This is definitely the case with Hey Rosetta! Two years ago we filmed a Take Away Show with them and ever since then we have managed to stay in close contact. Every time they’ve come through town we share beers together and watch their shows.  This January they were coming through San Francisco once again and they really wanted to film something new. Without hesitation, I called a dear friend of mine who lives at a convent in San Francisco. She cleared a room for us and invited her houseguest to watch.

We filmed a song and then they rushed to their sound check. As usual, we met up for a few drinks and then we saw our dear Hey Rosetta! friends leave us once again. That is, until the next time they roll through town.

I remember a brief conversation with Andrew Bird, after his concert at the “Route du Rock” Festival in Normandy in 2009. I ask him what he plans to do after his festival tour is over. He smiles and tells me that he’s going to relax. It’s been eleven years since he last took a break, he says, and he plans to head to Californa, play some video games and breathe easy.

Then nothing, as promised. Until the beginning of this year, when we learned that a new album was in the works. And then it was back, our desire put a camera in front of him, to do something once again with this incredible artist.

Only, what could we do? Redo a Take Away show ? No, it was perfect. Reorganize a Pocket Party ? No, impossible to recreate the magic of his encounter with St. Vincent. We receive a copy of the album, we listen to it , and note the importance of loops. We think back to his socked feet playing the pedals during the Pocket Party. We’d like to play with loops.

What if – we filmed each loop? And we replicated visually what heard was being looped? The idea takes flight, and on our journey we meet the people of Radio France. They offer to coproduce the project, to lend us studio 106, as well as their sound engineers. We also meet François, who would like to try to program it in HTML5. And we talk to Vimeo, who offered to store the video.

Et voilà, an entire afternoon of filming, during which Andrew remarks: “I think that the recording of the album version took less time”. Then, days and days of editing during which the editor, Julie, would effectively lose her mind organizing the loops and making sure tht none were missing. Days, as well as nights of programming for François, who was trying to ensure that the site would work even on old computers.

And finally, the site, the video. Which really illustrates the power of Andrew Bird who, by himself, generated an orchestra of loops, using all of the nuances of his instrument, layer after layer. We wanted an Andrew Bird Orchestra. Here it is.

Last month, we were in Brooklyn, where we had Givers and Theophilus London playing two secret shows in private lofts simultaneously. Even better, they were in the same building, and at one moment, the two parties merged. In case you haven’t seen it, here it is :

So we’re doing it again. In Los Angeles, at secret locations, with two artists playing raw and beautiful shows without boundaries between the band and the audience. Both shows will take place at 5PM PST. So it’s 8PM if you live in New York City, 3AM if you live in Paris. You’ll be able to switch between the two shows on our YouTube channel.

We’re very proud of having OTHER LIVES and CHILDISH GAMBINO on the shows. The quiet yet powerful music of the former, the raw energy of the latter promise incredible shows.

And if you live in Los Angeles, you could be a guest! All you have to do is fill in these forms and cross your fingers:

- If you want to come to the Other Lives show, click here
- If you want to come to the Childish Gambino show, click here

He has opened for Adele, was signed to a major label on faith (after they had only heard two of his beautiful songs), and its as if nothing extraordinary has happened to him. In the car, he tells us that he doesn’t know if the songs he are going to play are going to sound good, cause he hadn’t sang at all yet that morning, and he had never played them solo … then he blew us away with three chords and his subtle and broken voice. Did his uncertainty come off as bothersome ? Nope. Just disarmingly sincere.

We didn’t cause trouble, we didn’t bother nobody. We weren’t there to act like punks. More to tell stories, remain on the edge of soul, of shifty rhythms, caressing voices, and gentle melancholy. At the Olive Café, it was happy hour at the bar. Thirsty mouths abounded, including exhausted workers and the early morning drunkards. Micheal Kiwanuka asked for a tea, but the boldest thing he did was forget about the people around him. Sometimes, he sang too loudly. Then, he drank his tea.

Shara Worden, a.k.a. My Brightest Diamond,  is very hard to qualify in one word. Her music floats between genres. It seems to draw inspiration from a diverse number of sources, including: opera, classical, indie rock, folk as well as experimental music. However, the one outlining principle is always her voice, the narrative that  ties everything together.

Her voice, as well as her immense stage presence, which makes her equally capable of captivating a crowd with just a drummer.

