I've been listening to two newish albums a lot lately.
The first
one, Siberie m'etait Contee
(sorry about the missing accents) is accompanied by an illustrated
book, and seems to be largely unavailable here. (I ordered it from
someplace in france called alapage.com) It's almost entirely in French,
so my comprehension is not as good as it should be (I can get
individual phrases but feel like I'm missing the bigger picture.) But I
can't stop listening to it. It moves beautifully from a jaunty
description of a Parisian neighborhood (Le P'tit Jardin) to shivering
in the dead of winter (Siberie Fleuve Amour). For those who have heard
his previous albums: it's a different musical style than that of
Claudestino, but just as good - like that one, all the songs on
this album form
a complete, unified work. Individual songs are excellent, and the whole
thing at once is even better. It's also less scattered than Proxima
Estacion: Esperanza, which had some good songs but didn't tell a
coherent "story." This one does. I hope it gets released in the
U.S. someday.
The
second one I just got today. It's by a pair of musicians that I wasn't
previously familiar with, Amadou et Miriam. Their latest album was
produced by Chao, and features him on several tracks. They should form
some kind of supergroup and keep on working together, as far as I'm
concerned; this album is hugely enjoyable and lively. (Interestingly
enough, one of the songs, M'bif
Ã
ˆ (balafon) has a backing track that's
identical to that of Siberie Fleuve Amour. I guess it's O.K. to
plagarize from yourself!) If you want to check out Dimanche a
Bamako, it's now available on iTunes.
