Speaking of small seasons, winter descended on Europe in a flash, and it’s been freezing for the last ten days straight. It’s my favourite part of the winter: the air is crisp, the days are as bright as the nights are dark, there’s not a cloud on the horizon, and the colours are magnificent. I do miss the snow, though.
Apps
Color Palette Pro. Like Bastian Allgeier said, it kinda looks like Teenage Engineering’s take on a colour palette generator. The waveform pots are such a good affordance for different styles!
Links
Here are some links one (really important) link for your consideration:
- “I looked into CoreWeave and the abyss gazed back” by Elizabeth Lopatto
Music
Salif Keïta. For 50 years, Salif Keïta resisted the idea of recording an acoustic album. Now, at 76, he’s finally done it — and it’s a damn shame he waited so long. He might be 76, but he still has full control of his voice, which can go from whisper-soft to scream-loud in the space of a few words. That’s why i absolutely wanted to see him again in concert, and was more than a bit concerned when the original date was rescheduled. Fortunately, the Mandinka poet is still alive and well. Tiere Daou Amadou is the most discreet member of the band, half-hidden behind his calabash, but he’s the one driving the song through sheer percussive force. Makan Badjé Tounkara plays the amplified n’goni in a bluesy vein that’s almost reminiscent of the British revival of the early ’60s. I could have done without Guimba Kouyaté’s antics: he’s a better hype man than guitarist, and ends up being a bit ridiculous at both.
Lux by Rosalía. I didn’t dislike Motomami, but i felt that reggaeton was a waste of Rosalía’s vocal abilities. Lux isn’t a return to form — it’s even better than that. Rosalía ditched the “new flamenco” of Los Ángeles and El mal querer in favour of some sort of “art pop”. Inspired by the lives of various female saints, Lux is an 18-track, 14-language, 85-people, 10-studio epic. Recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and a few choirs, it’s divided into four movements and leans heavily on classical orchestration. It isn’t classical music, obviously, but it isn’t pop either. It’s a wonderful piece of music, which is a feat by itself in a world that’s often content with noise. Memória, a duet with the wonderful fado singer Carminho, is in-cre-di-ble.
Vanessa Wagner. A morning concert is a rare thing; a morning concert where a pianist plays for 90 minutes without a single pause, an even rarer one. And it was great: because (1) it avoided the distracting applause and noise in between pieces, (2) it forced everyone to listen that much more intently, and (3) who knew that Bach’s preludes and Glass’s studies meshed so well together? Easily one of the best concerts i’ve attended this decade.