(Make Me a) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 73: Chris Brain

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Chris Brain

Chris Brain is a folk singer & songwriter, based in Leeds, Yorkshire and he is the founder of Hyde Park Folk Club. Brain renders songs embedded in folk tradition and the pastoral, with a contemporary resonance. Drawing inspiration from the outdoors and song writers such as John Martyn, Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell, Chris explores distinctive fingerpicking patterns and alternate tunings in his sound. Recorded straight onto analog tape, his debut album Bound To Rise consists of ten live performances that offer an enthralling meditation on nature, with glimpses of the confessional.
Recorded at The Nave in Leeds with producer Tom Orrell, the album captures the shoulder-to-shoulder warmth of a live setting. Glancing off The Nave’s eaved ceilings, each track arrives in an alternate tuning and uses distinctive fingerpicking patterns that place Bound To Rise on the shelf right next to the likes of Pink Moon and London Conversation.

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Olivier Rocabois – The Pleasure Is Goldmine

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Francesco Amoroso per TRISTE©

Tirando le somme dell’anno trascorso, a fine 2021 mi chiedevo se la circostanza che apprezzassi sempre di più il pop barocco stesse a significare che stavo invecchiando o (che poi è un po’ la stessa cosa) semplicemente che stavo maturando.
A distanza di sei mesi non credo di aver trovato una risposta a questo quesito francamente piuttosto ozioso, ma, almeno, posso confermare che il pop barocco esercita su di me sempre maggior fascino.
Me ne rendo conto soprattutto da quando, qualche tempo fa, ho cominciato a sentire in maniera assidua, quasi compulsiva, The Pleasure Is Goldmine il nuovo e.p. del musicista bretone Olivier Rocabois il quale, dopo aver sfornato lo scorso anno il suggestivo e ambizioso Olivier Rocabois Goes Too Far, -un album che meriterebbe una più ampia diffusione- e avermi regalato un meraviglioso Triste© Mixtape, ha ben pensato di battere il ferro finché è caldo e non attendere di completare un altro album, incidendo un e.p. con tre brani nuovi di zecca, una rivisitazione di una delle canzoni più incisive dell’esordio e un breve interludio.

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Mustek – Summer Of Blood (Video Premiere)

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The Project:

Mustek are a duo from Reggio Emilia (Paolo Bardelli, vocals and synths / Fabrizio Ascari, guitars, bass and programming) who would like to be a bridge between analogue and digital. They have four EPs to their credit that are a snapshot of their different periods: if in the first demo “L’Ora Inquieta” (2005) they frequented the spaces of an electronic-acoustic pop seasoned with trip-hop tinges, in “Dove Ci Siamo Incontrati” (2011) they moved on to a ‘handcrafted’ electro-pop and with “Notturno” (2015) towards more algid and cold territories, while with “Nuvole” (2020) they visited urban and psychedelic places.

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Lucy Roleff & Lehmann B Smith – Dark Green

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Peppe Trotta per TRISTE©

Sono passati quasi nove anni da quando un ep di cinque canzoni rivelava ad una cerchia alquanto ristretta il talento musicale di Lucy Roleff. Longbows – questo il titolo di quel primo tassello – presentava fin da subito in maniera sintetica ma esaustiva l’universo sonoro scarno quanto delicato della cantautrice australiana, fatto di partiture folk su cui danza con grazia la sua voce morbida.

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(Make Me a) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 72: Minru

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Minru (Photo by Lottie Turner)

Minru is the musical project of Swedish-born and Berlin-based songwriter and guitarist Caroline Blomqvist.
After attending music high school in Gothenburg and playing in bands during her teens, Blomqvist later moved to Germany. As well as enjoying walks at Tempelhofer Feld and coffee at Leuchtstoff café, she performed with Tuvaband, Adna, and Tara Nome Doyle and played in Berlin venues Loophole and Schokoladen. With the passing of time she felt a growing urge to find an outlet for her own songs; Minru was the answer.
Before signing for the prestigious Berlin label Morr Music, she had her debut EP, Yearnings out on Pacaya Records in 2019.
Her debut album Liminality will be out 1st of July on Morr Music.
Finished and self-produced at a Berlin-Lichtenberg recording studio alongside musical friends (Povel Widestrand, Tobias Blessing, Sunniva Lilian Shaw Of-Tordarroch, Marlene Becher and Liv Solveig Wagner), Liminality is beautifully detailed and rich like the folk of her Swedish roots. The album, built around winding layers of acoustic guitar, piano, and strings, is a surprisingly uplifting and stirring testament to Blomqvist’s own suffering from the passing of someone close to her.

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