For a long time, she toured like that, à deux. Shara as the one-woman ensemble, playing guitar, autoharp, mbira, ukulele and kalimba, while her drummer took care of the rest. But this night in Paris, a complete orchestra was given the honor of playing arrangements from her last album “All Things Will Unwind”, originally recorded with the world-class Ymusic ensemble.

Watch how her face changes with each song, and the pleasure that radiates from it, as if each song engendered a catharsis, freeing her completely so she could give her all to the next piece. Trace the transformation between the opening song and the very last encores…

• Artists : My Brightest Diamond : Shara Worden, Brian Wolfe, David Haroutunian, Maud Gabilly, Pierre Charles, Julien Lair, Julie Huguet, Julien Chabod • Director : David Ctiborsky • Camera operators : Hugo de Castelbajac, David Ctiborsky, Elie Girard, Hugo Jouxtel, Jérémie Vial • Sound : Capture : Vincent Ribaud, Mix et Mastering : François Clos • Production : La Blogothèque • Editing : David Ctiborsky, Raphael Pfeiffer ; Color Calibration : David Ctiborsky

Silence was to be broken in 2012 and once again Mount Eerie can’t be found where we expect them. It starts with a tour alongside drone vets Earth then with a 7’ on French DIY label, Atelier Ciseaux (To the Ground out on April 10th, limited edition of 300 copies). We wanted to ask Remi Lafitte (label founding member) about this unique release and his encounter with Phil Elverum. An interview you can read while enjoying the listenning of the 7’ before everyone else.

Hi Rémi, can you tell us about the story behind this release?

R.L. : I’m sorry I won’t tell the story of an epic meeting on tops of mountains. Mount Eerie is a band I’ve been listenning to for quite a long time. Working with them was a dream project of mine so in November I finally dare sending the email. It was a long email explaining how badly I wanted to work on a 7’ with them. I didn’t think it would work but I needed to try. I think I wrote something like ‘I guess you’re really busy but I had to try and tell you about this’. I was shivering when I clicked and send the email. Three weeks later he told me he was interested and will send some tracks as soon as possible. It went pretty fast and smoothly.  I know it’s a quite common story but it’s a touching still. We were fans of Mount Eerie but also perfect strangers sending an email out of the blue. He took time to check our work and gave it a try.

Most of Mount Eerie’s records are released on Phil Elverum’s own record label, P.W. Elverum and Sun. What led him to release this one on a French label like Atelier Ciseaux ?

R.L. : I think only Phil Elverum could answer. Funny enough I was planning on asking him the same question when he is back from his tour with Earth. I guess it’s not that easy to produce and release music all by yourself. Working with another label might bring a new dynamic.

What’s moving you in Mount Eerie’s music ?

R.L. :  This music has eyes, it observes and travels for us. It’s all about these roads we had in mind and never saw. Bright or dark paths, sometimes both. I’ve always had a fascination for mountains and grew up surrounded by them. As a teenager, I wanted to run away, mountains just meant boredom. It took time to learn loving them again, but I know now that I can’t live too far from the mountains. I only know Phil Elverum by emails and from his records but I really appreciate his constant will to explore and experiment. He’s not the kind of guy who rest on his laurels. I hope our roads will cross someday.

“This music has eyes, it observes and travels for us. It’s all about these roads we had in mind and never saw. Bright or dark paths, sometimes both.”

To The Ground reminds me of The Microphones (ndlr : Phil Elverum previous project) in its lo-fi approach.  Do you think it has to do with the fact that it was meant to be released on a DIY label?

R.L. : I guess this project with us was a good opportunity for him to experiment again. The first track Phil sent us was purely instrumental and we thought making a record with two distinct atmospheres would be a good idea. To The Ground’s A-side is more of a poppy track, compared to its B-side, Mouth Of The Sky, an ambient-oriented track, with weird singing and all. It’s complementary. Have you been listenning to ‘House Shape’, the single from his forthcoming album? It’s dronic, ethereal and beautiful. I’m sure he’s gonna surprise us again and the new record’s gonna be awesome.

Each release from Atelier Ciseaux has a very specific artwork. Can you tell us more about this one ?

R.L. :  Phil wanted to do the artwork himself. Mount Eerie have always put great importance in it, it’s part of their music and the way we experience it. Phil is also a photograph and a painter, I guess it’s his own way of expressing himself through another medium bringing a new dimension to his music.

