Weekend Music Video

In case you wondered (like me) who is doing that awesome tune used in the M$-IE-TV-ad: It’s ALEX CLARE with “TOO CLOSE”.

Weekend Music

This one is so crisp and up-to-date it’s not even available yet in the non-virtual world: Santigold‘s new album “Master of My Make-Believe” will be out 23rd April (UK) / May 1st (US).

Seems the beancounters can’t find a proper box for this one in their desperate attempts to classify it, whether it’s retro dub, Neo Wave, hip-hop, drum’n’base or alternative – whatever, I don’t care as long as it sounds great and soothes my ears. Nice baseline – Yep, pump up the volume and enjoy!

Just in time I found this review “Network Science Reveals The Cities That Lead The World’s Music Listening Habits” on technologyreview.com via Social Foraging (“Dynamics of Social Interaction”, curated by Ashish Umre).

The evidence that ideas and fashions spread through society like viruses or like wildfire is compelling. Numerous studies have examined the networks in which this spread takes place and with increasingly large data sets to work with, researchers have become increasingly confident in their network-centric view of the world. These tools are teasing apart the large scale behaviour of humanity in ever increasing resolution.

The original article “The Geographic Flow of Music” by Conrad Lee and Pádraig Cunningham is available on arXiv:1204.2677v1.

Biophilia

Biophilia is an extraordinary and innovative multimedia exploration of music, nature and technology by the musician Björk. Comprising a suite of original music and interactive, educational artworks and musical artifacts, Biophilia is released as ten in-app experiences that are accessed as you fly through a three-dimensional galaxy

I still haven’t downloaded and checked out the app myself in detail, the price-tag is a bit hefty for my taste. So far I have never spend over 10 bucks on a single app, and personally find it very hard to digest more than 2 Björk-songs in a row. OK, my ears aren’t bleeding, and in this case my eyes are very much tempted by the visuals. Biophilia contains several subsections (in-apps), so one could argue it’s more than just a single app, comparable to an entire (concept?-)album. On the app-store reviews there’s some criticism of the pricing-policy, however content-wise one reviewer goes as far as claiming that “we will eventually see Biophilia as the Sergeant Peppers of music apps“. A steep claim indeed to liken it to the fab four… but even though the music is not exactly my cup of tea, I am thrilled by the unique combination of contemporary art, science and technology.

As for the scientific content, the spring 2012 issue of the quarterly newsletter published by the Research Collaboratory for Structural Bioinformatics Protein Data Bank (RCSB-PDB for short) features a snapshot of the video for Björk’s title “hollow”:

To accompany the song “Hollow,” Björk’s meditation on biological ancestry, [Biomedical animator Drew] Berry
created a lush landscape for DNA to replicate (and sparkle) to the music. Molecular
machines work at real-time speed, culminating in the appearance of Björk as a complex
protein structure. Many of the molecular shapes, illustrated with great depth and rich
color, were created with the help of crystal structure data from the PDB.

More of these stunning, educational and award-winning 3D animations by Drew Berry and his colleagues are available on WEHI.TV at the Walter+Elisabeth Hall Institute of Medical Research. Enjoy!

Weekend Music Video

After 25 years a remake / cover of this great piece was almost overdue, aptly done by Florence and the Machine.

HapPi π-day!

March the 14th (3/14) is Pi Day – a holiday commemorating the mathematical constant π (pi).

There are a number of matching accessories for geeks and nerds around, for example on the official Pi-Day page or in this collection on mashable.com.

It’s also happens to be Albert Einstein‘s birthday. Plenty of reasons to celebrate – for example by watching the video below and eating some (round) pies. Have fun!

Weekend music video

Five people singing and playing one single guitar –

YearEnd Music Video

As the year draws to an end and me sitting jetlagged in Seoul, my circadian rhythm is totaly out of sync. So you might agree that Insomnia is matching the mood of the day. To get me going, here comes the Popolski family (claiming that their granddad Piotr invented all of pop) with the hardest, hottest and famousest piece of “polka” ever

… or “the song of when grandpa could not find no sleep at all” performed together with David Garrett: