Vienna Teng / ??? (born Cynthia Yih Shih on October 3, 1978) is a Taiwanese American pianist and singer-songwriter based in New York City. She began studying classical piano at the age of 5. She took her stage name
Grandaddy are an American indie pop band formed in Modesto, California in 1992 by singer/guitarist/keyboardist Jason Lytle, bassist Kevin Garcia, and drummer Aaron Burtch; although a noisy, lo-fi approach characterized early recordings like 1994's Complex Party Come Along Theories, with the 1995 additions of guitarist Jim Fairchild and keyboardist Tim Dryden the group's sound expanded exponentially over the course of subsequent efforts including the unreleased Don't Sock the Tryer and the 1996 EP A Pretty Mess By This One Band.
Barzin is a Canadian singer-songwriter named Barzin Hosseini. Slow and melancholic, introspective and confessional: These words in some ways describe the sound of Barzin. A project that began sometime in 1995, Barzin was a solo endeavor at its inception. But somewhere along the way it shed its solitary skin allowing a wide array of characters into it’s sound. From amongst a rotating cast of musicians, who occasionally made appearances on recordings and at performances, three individuals slowly became a fixture of this project.
Thomas Brinkmann (born 1959) is a highly regarded German producer of experimental minimal techno music. Although experimenting with records since the early eighties, he gained wide reputation with his re-workings of material by fellow artists Mike Ink and Richie Hawtin released in the second half of the 90s. These productions were made by playing physically modified vinyl records on highly customized turntables with an additional tone arm.
Jay Farrar is an American songwriter and musician currently based in St. Louis, Missouri. A veteran of two critically-acclaimed music groups, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt, he began his solo music career in 2001. Beyond his established talents as a songwriter, he is a well-regarded guitarist, harmonicist, and a distinctive vocalist. His music is an informed expansion of traditional American roots music.
Moskitoo is Sanae Yamasaki (b. 1978), a sound-artist and graphic designer residing in Sapporo, Japan. She began making music in 1997 playing guitar and small casio keyboards in various bands in Sapporo. In 2005 she began writing, playing, and singing under the moniker Moskitoo. "Drape" (2007, 12k1041) was her first full-length release. A 4 track EP with remixes shortly followed, featuring remixes by Frank Bretschneider, Mark Fell and Taylor Dupree, who was also the mastering engineer on "Drape".
Technology and imperfection. The raw and the processed. Curator and curated. Solo explorer and gregarious collaborator. The life and work of Taylor Deupree are less a study in contradictions than a portrait of the multidisciplinary artist in a still-young century. Deupree is an accomplished sound artist whose recordings, rich with abstract atmospherics, have appeared on numerous record labels, and well as in site-specific installations at such institutions as the ICC (Tokyo, Japan) and the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (Yamaguchi, Japan).
Concrete Blonde is an alternative rock band dating from the early 1980s to the early 1990s (and re-formed again in the 2000s). They are best known for the poignant songwriting and vocals of Johnette Napolitano. Singer / songwriter / bassist Napolitano formed the band Dream 6 with guitarist James Mankey in Los Angeles in 1982, releasing an eponymous EP in France on the Happy Hermit label in 1983. When they signed with IRS in 1986, labelmate Michael Stipe suggested the name Concrete Blonde, describing the contrast between their hard rock music and introspective lyrics.
The Be Good Tanyas are an acoustic trio with folk and americana influences, hailing from Vancouver, British Columbia. They play a combination of original and traditional material, and are notable for their lush vocal harmonies. The group features Frazey Ford (guitar, vocals), Samantha Parton (guitar, mandolin, banjo, vocals) and Trish Klein (electric guitar, banjo, harmony vocals). Jolie Holland is a former member and also a frequent guest.
I am going to personally state on the record that this is one of the finest albums on my roster, something so fully formed and beautiful, it will continue to resonate and unravel its wonder long after you and I are long gone and forgotten. Like the best of Al Green or Marvin Gaye, this CD is perfect from beginning to end; a smooth and subtle sexual menage a trois of reggae, country and soul.
— Ralph Alfonso, owner, Bongo Beat Records. BIO: