited. Another daughter, Melanie, 25, was a backup singer on the tour.

Gabriel also talks about another DVD he's releasing: "Live 8 at Eden: Africa Calling," featuring the concert he organised in July in Cornwall, England as part of the Live 8 campaign to end poverty, especially in Africa. The concert was made up entirely of African performers.

But Gabriel was a bit peeved with Live 8 organiser Bob Geldof. "We loved the initiative and the whole Live 8 thing, however, it did feel a little bit like having a party for people and not inviting them," he said of other concerts held around the world with Western rock, pop and hip-hop artists.

GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS, WAR WITHOUT TEARS

"We felt there should be more African artists and I called Bob about it and his point was that the principal job was to get the message across to the TV people and the TV eyes watching and any unfamiliar acts, wherever they came from, would mean people switching off."

Gabriel disagreed: "When they had (Nelson) Mandela shows in London the bill was really mixed and I don't think we lost any viewers as a result. African artists are strong, charismatic and compelling, and I think they hold people's attention."

So Gabriel, who marches to his own drummer, organised "Africa Calling" without help or funding from Live 8. Two months later, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund agreed on debt relief for the world's poorest nations.

"(But) There's still a lot to do," said the singer.

Youssou N'Dour brings 'Egypt' to U.S.

by Jim Harrington liveDaily Contributor

Senegalese vocalist Youssou N'Dour will support his Grammy-winning CD "Egypt" with a batch of U.S. dates this fall.

Youssou N'Dour

The singer, who is best known outside of Africa for his work on the Peter Gabriel hit "In Your Eyes," will first perform two nights, Oct. 25-26, at New York's Carnegie Hall. He then moves on to play six gigs in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest, before heading into California for three concerts. The vocalist finishes the short tour Nov. 13 at Tucson, AZ's Centennial Hall in Tucson, AZ.

"Egypt," N'Dour's 2004 CD that melded the rhythms and melodies of Senegal with the Egyptian and Arabian orchestral arrangements, was awarded a Grammy earlier this year for Best Contemporary World Music Album.

To re-create the sounds of "Egypt" on stage, N'Dour will be accompanied on this tour by both an orchestra and Fathy Salama, the singer's main collaborator on the CD.

Fans should note that N'Dour will not appear with the large "Egypt" ensemble during the first night at Carnegie Hall. For that show, the vocalist will be performing with his longtime band, Super Etoile.

N'Dour, a vocalist of remarkable range and poise, is known for his ability to take traditional Senegalese sounds and run them through a filter of genre-defying pop and rock music. The highly original result has helped the singer earn millions of fans around the globe.

Portrait of the artist as family man

When Peter Gabriel wants to see more of his children, he organises a long tour, invites them along and then makes them work for their passage, he tells Nigel Williamson

MOST rock stars will tell you that being on the road is incompatible with family life and a hectic touring schedule is the surest way to break up the happy home. Second time around, Peter Gabriel has found the exact opposite to be true.

These days when the ex-Genesis singer embarks on a world tour, it's one of the few times his scattered family gets the opportunity to come together. His second wife, Meabh, and their three-year-old son, Isaac, accompany him everywhere he goes. Melanie, his 29-year-old daughter from his first marriage, sings backing vocals in his band. And his oldest daughter, 31-year-old New York-based filmmaker Anna, documents it all with her cameras.

"It's a perfect touring situation for a dad," he enthuses. "When I feel like I need to spend a bit more time with my family, I go on tour. I see much more of them when we're on the road."

Now Anna Gabriel's documentary of the last family outing, the Still Growing Up tour, which chronicles a 30-date trek around the stadiums of Europe during June and July 2004, is about to hit stores as a commercial two-disc DVD. The first film features live footage from the shows. The second is Anna's unique behind-the-scenes account of life on the road with rock'n'roll band and family operating in tandem.

"When we started, it wasn't really planned," says Anna, who has now filmed her father's last two tours.

"It wasn't necessarily that I was going to come and make a film. I just wanted to join the tour because Melanie was singing with my dad, and my little brother Isaac and his mum were coming along, and so all the family was together. Living in America, I don't get the chance to see them much, so I wanted to come along and hang out on the road with them."

The cameras accompanied her as a force of habit but inevitably they were soon rolling. "I relax with her behind the camera in a way I wouldn't with anyone else," Peter Gabriel interjects. "I thought she could get some good material but I didn't know what was going to come out the other end."

What came out was Growing Up on Tour: a Family Portrait, an inventive and intimate film that chronicled Gabriel's in 2002, the first tour in almost a decade. It turned out so well that when Gabriel took to the road again two years later, he invited Anna and her cameras to join him again. "I wanted to make a documentary and I knew she was the perfect person to do it," he says simply.

I meet father and daughter in London on a wet Wednesday lunchtime, Anna having just flown in from New York for a week that is part-work and part-holiday, combining promotion for the DVD with seeing the family. She's staying in Gabriel's London pied-à-terre but is also planning to go down to the family home near Bath to see her brother Isaac and sister Melanie, who lives in Bristol. Sitting next to her on the sofa, her father - whose balding, goateed, rotund figure these days exudes an air of middle-aged contentment - beams with obvious pride.

It seems to be one of those pleasingly happy endings to a story that might have turned out far less felicitously, for although he may now be the benevolent patriarch, Gabriel has led a famously complicated personal life.

After forming Genesis with school friends at Charterhouse in 1967, he and the band took prog-rock to imaginative new heights on albums such as Nursery Cryme, Selling England by the Pound and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. He also became famous for his theatrical stage presence, dressing in outrageous costumes. One song found him decked out as a sunflower. Another found him wearing a huge fox's head. "Fortunately I was way too young to know about that and to be embarrassed," Anna says.

In 1975 he left the group and embarked on a solo career that has marked him out as one of rock music's more cerebral and adventurous figures. But by then, he already had a young family, having married his first wife, Jill Moore, when they were teenage sweethearts. Anna was born in 1974 and her sister two years later.

Gabriel and his first wife separated in the late 1980s and he set up home with the American actress Roseanna Arquette. They were together for six years and he then went on to romance Sinéad O'Connor. Three years ago, he married Meabh Flynn, a music technician and costume designer who worked at his Real World recording studios in Wiltshire.

"I'm not going to be touring as much while Isaac is growing up as I may have done in the past. At this age I've had a lot of career and I'm less concerned about my worldly success. I want to be a good father and to be present in Isaac's life in a way that I wasn't before. Looking back at those years, there were two or three when I was away touring when the girls were growing up. I was very busy when they were young and I've had much more time to play with Isaac. It's like having a second chance."

Anna claims to have been largely unaware of her father's celebrity until she was 12. "We went to a little village school in the middle of the country and I knew he went to work and did music," she recalls. "But that was all I knew really until 'Sledgehammer' came out."

Released in 1986, the song topped the American charts, and its parent album So went to number one around the world. The track was accompanied by a groundbreaking video that, almost 20 years later, remains MTV's most-shown clip. At the time, it scooped best video at the Brit Awards and won in 10 different categories at MTV's own awards. If you owned a TV, it was virtually impossible to escape.

"Suddenly kids of my age knew who he was and so that affected me at school," Anna says. "That was when it changed for me."

Potentially even more destabilising was that, around the same time, Gabriel's marriage to Jill was unravelling. He admits to fearing he would lose contact with his daughters. "The divorce and the loss of family was the hardest thing in my life," he says.

"But I think that was when we started seeing you the most," Anna interrupts him.

He doesn't seem convinced. "But that desperate dad mode isn't great," he says. "I see these poor guys in the park or at McDonald's on Saturday visiting hours. There isn't time to go through the normal things of childhood and get through the tantrums and come out on the other side of it. The desperate dad has to be nice to keep his limited access hours in a positive place."

Anna feels it was only after the divorce that she got to know her parents properly. "They were very careful to keep any fighting away from me and my sister and we really didn't see much of it," she says. "But it was the best thing for them to divorce. After the divorce my mum seemed a very different person from the one I'd known in my childhood and I'm very happy to know that person."

At 18, Anna moved to New York to go to college, first studying dance and then enrolling on a photography course, where she also got into video and set up a small production company with Adria Petty, daughter of American rocker Tom Petty. I wonder if she ever considered a musical career?

"I think Mel and I always wanted to sing. But I got interested in photography and the visual medium rather than music. It was hard for me to watch Mel on the last tour because I was quite jealous. Part of me wanted to be doing it too."

At this, the proud father feels compelled to interject. "She has music in the blood," he insists. "She was doing singing lessons for a while and when she gets up on stage she's like a duck to water. She could do it very easily."

Anna blushes. "Mel worked really hard and I didn't have the tenacity to go for it," she says quietly. "It's hard for her to try and make it in music. Much harder than it is for me to make it working in a different field to dad. There's such a lot to live up to."

Anna says her father proved far easier than any of the other artists with whom she has made music videos. "No temper tantrums and star nonsense." And if there were, she could turn round and say, "Don't be an arse, dad." Whereas with other clients she'd have to be more diplomatic? "Exactly. It was freer creatively because we didn't have to worry about any of that."

They make it sound so cosy. Were there no reservations about working so closely together? "Not from my side," says Gabriel. "Not at first," says Anna more cautiously. "But now I definitely feel it's time to move on. It can get to be repetitive after a while if you work with the same person all the time."

"Wonderful though they are," adds a proud, paternal voice. And father and daughter both laugh.

