G. is a furniture project designed, manufactured and sold by GPOD.

It is inspired on what Indie represents within the music industry. By remaining independent it conquers the space for pure reflection, and for defining its own set of operating rules – aesthetically and otherwise. Its reflection, more than formal, is mostly about the social and economical aspects surrounding the design industry. It is aimed at understanding quality and the necessary mechanisms to achieve it, as well as how design products become part of everyone’s lives.

Being independent of any establishment, due to the intrinsic freedom to define the what- to-do, the why-doing-it and the how-to-do-it, with a fairly high level of risk control, makes it easier to address complex issues like sustainability or cultural identity, as well as other social issues surrounding the manufacture of utilitarian goods, in order to try out ideas that could then be applied on a bigger scale.

The following 4 topics are the guiding lines of the whole development:

1 – Ecolomy of Scale - To make a fundamental premise out of the perfect balance between economical viability and ecological impact of any product. 2- Mass Customization – An essential tool for having context sensitive products 3- Glocal - To eventually sell everywhere, but to always produce where one’s selling it, and always using locally produced materials.

4- Ethical - Design products do not constitute a primary need. Although, a percentage of their sales can be. G. will always team up with local NGOs to define a donation model.

G.pt is the application of the ideas above to the Portuguese context. It is composed of a tabouret, a dinning table and a system for side tables, all locally produced with “home grown” materials. Partnerships are currently being studied to take the project to other European countries. G.dk and G.de are in the pipeline. This will be specially interesting for testing one of the basic design premises of the project: to design products flexible enough in order to resist different “home grown” materials while keeping their design identity.

The authorship of G. consists on a group of commercial products that makes tangible its design research as the best way to test the ideas shaping them. The reaction of the public will be an important meter for taking the research process further.

Swedish Moto Boy is launching his latest single “The Heart Is A Rebel”. It’s the first song to see the light of the from the forthcoming album “Lost In The Call”, released March 3. Download “The Heart Is A Rebel” for free on the new Moto Boy site.

We have written about Moto Bo before here.

The Happy Four is a new band from Malmö Sweden. I’m actually one of the members, playing the guitar! Back in the early nineties we released a couple of albums for EMI under the name Love Kings (we are 4/5 of that band now). The songs Kill Me and Happy are produced by Tore Johansson (known for his great work with Franz Ferdinand, Cardigans etc).

You can listen at both Kill me and Happy at our MySpace page. Please join our Facebook page as well!

Here’s a text about the release:

Whatever makes you happy

A recent article in the New York Times claimed there are more different indie-music genres than there are bands. It might be true.
We are nieching ourselves more and more. To invite people for dinner has become an adventure, you have to make sure who’s vegetarian, who’s hypersensitive to gluten or lactose, who’s vegan etc. The Olympic sports have multiplied. Buying olive oil at the super market either requires a degree or a personal shopper.

People enjoy development.

The Happy Four is a great example! They’ve created their own niche, yes, yet another one. While listening to their first single you can make out influences from The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Velvet Underground as well as contemporary ones from Bon Iver and Dirty Projectors.
As a crucible of sorts, without any comprehension of what is considered appropriate.
A band where STEFAN BERG has taken storytelling from his various documentaries including Svenstorp Blues, Rolling like a stone and Pojkar and where DAVID CARLSON conveys his sense of aesthetics which has earned him success with David Design, among other things. Along with LEIF JOHANSSON on base and ROBERT FEKETE on organ. Together they also make out four fifths of that which was once LOVE KINGS, the black sheep of EMI.

A new band from Malmö, with well-known members and guaranteed new music. In which genre would you place them? Mumblecore? Freak-folk? Ambient doom-metal?

Or, the other way around, if all that techno-disco-goth-plastic surgery-mumblecore-freak-folk-ambient doom-metal-eight-bit-facebook-mumbo jumbo was only a bad dream? And you woke up next to your loved one, opened a window towards the world outside, went to the kitchen and put some nice leaven bread in the toaster, fried two eggs and squeezed a couple of oranges while brewing epically strong coffee AT THE SAME TIME as you were listening to two great songs by a new band from Malmö.

Would THAT make you happy?

BEST REGARDS! THE HAPPY FOUR

Photo Charlotte Carlberg Bärg, graphic design Truls Bärg.

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On January 15, 2010, No Longer Empty (NLE) will re-open the legendary Tower Records store on Broadway and 4th street with a trans-media art exhibition: Never Can Say Goodbye.

Spotlighting more than twenty artists working with sound, light, image and installation,Never Can Say Goodbye recreates a fantasy version of the now defunct Tower Records withNever Records complete with record bins, album covers, cash registers, music posters and a performance stage.

Interactive installations by artists and musicians celebrate the stores historic role as the locus of the community– the old way to meet people face to face and share music and information.

