Tag: light

Anna Lapwood- “Light in Darkness”.

Hey people! 🙂 

 

Another instrumental piece for today. Interestingly, considering how much harp music I share on here, Anna Lapwood’s first instrument (or one of the first at least, she really plays loads of instruments) was the harp, but that’s not what she is known for today, and this piece is not a harp one, as you’ll be able to hear for yourselves. Anna Lapwood is an important figure in the world of classical music today. She is an acclaimed organist and choir director, working as Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge. At this same college, she has founded a girls’ choir. She is also a radio and television presenter, and has a very strong presence on social media, where she popularises organ music. It may feel surprising, considering her success, that Anna is 28 years old, and thus achieved a lot of quite unusual things in her early 20s. She was one of the youngest people to direct a Cambridge university choir. She is a very engaging person and her passion for the organ is very contagious, which has brought her a lot of popularity on TikTok, where she introduces classical music to younger audiences. Hence she’s been dubbed the Taylor Swift of classical music, or the TikTok organist. 

 

In addition to the organ, Anna is also very passionate about promoting the work of women and girls in classical music. Aside from the girls choir that she directs at Pembroke College, she also frequently performs works of female composers. 

 

This solo organ piece played by her is one of them. It was written by award-winning British composer Kerensa Briggs, who creates mainly organ and choral works. I’d never heard about her prior to hearing Anna Lapwood perform this composition, and it didn’t evade my Celtophile brain that her name is Cornish. And Kerensa Briggs is indeed from Cornwall, specifically Truro, where she was born in 1991, though is currently based in London. 

 

It’s definitely the first time I’m sharing a solo organ composition on my blog!

 

Song of the day (7th May) – Moddion – “Golau Cyfarwydd” (Familiar Light).

Hey people! 🙂

 

Last month, I shared with you a song from Carcharorion – a Welsh electronic music duo consisting of Gruff Pritchard and Huw Cadwaladr. And, if you read that post, you might recall that I mentioned Gruff Pritchard’s solo project, Moddion, and how much I enjoyed listening to his debut EP which came out last August. So I thought I’d finally share something from it. It seems quite underrated because, to my knowledge, even the Welsh-language music world wasn’t talking very much about it, unless perhaps some mini blogs as weird and niche as mine so I didn’t see that. 😀 

 

Gruff Pritchard is originally from Caernarfon but based in Cardiff. He is probably best known for being the guitarist and vocalist and one of the founding members of Yr Ods, a five-piece indie/pop band who have been very successful on the Welsh-language music scene and so far I’ve shared one song by them, from their concept album Iaith y Nefoedd. As far as I know, Gruff has also been an actor. 

 

Moddion’s debut EP is called Golau Cyfarwydd, and as I mentioned in the Carcharorion post, it has a distinct sound from both Carcharorion and Yr Ods, although it’s also definitely not dissimilar from the latter. The whole EP is written and produced by Gruff himself, and released on his and Griff Lynch’s record label, Lwcus T. And you guys probably know by now, since I’ve said it so often, that I always really appreciate and respect both musical versatility (which is a very common thing to find among Welsh artists) as well as albums which are largely created by one individual, as it gives you a more coherent sense of who they are and what they’re all about, so to say. Purely musically it’s also very much my thing. It’s very deep, reflective, just a little bit quirky, decidedly melancholic and dark-sounding, but definitely not devoid of warmth and light and far from depressing. In fact quite comforting in a cosy sort of way and, well, familiar, yet different. 😀 For whatever reason, it gives me a strong Scandinavian vibe, so I feel tempted to say that it’s like a mix of hiraeth and hygge. 

 

As for the title song that I want to share with you, I have to say that I surprised myself very massively and positively when it comes to it, because I was actually able to write a translation of it by ear. It’s probably quite crappy, and I am sure that it has some mistakes, or things that I could have translated better into English (after all, neither is my native language), and there likely are some bits that I misunderstood, but it should be enough for you to get an idea of what the song deals with lyrically. 

 

Dear friend, 

Where does time go? 

I’m on my back, 

You’re in my head, 

Shall we have a chat when we get back in order? [?] 

 

Sunflowers and summer heat, 

A peak of luxury [???] in the dull winter. [?] 

 

Where shall we look for the familiar light? 

Today is a new morning. 

 

I have a painting, 

Of the hours stretching, 

In a colour you chose, 

And a paint I stole. 

The short days, 

Are getting the best of us, to be honest, [?] 

Shall we stir things up soon? [?] 

 

Willow in the red sunset, 

I’m lost, 

In the mist of the dusk. 

 

Where shall we look for the familiar light? 

Today is a new morning. 

 

Where
 

 

Dear friend, 

Where does time go? 

 

Where shall we look for the familiar light? 

Today is a new morning. 

Song of the day (31st May) – Lisa Lynne & George Tortorelli – “First Light”.

Hi people! 🙂 

 

For yesterday’s song, I chose this calm, long piece from one of Lisa Lynne & George Tortorelli’s collaborative albums. I have shared a lot of music by the harpist Lisa lynne before, but nothing of what she made together with George Tortorelli. He is an American bamboo flute player. This piece comes from their 1997 album Love & Peace. 

 

Phamie Gow – “Seeing the Light”.

   Hey people! 🙂 

   Today’s song is a piano piece from the Scottish multi-instrumentalist Phamie Gow. This is her 2020 single. 

   Phamie Gow – “Seeing the Light”. 

  https://open.spotify.com/track/74YBWfGP9ROTdDMnZOqFCv?si=75bd9366fb4c44b0

Song of the day (16th December) – Jack Cullen – “Shed A Little Light”.

Hey guys! 🙂

This time around, I’d like to present to you yet another “normal” Jack I’ve come across in my frantic search for a faza, who, like all the others before, also happens to be from England, more exactly from Staffordshire. Again, I really like him, but not enough to consider him a good material for a faza subject. Jack Cullen comes from Staffordshire and used to be a rugby player from what  I know (that’s super cool, my friend Jacek from Helsinki used to play rugby so I have good associations). I listened to all his music that is available on Spotify and it’s all really great, though I’m hoping to hear more of him in the near future. Here’s my favourite song of his.

Song of the day (3rd October) – Iiris Viljanen ft. Isabel Neib – L”Ljuset SjĂ€lv” (The Light Itself).

Recently I shared with you a song by Frida Andersson, who is a Swedish-speaking Finn, and I told you how I find Finnish accent cute and funny. Really, as much as I love to hear the proper Swedish from Stockholm, I absolutely enjoy hearing Finnish Swedish as well. There is just something so distinguishing about it that I like. So here’s another Swedish-speaking Finn from Österbotten – Iiris Viljanen. She used to be a member in a Finnish band Vasas Flora Och Faun, now she’s doing her solo career, besides from being a singer-songwriter, she’s also a pianist. This song she sings with Isabel Neib (she doesn’t seem to be Finnish), and I think they sound good together. Iiris also makes rap music, in her local dialect fromÖsterbotten, which sounds very interesting as well.