The two-disc DVD, Still Growing Up: Live and Unwrapped, is released on Warner Music Vision on October 31

Songlines sept/oct 05

Music and Media

The excellent British world music magazine Songlines continues to pound away at the absurdity of the organizers of Live 8 presenting a series of concerts on behalf of Africa, yet only inviting one African artists (Youssou ‘N Dour) to participate.

The current issue (September/October) includes comments from Andy Kershaw, Peter Gabriel, Thomas Brooman, Damon Albarn, and Baaba Maal addressing this situation, while Bob Geldof defends the selection process on the basis of popular appeal.

“You have to really pick and be careful about what is going to get you the biggest mass audience where you could talk about the conditions of the poor people in Africa,” Geldof told the magazine. “That’s what we’re doing. If you can suggest to me British blacks acts that should be one, that sell in the same quantities as the bands we’ve got, fine.”

Geldof certainly deserves high praise for his efforts in this arena, but it also can’t be disputed that it’s a bit lame to hold events designed to increase interest in and awareness of Africans, then leave them out of the mix. Hopefully, that won’t happen again when or if there’s another series of similar events.

Les baguettes magiques de Manu Katché

Après avoir joué pour la crème de la pop, le batteur retrouve Jan Garbarek et le jazz

Paris/Fabrice Gottraux

Il figure parmi les batteurs les plus demandés de la planète pop. Peter Gabriel, Sting, Stephan Eicher, ­Cabrel, Tori Amos... Impossible de citer ici toutes ses contributions (plus de 200 albums!). A 47 ans, Manu Katché est au sommet de son art et s'improvise une popularité grâce à son rôle d'expert dans l'émission de variété Nouvelle Star, sur M6.

Il y a deux semaines à l'Arena, le batteur français offrait une rythmique de rêve pour le concert à caractère humanitaire Fight Against Malaria avec Youssou N'Dour. Et le voici qui renoue avec son jardin secret, le jazz. En compagnie du saxophoniste Jan Garbarek et du trompettiste Tomasz Stanko - deux piliers du label allemand ECM -, Manu Katché signe son second album personnel, Neighbourhood, «voisinage»...

Pourquoi ce retour au jazz?

Je ne me considère pas comme batteur de jazz, même si j'ai une tendance à l'attitude du jazzman. Ma musique est instrumentale. C'est ce qui me définit le mieux. Ceci dit, John Coltrane ou Miles Davis ont toujours fait partie de mon environnement. C'est une musique extrêmement agréable et jouissive, qui me donne beaucoup de plaisir à l'écoute. Plus que le classique, que j'ai étudié au Conservatoire, le jazz me permet de voyager au gré des personnalités de chaque musicien. L'imaginaire que suggère cette musique, voilà ce que j'aime.

Vous-même voyagez d'un musicien, d'un style à un autre...

Du Brésil à la Nouvelle-Zélande, de la country à Gloria Estefan, ça reste moi. Je suis très diversifié. Ce que j'exporte, ce n'est pas mon savoir, mais mes impressions.

Vous avez un héritage afro?

J'ai reçu une éducation française, académique avec le piano classique. Mais dans mes gènes africains, je ressens quelque chose de particulier. En grandissant à Paris, dans les années septante, c'était exceptionnel. On pouvait écouter des musiques africaines, j'ai joué des musiques kabyles, de la soul, de la pop... Ce qui me permet de me conduire de façon différente selon les cas. Que ce soit avec un Croate ou un Macédonien, j'amène ma personnalité, une synthèse des musiques qui m'ont marqué. Et le côté «roots» africain, même si je ne joue pas de djembé ou de talking drums, me permet d'avoir un style particulier.

Votre album ne révolutionne pas le jazz...

Neighbourhood est un projet musical assez lisible, avec des références claires à l'album Birth of the Cool de Miles Davis. C'est aussi la réunion de deux entités. Jan Garbarek et moi-même jouons ensemble depuis dix ans. Tomasz Stanko a emmené ses jeunes musiciens, le pianiste Marcin Wasilewski et le contrebassiste Slawomir ­Kurkiewicz. Lorsqu'on a réalisé un casting avec Manfred Eicher (ndlr: directeur du label ECM), le jeu de Tomasz m'a captivé. C'est aussi une première: ­Tomasz et Jan n'avaient jamais joué ensemble.

Quel intérêt à participer à l'émission «Nouvelle Star»?

La popularité n'entache pas la musicalité. En donnant des conseils dans une émission populaire, je suis content d'apporter la petite pièce à un édifice plus vaste, qui donne à voir de nouveaux talents. Cela a son importance, au vu du marasme ambiant. J'amène aussi un crédit supplémentaire grâce à mon métier. Mais pas question d'être complaisant. Les albums produits par Nouvelle Star sont ce qu'ils sont! Au-delà, ça m'a médiatisé, bien sûr, au point de susciter des vocations de batteur chez les jeunes. J'ai reçu beaucoup de courrier, comme cette mère qui m'explique avoir inscrit son fils dans une école de musique... L'émission m'a aussi permis d'être présent à Paris pour développer ma carrière jazz.

Du jazz à la variété télé, un fossé irréductible?

N'oublions pas que le jazz, après-guerre, était une musique à danser! Personnellement, je suis contre l'élitisme. En France, il n'y a que deux radios pour écouter du jazz. C'est pauvre! Voir un batteur jouant du jazz à la téloche, voilà qui donne accès à un genre que beaucoup n'auraient pu entendre autrement. C'est ce qui manque à la musique instrumentale: la visibilité. Imaginez si l'on pouvait montrer des jam-sessions à la télévision. Ça serait génial!

Le monde a changé. On est dans la consommation rapide. Au XXIe siècle, nous n'avons plus le choix: si on veut se faire entendre, il faut faire avec la télévision. Et de plus, je suis métis, dans un pays où la prétendue intégration n'existe pas! Montrer qu'on peut y arriver avec un discours pas trop con, qu'on est Français comme les autres: cela me tient à cœur.

Manu Katché, «Neighbourhood», CD ECM/Phonag.

SATIS 2005

FISM à TF1 Rencontres avec Coline Serreau,Peter Gabriel...

>>Téléchargez le programme (pdf)

Vendredi 21 octobre - Après-Midi

14 h 00 : la musique au format DVD par Peter Gabriel et son ingénieur du son, Richard Chappell, Extraits de son dernier DVD "Still Growing Up Live"

Abigail Washburn

Song of the Traveling Clawhammer

Banjo Player [21 October 2005]

Twenty-seven-year-old Abigail Washburn is something of a contemporary troubadour, a musical traveler on a fascinating voyage of self-discovery. She reflects on the two worlds that inform her art with PopMatters.

(...)

Asked -- somewhat unfairly -- to describe her own music in just one word, the best Washburn can do is "Alternative folk. But that's two words." So we agree to hyphenate, and then she ponders the appropriateness of the label.

"For one word, one hyphenated word, I think alternative-folk is the best I can do. My style is very much based in the old-time American music, like the Appalachian traditions and the blues. A love of the music from the '20s and '30s inspired a lot of the music on the record. But so did a lot of my experience living in China and studying the culture and the language so maybe some people will see it as interesting hybrid.

"I'm not quite sure [what] world music is or how I would fit into it, so I don't know if that's a good descriptor, but I would certainly like to be seen as an artist or have a career where I'm involved in an international community of musicians."

When I mentioned that I could certainly see Washburn involved in something like the WOMAD festival, she confessed ignorance of the WOMAD phenomenon so I explained a little about the now truly international World Of Music And Dance organization founded by Peter Gabriel in the early '80s.

"How cool! That's exactly the sort thing that I would like to be participating in. I would really like to be part of the larger musical dialogue that's going on between musicians who do consider themselves international and are interested in collaborating with people around the world. I think that's a really exciting new frontier and I'd like to be a part of that."....

Chernov’s choice

By Sergey Chernov , Staff Writer

Moloko, a leading local underground club that is closing at its current location, will say goodbye with concerts by popular bands Tequilajazzz (Friday) and Markscheider Kunst (Saturday).

Sunday will be an all-day farewell party. The club will open at 11 a.m. to hold a table football tournament in the afternoon and a concert by dub band Samosad Bend. Entrance is free.

Two international prog-rock giants will perform in the city this week. The Tony Levin Band was formed by the legendary bass player Tony Levin. Levin, who released three solo albums and one as the Tony Levin Band, is better known as member of King Crimson and Peter Gabriel’s band. His playing can be also heard on many classic albums, including Lou Reed’s “Berlin” (1973), Paul Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” (1975), John Lennon’s “Double Fantasy” (1980), Tom Waits’ “Rain Dogs” (1985), Brian Ferry’s “Boys and Girls” (1985) and David Bowie’s “Heathen” (2002).

The Tony Levin Band concert is part of the so-called “King Crimson Festival,” a series of British prog-rock related events launched by Moscow promoter Alexander Cheparukhin after he brought King Crimson to Russia in July 2003. The previous three concerts were by the duo TU consisting of the band’s members Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto in April 2004, Bill Bruford Earthworks in May 2004 and Quodia, a project from Gunn and Joe Mendelson, in October 2004.

The Tony Levin Band perform at the Center for Contemporary Art (formerly Priboi film theater) on Friday.

Also due is the comeback tour of Van der Graaf Generator, the seminal prog-rock band from the 1960s and 1970s, which reformed earlier this year. Van der Graaf Generator will play at the Music Hall on Tuesday....