After almost four years, what’s next for Atelier Ciseaux? Of which release(s) are you especially proud?

R.L. :  It’s pretty hard to sum these four years up and basically we just want to carry on releasing records, with the same mixture of excitement and stress. Our issues are now available in new territories and we’re getting great feedbacks about them. Even though we’re French it was not that easy to build a profile there for a DIY label like us but we are now selling more and more records in our homeland. We have regular jobs on the side so running a label is not a piece of cake and of course we have to deal with very low budgets but it’s totally worth it and stopping now is totally out of the question. It would be difficult for me to pick a favorite in our releases but Yes or No by François Virot, our first one, means a lot to me.

I heard you’re to leave Montreal soon. Back to France then. Will it mean that you’re gonna work with French artists more often?

Leaving Montreal won’t change a thing for us, we never wanted to be associated with a specific country. Geography has nothing to do with it, it’s all about the bands that touch us. Our new release will be Tender Opposites by Canadian artists Tops. The tape is sold out so it will be reissued on vinyl. We also have a live recording from Prince Rama and Sun Araw coming soon.

You can already pre-order To The Ground via Atelier Ciseaux’s website .

All pictures are taken from To The Ground’s artwork.

Many thanks to Ambre for her huge help on the translation.

Here we go, two days before the launch of one of our biggest projects ever. We’ve been working on it for months. For this project, we are bringing in YouTube, bands, and American apartments. Can you see where this is going?

Filming a band in a Parisian apartment won’t cut it anymore. So with our team, we’ve crossed the Atlantic with the crazy idea of hosting two “Soirées de Poche” simultaneously in New York and broadcasting them live and worldwide with the help of our partner YouTube. There will be a special interface that allows you to switch between them in real time according to your mood. We’ve called it The Switch.

On Wednesday, March 28th, two shows will take place in New York, at the same time : Theophilus London will play in one apartment and Givers in another. As you can see in the teasers below, they are ready for it.

The live stream will start at 9pm EST on La Blogotheque’s channel and at 2am GMT. We will be putting the shows online a few days later.

The next two shows will take place in April, stay tuned!

Meanwhile, we were told that that they were on their way. They had just finished their concert at the Café de la Danse and still had energy. Man Man was as ready as we were. Two teams came together, each willing to celebrate and let it all hang out.

We quickly put back the microphones. Changed the memory cards in the cameras. Went on a whisky run. Suddenly – we were ready for anything. On the program: one poncho, a stepladder, a makeshift shoe-ashtray, a trash can drum, biscotti, two bikes with bells, a half-naked saxophonist, a star-studded flag, a director rocking a straw hat, six hands on the piano, a hoarse voice, both destroyed and powerful, and the happiest possible state of anarchy. It was as if we had filmed something that was never supposed to exist. But what else are we here for?

Mike Hadreas, however, is immediately disarming. At the end of a week of shows and press, before the day has begun for most of the neighborhood, he and his band are full of energy and ready to share a series of emotionally demanding songs.

We start in the main hall of the Manhattan Inn. A salvaged baby grand lies in wait under a skylight that feeds tentacled plant-life none of us can reason is alive or dead. Mike’s voice fills the abandoned hall with a song perfectly suited to the privacy of the moment.

We move on to the bar, light-less and sanitized, another blank canvas which he now fills with a solo, slow, insular notes are aimed at nostalgic fragments displayed in the rafters.

We transition back to the piano. To finish, Mike has arranged a sparse but joyful piece to meet the zenith of the sun as it settles over the skylight above and invites us out into the day.

We begin in a Parkdale apartment. Mauro sets to work with clouds waxing and waning in collusion with the piano’s attack. He draws deeply from the well, his wonderful new wife a room away, emailing, casual but secretly attuned as only someone deeply tied to an artist can be.

We move to a sewing room to continue. The emotion is fresh from the last song, and newly insulated from onlookers, he shows us the simple beauty that holds up the production of his record.

We meet for a coffee at the Holy Oak. In direct contract to his new home of Williamsburg, this area is sleepy, there is room to breathe. The piano lies in wait for Mauro, though he has trepidations. A seasoned player in an overseas traveling show before committing himself to the New York grind, he is no stranger to the scene, but that world is behind him, it brings mixed emotions. Thankfully for us, he overcomes the impediment.