David Starfire sat down with VIBE for an exclusive on his new album Ascend as well as to discuss his dream collaboration and Indian & hip-hop influences! Head here to check out the article!
VIBE also debuted Starfire’s brand new Zeppelin remix! Stairway (David Starfire remix) is available for free download by heading over here!
Tonight Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal kick off their first ever Chamber Music U.S. tour. To celebrate we’ve included some of our favorite videos of the duo making musical magic!
Chamber Music 2013 U.S. Tour Dates
2/26 – Eastman School of Music – Rochester, NY
2/28 – Florence Gould Hall – New York, NY
3/1 – Atlas Performing Arts – Washington DC
3/2 – Arden Gild Hall – Arden, DE
3/6 – First Christian Church – Bloomington, IN
3/8 – The Cedar Cultural Center – Minneapolis, MN
3/9 – Wehr Hall – Milwaukee, WI
3/10 – Old Town School of Folk Music – Chicago, IL
3/11 – Ohio State University – Newark, OH
3/12 – Prius Hall/Emens Auditorium (Ball State) – Muncie, IN
3/14 – Skirball Cultural Center – Los Angeles, CA
3/15 – St. John’s Presbyterian Church & Center – Berkeley, CA
3/16 – First Congregational Church – Santa Cruz, CA
3/23 – Charles H. Morris Center – Savannah, GA
NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert
Rhino Festival 2009 – Lyon, France
A Take Away Show Part 1, La Blogotheque
A Take Away Show Part 2, La Blogotheque
Filed under: Six Degrees Artist | Tags: Ballake Sissoko, FREE DOWNLOAD, new release
This week saw the North and South American release (2/5) of Ballaké Sissoko’s new album, “At Peace”. Sissoko’s follow-up to his 2009 collaboration with French cellist Vincent Segal, Chamber Music, is currently featured and streaming on NPR’s First Listen (2/4-2/10).
At Peace comes at one of the darkest points in the contemporary history of Sissoko’s home country. A March 2012 coup d’état plunged Mali’s stable democracy into a state of political turmoil resulting in devastating consequences across all spectrums of society. Religious extremists in the north declared war on music altogether, outlawing everything from recordings and instruments to any sort of playing. Musicians in northern parts of the country have been forced into exile. Music, though, has for this country of 15 million proven an especially defining aspect of identity formation. (Within the Six Degrees family three artists hail from this West African heartland of musical wealth- Ballaké Sissoko, Vieux Farka Touré, Issa Bagayogo) The current political situation’s most negative of grips on Mali’s rich musical tradition, a cornerstone of Mali’s cultural history, comes as a particularly devastating consequence. It is in this trying-times context that Sissoko’s latest album emerged. Reviews on “At Peace” have notably discussed the album’s bigger-than-the-music significance. Said NPR in their First Listen article, “At peace? Sadly, that’s still a dream in Mali, but without a doubt this powerful, beautiful album will bring listeners no small respite.” In the context of a society with a longstanding music tradition under attack, Sissoko’s latest album is being hailed as a kora-soundtracked victory for peace.
NPR First Listen: http://www.npr.org/2013/02/03/170849486/first-listen-ballake-sissoko-for-peace
Filed under: Dom La Nena, FREE DOWNLOAD, New Release, Six Degrees Artist | Tags: Dom La Nena, Ela, new release
A constant state of smiles and good vibes. That’s what the new year has been like in the Six Degrees office. At the heart of this merriment lay our excitement over the release of Dom La Nena’s debut album, Ela (1/15 USA and Canada; 2/18 Europe). We are proud to say this week Dom’s debut hit #1 on the CMJ World Chart.
Like the woman behind the cello, Ela reflects a continent-spanning geographical rootlessness. Born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Dominique Pinto moved to France at the age of eight while her father pursued his doctorate. Raised on classical music, at thirteen Dom began writing letters to American cellist Christine Walevska. With parental consent the aspiring musician relocated to Argentina where she studied with Walevska for several years before returning to Paris at eighteen. In 2009, Dom performed with English actress and singer Jane Birkin. Following an international tour with Birkin, Dom set about writing and recording her first album. The true catalyst for creating Ela, though, was meeting English-born singer/songwriter Piers Faccini. On the advice of Faccini, Dom used Faccini’s home studio in the Cevennes Mountains of France, where she recorded almost all of her parts in a week’s span. Enthused by the outcome, Faccini decided that he wanted in, and set out to work on co-producing the thirteen compositions soon to become known as Ela.
The first single from Ela, ‘No Meu Pais’ reflects Dom’s experiences with a rootless childhood. Without a specific nationality attached to it ‘meu pais’ (“my country”) becomes simply ‘myself’.
Céu finished her North American tour last week at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. This interview has some great clips from her performance.
