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On Demand

Spinning On Air Archive

February 2006

Timesbold and Jesse Sparhawk

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Timesbold is a group of multi-instumentalists. Some of the group live in Oregon, the rest in the NYC area, and once in a while they get themselves and their many instruments together in one room to perform their elaborate, ragged, heart-felt songs. This time the room is the WNYC Studio, and Timesbold joins host David Garland to set up pump organ, harp, bowed saw, mandolin, double bass, piano, guitars, drums, lo-fi electronics, glockenspiel, and sing songs that have roots in folk, country, and the avant garde. Timesbold's harpist-drummer-mandolinist Jesse Sparhawk puts down those instruments to play us some of his elliptical, surprising solo acoustic guitar compositions.

Timesbold


The Finnish "Psych Folk" of Lau Nau, Kuupuu, Islaja, and Pekko Käppi

Sunday, February 19, 2006

These musicians from Finland are making unusual music which seems unconfined by stylistic categories. They don't make a big distinction between songs and sound-textures, or even between composition and improvisation. Using voices, zithers, guitars, fiddles and flutes, as well as electronic toys, simple noise makers, digital delays and other electronic devices, they create music of hand-made, lacy delicacy and intense strength. This show features striking concert performances recorded in Portland, Maine, and New York City, and an interview with the musicians and host David Garland.

links
» Lau Nau
» Kuupuu
» Islaja
» Pekko Käppi
» Time-Lag Records


Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice

Sunday, February 12, 2006

There are a lot of different stories out there floating around about the mysterious band Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice. Are they really carnival refugees, former denizens of a toxic dump, or child prodigies, as their website (woodenwand.net) suggests? One thing for sure is that they are a band with powerful songs and a knack for improvising musical incantations. Host David Garland invites WWVV into the WNYC studio to dim the lights and play for a full hour, mixing blues, folk, psychedelia, home-made electronics, chants and chance.

» Wooden Wand photo credit: David Garland


Mi & L'au

Sunday, February 05, 2006

They met at a party in Paris, but before long they left the city to live in a cabin in the Finnish wilderness. There they wrote songs, finding a quiet, intense musical style that suits long winter nights huddled at the hearth. Mi (Mira Anita Mathilda Romantschuk) is from Finland, L'au (Laurent Leclere) is French, and one of their common languages is music that takes the listener out of the modern hubub, to a more thoughtful, timeless place.

Host David Garland welcomes Mi & L'au to WNYC for an in-studio session. They'll sing and play their songs, and talk about guitars reverberating over lakes, cabin fever, and the Halloween night they met.

» Mi & L'au at Young God Records