Hi everyone and happy Sunday! We hope you are all having a relaxing and musical day. Today’s topic is about discovering music (from any time period)! How do you search for songs? How often do you do so? Do you categorize your songs into particular playlists? There are so many ways to find new (or old) music and so we decided to share with you a few songs that we, on the music bubble team, have recently discovered, how we found them, and what they mean to us!
Sofie:
I’ve recently gotten into folk music and made a playlist of it on my Spotify account, called “winter, vol. 2” (I don’t know how I come up with my playlist names but please bear with me). Ok, so a lot of it was Taylor Swift at first - folklore and evermore are sooooo good!!!! - but I wanted to discover more music by different folk artists! I started checking out the folk music playlists that Spotify has created and on one of them I discovered “Sunflower, Vol.6” by Molly Tuttle (already a good start with the volume number and its relation to my own playlist hehe). Usually it takes a few listens for me to actually like a song but I was in love with “Sunflower, Vol. 6” as soon as I heard it. I love songs that build in intensity which this one does extremely well. And it’s not just Tuttle’s guitar work that is impressive (which it is!!), but the percussion also stands out. Technically, I guess the song is more Bluegrass than Folk, but hey, genre is so fluid, we must take these labels with a grain of salt.
Another song I’ve discovered recently, and added to my “winter, vol. 2” playlist, is “Astral Plane” by Valerie June. I had gone down a very deep rabbit hole looking for music on Spotify, but I do remember that I was checking out the music of Rhiannon Giddens (also a very amazing artist) and Valerie June appeared on the “listeners also listened to” tab on the side of the screen. Anyway, I was struck by her voice and her vocal style, which uses a lot of note bending. “Astral Plane” is sweet and one of those songs that feels so good to sing along or hum to. It’s a mix of folk and bluegrass as well.
If you like folk, bluegrass, and soul, I recommend checking these songs out!
Kelsey:
One of my friends is doing his doctoral research on Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951), who is a Russian composer I had never heard of before. My friend shared with me that Medtner was a virtuosic pianist and composer, as well as a role model to great Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff! He is often regarded as a conservative composer, who (very interestingly) did not necessarily adopt the typical Russian Nationalist compositional trends in composition, such as incorporating Russian folk music and whole tone/octatonic scales. He has cited Beethoven as a main inspiration of his, suggesting that his musical style is related to the German early romantic tradition. As a virtuosic pianist, his entire output includes the piano in some way: he has written over 100 art songs (voice and piano), as well as several piano sonatas (solo piano) and a few piano concertos (piano and orchestra). If you’re interested in learning more about this composer, check out this link. You can find recordings of this piece on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music.
“Get Sun” by Hiatus Kaiyote, Feat. Arthur Verocai:
The group Hiatus Kaiyote was recommended to me by a friend last summer and I have been absolutely hooked ever since! They’re an Australian band classified as jazz-funk and they have some very danceable, groovy music. They do a lot of really cool things with rhythm and haven’t released a new song as a group since their 2015 album called Choose Your Weapon (which is really great - go check it out!). Most of my music recommendations come from friends and this song is no exception! It features Brazilian composer and arranger Arthur Verocai, who added horn and string parts to the track. Learn more about Hiatus Kaiyote and this song here and get pumped for their new album coming out in late June! You can listen to "Get Sun" on YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify.
Which new/old songs/pieces have you discovered recently? Feel free to comment below!
We hope you all have an amazing week and remember to stay safe, musical, and bubbly, friends!
-The Music Bubble Team
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