Artists of the week - 21 December 2008

Here I am, back with a few more artists for you to check out.

Kate Havnevik

*For "Grey's Anatomy" fans, you already know of Kate's work.

I was tooling around Amazon looking for music to buy when I first discovered Ms. Havnevik . Almost every time I'd venture to a trip-hop/downtempo artist page, one link I'd find popping up was this Norwegian songstress's album "Melankton". I gave in and finally ventured to YouTube to see what I could find. The first video appeared after my initial search was "Unlike Me." My first impression was the video is well done and beautiful. All of it is shot underwater with the cinematography telling the story of an inner struggle with a relationship. I have to admit I expected a bigger "bang" after the various build-ups during the track's timespan, but after a few listens I figured the song was "pert-near" perfect in and of itself. It didn't need anything else.

My curiosity was piqued and I had to find more of her music. In my continued search I kept finding wonderful song after song: from "Kaliedoscope" to "Nowhere Warm" to "New Day." "New Day" filled my need for a big musical buildup with a hypnotic synthline attached to it that led me to push replay time and time again at her Myspace page. "Nowhere Warm" has a special place in my heart when my then-fiancee had to leave for the summer and we didn't get to see each other until we married. Needless to say - good stuff! I was hooked and an online vendor had another CD sold.

If you want me to give you specific tracks to check out from her Melankton album... I'd have to say all of them. Don't worry, you will not be disappointed.

Guy Sigsworth (you may know him from frou frou) is currently working with her on her next album due out sometime next year.


Imogen Heap

This isn't a call to arms just because I mentioned Sigsworth and frou frou to next pick Imogen Heap. I'm doing this because I enjoy her music. And I'm dedicating this little blurb to one song: "Hide and Seek." There aren't many songs out there which give me chills everytime I hear it , and this is one of them (another one is "Phoenix" by Inga Liljestrom).

It is now time to not keep this song a "secret" any longer. SNL fans may remember snippets of this song from a Shia LeBouf skit entitled "Dear Sisiter." Funny, funny stuff!

There is just SOMETHING about THIS SONG. The lyrics - haunting. The musical soundscapes - haunting. The imagery - haunting. I think you get the picture. While searching for this song's meaning, I found a breakdown of the intricacies of it here. The more I read about it, the legend grows mores.

Imogen used to have on one of her sites different versions of this song created by fans. There was a Kazoo chorus, a marching band, an a capella group and I believe a few others.

This song seems to have a life of its own.

I'm willing to go the route of the Cryptozoologists and keep the "myth" alive.

Keep the myth alive and listen to this song!