Great performance from her tour in support of her new album, Caravana Sereia Bloom.
Download the new album: Six Degrees, iTunes, Amazon
Filed under: Six Degrees Artist | Tags: both ways open jaws, studio pigalle, the do
Download the new album: Six Degrees, iTunes, Amazon
Listening to The Dø album and seeing them in an actual live show are two very different things, the sound and the mood that can emanate from their performance leads to a more nocturnal feel and darker musical mood. That is the reason Dan and Olivia decided to embark on this new live sessions project:
“We decided to record the live versions of our new songs with our musicians because they had developed such an identity of their own, we had to keep a record. They’d become complimentary to the studio album. Many fans had also been requesting a live album. We wanted to record “live in a studio”, not on stage because we were after a warm studio sound, and The Pigalle Studio was the right one for it. We love to take songs to different levels, it keeps things fresh and exciting”. — The Dø
Niyaz, which means ‘yearning’ in Persian and Urdu, was formed in 2005 by vocalist Azam Ali, multi-instrumentalist Loga Ramin Torkian and two-time Grammy nominated producer and electronic musician Carmen Rizzo. Since their last release, Nine Heavens made waves in the global music community, the band have toured worldwide, had their music placed in numerous films & television shows and each released stunning solo albums that continue to push them into the international spotlight. Nine Heavens was heavily featured on world-wide radio (including NPR and PRI in the States), topped the charts of iTunes World Music and CMJ World Music, and continues to be discovered by new fans worldwide.
Now the band returns with their third album, Sumud. The album’s title is Arabic for “steadfastness” and the record’s musical themes center around the plight of ethnic and religious minorities around the world. Azam Ali chose this philosophical term as a symbolic reminder that, as she explains, ‘every human being should inherit the right to live with dignity and freedom upon the land on which they are born.’
With a heavier emphasis on the electronic side of their sound and a special guest vocal appearance from Oscar-winning Indian composer, musician and singer AR Rahman, Sumud is the most powerful release yet from one of global fusion’s most popular bands.
Filed under: Céu, Six Degrees Artist | Tags: boss, Brazil, Céu, Six Degrees Records
Céu, upcoming album: ‘Caravana Sereia Bloom’ (Six Degrees), is her boldest work to date. Today, the Grammy/Latin Grammy – nominated singer seems to have more in common with the psychedelic oeuvres of early Tropicalia artists and Os Mutantes than the restrained musings of Jobim, eschewing much of the laid-back bossa nova and samba that caused Starbucks to make her self-titled debut the first international release in its Hear Music™ Debut series.
Check out the first video from the album, for the song “Retrovisor”, and look for the full length to drop the first week of April.
Filed under: FREE DOWNLOAD, Six Degrees Artist, Uncategorized | Tags: LOGA RAMIN TORKIAN, niyaz
Iranian born composer and multi-instrumentalist Loga Ramin Torkian is internationally recognized for his ground- breaking work with world music groups Niyaz and Axiom Of Choice, both of which he co-founded. Born in Tehran, Iran, Loga moved to the United States as a teenager after the Iranian Revolution. This major transition would fuel much of his musical and artistic expression in the years to come as he struggled to reconcile the bonds of tradition and culture with his own personal experiences. A highly gifted composer and a visionary, Loga is greatly respected worldwide for his ability to adapt the Persian classical repertoire to his own unique and modern compositions.
Currently based in Montreal, Canada, Loga is now releasing his first solo album Mehraab, which brings his exceptional musicianship along with his highly innovative and complex sensibility for composition to the forefront of a project. The album features the astounding voice of Persian classical singer Khosro Ansari and draws a great amount of inspiration from traditional Iranian melodies and poetry. Loga explains, “I could not have found a better person to collaborate with other than Khosro Ansari, whose incredible voice, vocal melodies and choice of poetry became such an integral part of this expression.” Khosro Ansari can be best described as the modern voice of Persian classical music. Considered among the best singers of the Radif (Persian classical repertoire), Ansari’s vast knowledge combined with his highly emotive voice capture the very essence of Iranian music and poetry.
Filed under: FREE DOWNLOAD, Music, Six Degrees Artist, Uncategorized | Tags: Dan Levy, indie rock, Olivia Merilahti, paris, Six Degrees Records, the do
The French-pop, Paris based duo, The Dø have gotten nothing but stellar reviews on their new album Both Ways Open Jaws, and recent live performances. “A late contender for album of the year.“- The Times (London)
UK newspaper, The Independent album review said, “their multi-layered space-pop is as boundary defying as it is breaking…on the evidence of this one can safely say that The Do are the best French/Finnish duo in pop. Listen to ‘Dust if Off’ for proof”.
Below is the music video for ‘Too Insistent’ and after you fall in love you can buy the album here.
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