Posts Tagged ‘Simon Emmerson’

Afro Celts Simon Emmerson in Echoes Podcast

April 18, 2014

Smells Good & Sounds Good: Afro Celt’s Simon Emmerson’s Fresh Handmade Sound
Hear about it in the Echoes Podcast

Hard Days NightSimon Emmerson smells good.  Not because he’s necessarily so hygienic, but because for the last four years or so he’s been creating custom made spa soundtracks for Lush Spas.  They’re mostly in the UK,  but now they’ve opened  in the US in New York City and Philadelphia.  Spa music usually has me going more manic than serene as I plow through stacks of CDs that are generically bland at best, crass, calculated and corny at worst.  But these soundtracks for Lush Spas, released under the umbrella of Fresh Handmade Sound have Simon Emmerson’s name attached.  Just say Afro Celt Sound System and that’s all the authenticity and credentials I need.

Emmerson was a co-founder of the that band which brilliantly fused sounds and musicians from Africa, Asia, Ireland and England into an electronically brewed ecstasy.  Now he’s joined by artists like Simon Richmond, who is another Fresh Handmade Sound composer and musicians like sitarist Sheema Mukkerjee from Transglobal Underground and singers like Jackie Oates, Eliza McCarthy, Martha Tilston and Rosie Doonan to make albums that would be considered brilliant works of lush downtempo fusions, ambient music and dream-pop if they weren’t marketed as spa music with generic covers.  You can hear them talk about their music in the Echoes Podcast.

Simon Emmerson, Sheema Mukherjee, Simon Richmond on Echoes

Simon Emmerson, Sheema Mukherjee, Simon Richmond on Echoes

The Fresh Handmade Sounds recordings aren’t easy to get.  You’ll find them scattered in Lush Stores and even more scattered on-line.

Here are the ones I’d try to track down

sYNAETHESIASynaethesia
The Nightjar Orchestra is the ad hoc group put together for this album.  Besides Emmerson, it also features Richard Evans who has recorded extensively at Real World Records and worked with Peter Gabriel and Michael Brook among many others.  Synaethesia is lush, folk based and string laden with expansive, acoustic based tracks like “The Great Western.”

cache_240_240_0_100_80_SpaCD COVER The Sound BathThe Sound Bath
This one approaches ambient more than most with subtle keyboard fugues under nature sounds, the plaintive sound of Afro Celt’s N’Faly Kouyate singing and playing the kora on “Hand Bells” and Enoesque themes like “Bluethroat.”

Hard Days NightA Hard Days Night Treatment
This album shouldn’t be so good.  They take Beatles tunes from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Golden Slumbers” and turn them into lysergic folk music.  In particular the array of female vocalists, from Eliza McCarthy to Jackie Oates are entrancing.  Unfortunately, this might be the hardest to get at this time.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Support Echoes by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Choose either a one time $1000 or on-going $84 Monthly PaymentThink of the great artists you love on Echoes. Think of the informative interviews and exclusive live performances. Then, think of a world without Echoes. You can make sure that never happens by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Echoes is a non-profit 501(c3) organization just like your local public radio station. And all donations are tax deductible. You can support Echoes with a monthly donation that will barely disturb your credit card.

Join the Echoes Sound Circle and keep the soundscapes of Echoes flowing!

Foy-MirrorJoin the Echoes CD of the Month Club. and get  Lyla Foy’s Mirrors the Sky, the April CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR
Pick Up 
TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

LRC19-250pxJoin us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

 

 

An Afro Celt Drops Musical Bath Bombs

April 15, 2014
Simon Emmerson, Sheema Mukherjee, Simon Richmond on Echoes

Simon Emmerson, Sheema Mukherjee, Simon Richmond on Echoes

Simon Emmerson smells good.  Not because he’s necessarily so hygienic, but because for the last four years or so he’s been creating custom made spa soundtracks for Lush Spas.  They’re mostly in the UK,  but now they’ve opened  in the US in New York City and Philadelphia.  Spa music usually has me going more manic than serene as I plow through stacks of CDs that are generically bland at best, crass, calculated and corny at worst.  But these soundtracks for Lush Spas, released under the umbrella of Fresh Handmade Sound have Simon Emmerson’s name attached.  Just say Afro Celt Sound System and that’s all the authenticity and credentials I need.

Sheema Mukherjee on Echoes

Sheema Mukherjee on Echoes

Emmerson was a co-founder of the that band which brilliantly fused sounds and musicians from Africa, Asia, Ireland and England into an electronically brewed ecstasy.  Now he’s joined by artists like Simon Richmond, who is another Fresh Handmade Sound composer and musicians like sitarist Sheema Mukkerjee from Transglobal Underground and singers like Jackie Oates, Eliza McCarthy, Martha Tilston and Rosie Doonan to make albums that would be considered brilliant works of lush downtempo fusions, ambient music and dream-pop if they weren’t marketed as spa music with generic covers.  You can hear them talk about their music tonight on Echoes.

The Fresh Handmade Sounds recordings aren’t easy to get.  You’ll find them scattered in Lush Stores and even more scattered on-line.

Here are the ones I’d try to track down

sYNAETHESIASynaethesia
The Nightjar Orchestra is the ad hoc group put together for this album.  Besides Emmerson, it also features Richard Evans who has recorded extensively at Real World Records and worked with Peter Gabriel and Michael Brook among many others.  Synaethesia is lush, folk based and string laden with expansive, acoustic based tracks like “The Great Western.”

cache_240_240_0_100_80_SpaCD COVER The Sound BathThe Sound Bath
This one approaches ambient more than most with subtle keyboard fugues under nature sounds, the plaintive sound of Afro Celt’s N’Faly Kouyate singing and playing the kora on “Hand Bells” and Enoesque themes like “Bluethroat.”

Hard Days NightA Hard Days Night Treatment
This album shouldn’t be so good.  They take Beatles tunes from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Golden Slumbers” and turn them into lysergic folk music.  In particular the array of female vocalists, from Eliza McCarthy to Jackie Oates are entrancing.  Unfortunately, this might be the hardest to get at this time.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

Support Echoes by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Choose either a one time $1000 or on-going $84 Monthly PaymentThink of the great artists you love on Echoes. Think of the informative interviews and exclusive live performances. Then, think of a world without Echoes. You can make sure that never happens by becoming a member of the Echoes Sound Circle.

Echoes is a non-profit 501(c3) organization just like your local public radio station. And all donations are tax deductible. You can support Echoes with a monthly donation that will barely disturb your credit card.

Join the Echoes Sound Circle and keep the soundscapes of Echoes flowing!

Foy-MirrorJoin the Echoes CD of the Month Club. and get  Lyla Foy’s Mirrors the Sky, the April CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR
Pick Up 
TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

LRC19-250pxJoin us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

 

 

Afro Celt Founder Takes Beatles Global

February 10, 2014

Hear the Fresh Handmade Sound Collective live tonight on Echoes

Fresh Handmade Sound Collective on Echoes

Fresh Handmade Sound Collective on Echoes

The name Fresh Handmade Sound Collective probably means nothing to you unless you’ve been to one of the Lush Cosmetic stores or Spas, but you should know the name of Simon Emmerson, a founding member of Afro Celt Sound System, still the defining exponents of 21st century world fusion.  Recently, Emmerson connected with Lush to make Spa music that wasn’t spa music.  sYNAETHESIAGathering a host of English, Indian, Irish and other musicians, including people in his Imagined Village project, he’s created a series of eclectic albums under the Fresh Handmade Sound moniker including the forthcoming A Hard Day’s Night Treatment, which takes Beatles songs from across their career and spins them into dreamy folk and  global improvisations.  We got a trio version of the collective in the Echoes living room with Simon Emmerson on guitar,  sitarist Sheema Mukherjee and keyboardist Simon Richmond.   They rework some Beatles tunes and play some original compositions live tonight on Echoes.  So light some candles, lay down and drift off the the Fresh Handmade Sound Collective tonight on Echoes.

John Diliberto (((echoes)))

TimelinesCDcoverJoin the Echoes CD of the Month Club.  Erik Wøllo’s Timelines is our February CD of the Month.  You’ll get great CDs and help support Echoes at the same time.   You can do it all right here.

OR

Pick Up  TRANSMISSIONS:
THE ECHOES LIVING ROOM CONCERTS VOLUME 19

LRC19-250pxJoin us on Facebook where you’ll get all the Echoes news so you won’t be left behind when Dead Can Dance appear on the show, Tangerine Dream tours or Brian Eno drops a new iPad album. Or Follow us on Twitter@echoesradio.

Now you can go Mobile with Echoes On-Line. Find out how you can listen to Echoes 24/7 wherever you are on your iPhone, iPad or Droid.

buyit


%d bloggers like this: