Mixtape #88

October is here and with it comes a very special selection of tracks picked by Emily Hall, the marvellous and infinitely creative British composer. She won us over with her 2015 concept album/opera Folie à Deux, which was one of our Album Picks of the Year. So we asked her to put together a mixtape with some of the artists and bands that have inspired her and the stunning mix she sent us journeys through a myriad of genres and styles, with artists from the likes of Anna Meredith and Oliver Coates to Mara Carlyle and Lady Maisery. Enjoy!

  1. Anna Meredith – Something Helpful [Moshi Moshi]
  2. Oliver Coates – Another Day [PRAH Recordings]
  3. Mara Carlyle – How It Felt To Kiss You [Ancient & Modern]
  4. Mesadorm – Drink You [Babylegs Records]
  5. Olivia Chaney – Blessed Instant [Nonesuch]
  6. Mira Calix – The Stockholm Syndrome [Warp]
  7. Kronos Quartet with Bryce Dressner – Little Blue Something [Anti-]
  8. Lady Maisery – This Woman’s Work [RootBeat Records]
  9. Ties Mellema: Jacob Ter Veldhuis – Grab It!
  10. Oliver Coates – Tommib Help Buss [PRAH Recordings]
  11. Nadia Sirota – Etude No.3 [Bedroom Community]
  12. Laurie Anderson – O Superman [Warner Bros.]
  13. Håkon Austbø and Olivier Messiaen- I. Regard du Pere [Naxos]
  14. Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim – West Side Story: Tonight [United Artists]

Watch the short film for Kronos Quartet With Bryce Dessner’s ‘Tour Eiffel’

Kronos Quartet With Bryce Dessner - 'Tour Eiffel

Kronos Quartet and The National’s guitarist Bryce Dessner released yesterday a collaborative album entitled Aheym, which means “homeward” in Yiddish. Aheym, before turning into an album, was the first piece they conceived together, after Kronos founder David Harrington invited Dressner to write a piece for their performance at the Celebrate Brooklyn! festival at Brooklyn’s Prospect Park in 2009. As the press release describes, Aheym “was informed by the stories of Dessner’s Jewish immigrant grandparents who settled near the park”.
Coinciding with the album release, the magnificent track ‘Tour Eiffel’ is being offered with a visual accompaniment in the shape of Passages, a short film by Alex Braverman and Poppy de Villeneuve directed by Dianne Berkun. Featuring the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, ‘Tour Eiffel’ is based on a poem by early 20th-century Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro, who wrote about the Eiffel Tower at the time it had just been built. Watch the short film beneath.


Aheym is out now via Anti-.

Mixtape #38

Star-studded collective Superhuman Happiness sent us this month's instalment all the way from Brooklyn, New York. The infectious rhythm and joyful energy we love them for resonates through the 17 tracks they handpicked for the mixtape. Press play and dance!


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