Curated by Manon Slome, NLE; Steven Evans, Dia Art Foundation; Asher Remy-Toledo, NLE

Hockey is a bit witty Oregon based band that mixes pop, indie and disco into a delightful new experience. It sounds like a mix of Talking Heads, David Bowie’s Lodger and Arctic Monkeys filtered through a tight disco sound.

Their new album Mind Chaos is just released and the songs Too Fake, Learn to Loose and Song away sticks out. The latter produced by ex-Talking Heads guitarist Jerry Harrison. No more words, you have to listen to one of the best records of 2009.

Here is an interview with designer Yuri Suzuki talking about his design philosphy and his exhibition The physical value of sound at Clear gallery in Tokyo. The exhibition has been extended to May 16th.

Andra bloggar om: tokyo, konst, musik

The physical value of sound is on exhibition by Yuri Suzuki at Clear gallery in Tokyo which runs until May 2nd. If you can’t make it to the show, here’s a Flickr photo set.

And… here’s a nice yuri_suzuki_breakbeat_mix.

Andra bloggar om: konst, musik, tokyo

The Japanese electronic musician and DJ Captain Funk  / Tatsuya Oe recently launched Club Model Electronic to bring his creative world view more directly to his fan base.

The online shop delivers sounds and exclusive content so people all over the world can enjoy Oe’s music, as well as being the first bilingual MP3 shop in Japan. “But our goal is not to sell music, but to tell a story,” he says.

Oe doesn’t see his site as another MP3 download shop, but a ‘specialty music boutique’ in the digital arena. “I want the site to have uniqueness and depth, and to achieve a ‘one and only’ shop and community, just as if it were a club.” 

Having performed as the opening act for David Bowie and Kraftwerk and known as the Japanese Fatboy Slim, Oe designs, programs and produces his websites himself as he considers website development and branding as equally important creative and communication expressions. “The creativity expressed in the making of music should also be displayed in the distribution channels,” the DJ says.

“I think you should make your own creative world - just like you do on the album, or at a live event. I can’t understand why musicians take the situation for granted that the audience goes to mega shops like Amazon or Borders to purchase music, as these are commodity markets offering similar worlds. I’m very conscious of differentiation and thinking differently,” Oe states.

Rather than the traditional sales route, Club Model Electronic is Oe’s way of keeping his own world. A way to correctly tell his story. “Musicians need a stage to tell stories through their music. Building my own shop let’s me take back control. The distribution and sales process is too strong. Music is alive . . . it needs air to breathe . . . not to be kept in a glass box. The mega shops offer boring scenery. They’re perfect in efficiency, but that’s not enough for creativity and communication. It’s important for artists to keep their own world in all elements of music production and distribution.”

Oe says that often musicians have to obey the music industry as the system is so big, unwieldy and complex; but that social networking sites have accelerated the need for the music industry to change with the times and adapt to the current trends. “I like that today I can finish a song and tomorrow I can sell it.”

In the future Oe hopes that Club Model Electronic can be a space for customers to network and connect. Rather than a shop, he envisages the site to be more like a concierge that provides and entertains. “Like a nightclub where people are excited when they open the door wondering what type of party it will be tonight . . . what type of music will be played . . . who else will be there. It’s all about inviting the guest in, guiding them and entertaining them. A fun, real world feeling of excitement and discovery.” 

While the club and concierge feel is on the way, all the MP3 files can be purchased from the site today. All files sold from Club Model Electronic are 320Kbps (LAME encoded) - the highest quality available at present - and are all NoDRM, meaning downloads contain no digital rights management software. And that’s something we can all dance to in our living rooms around the world!

This is a post by David Report contributor Kristina Dryza.

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Andra bloggar om: dj, musik, spotify, itunes, captain funk, tatsuya oe

FASHION.MUSIC.STYLE. is a web and bimonthly print publication that ‘promotes, reviews and inspires new talent in the fashion and music industries’. To take a look, click here.

Andra bloggar om: mode, musik, stil, media

Chambertronica 2008 from Olle Corneer on Vimeo.

Next week will be the premiere for Chambetronica and it will take place in the newly built hi-tech concert hall of Uppsala, north of Stockholm.

Chambetronica is an equal mix between contemporary chamber music and electronica. Two musical cultures that have not often met before. Three of the most experienced and established musicians within the electronica scene meet three of the most skillful and respected instrumentalists. What happens when musicians that practice on their instruments every day meet the ones that compose by moving squares on the computer screen? When musical instruments that have been developed through hundreds of years, through classicism, modernism and avant garde, meet the new digital instruments that change by the week, change by every software update? When musicians with years of school and training meet the producers of electronica that never been to school at all (mainly because there are no music schools for electronica)? Chambertronica forces these two worlds to meet, musically and in the compositions. The result is something completely new and unexpected, music without limitations.

Chambertroncia live is chamber music on a techno club. Unknown musical worlds and strong visual impressions, traditional instruments, electronics and VJs. Maybe it’s a star of a new musical genre?

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Andra bloggar om: electronica, musik, kultur, konsert, klassisk musik