This week we’re lucky enough to have a guest post from Jacquelyn Brioux, who leads the team at the fantastic music blog, Music That Resonates. In the midst of moving to Canada, Jacquelyn has spent the greater part of the last month preparing her own “Best of” list of her favorite and oft-under-appreciated contemporary artists. So, we hope you enjoy the following post. If you do (and we’re sure you will) make sure you check out Music That Resonates for more of Jacquelyn’s great material and reviews and leave your thanks in our comments!

Top 5 Contemporary Artists You Should Know

by Jacquelyn Brioux

1. HAMMOCK, Nashville TN
Ambient | Post-Rock | Electronic | Shoegaze | Minimalism

How I Discovered Hammock: I first discovered Hammock while working at Prado Café in Vancouver . I took great pride in making fancy looking lattes, but even more pride in playing DJ during my shifts. I would often find myself looking out in the café to see if any customers reacted positively to the songs I chose to play through my iPod during my shifts. In one particular instance, I was playing Stars of the Lid and this customer and I started up a conversation about similar artists. Before he left, he wrote “Hammock” down on a piece of receipt paper and assured me that I would like them. And I did, instantly, as I thought to myself, “how did this band manage to slide under my radar until now? They’re so good!” If you’ve ever taken a look at the What I’m Listening To page on my blog you would have noticed that Hammock is at the top of my listening charts with 481 plays to date.

Why You Should Listen To Hammock: Hammock is soothing, invigorating, energizing and remarkably cathartic to listen to. Their music has been my go-to for everything from break-ups, to relaxing in the bath, to long drives, to concentrated writing, and window gazing while traveling. While they’re comparable to Riceboy Sleeps, Stars of the Lid, Explosions in the Sky, and Robin Guthrie, I’d still offer that no single band’s catalogue is as consistently beautiful and blissful to listen to as Hammock’s. To date, Hammock has released six (6) full-lengths and three (3) EPs. If you’d like to learn more about them, you can check out their website.

Listen
Album: “Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow”

Maybe They Will Sing for Us Tomorrow by hammockmusic

 

2. ANE BRUN, Stockholm SWEDEN
Singer-songwriter | Indie Folk

How I Discovered Ane Brun: A very good friend of mine, with whom I share almost paralleled taste in music, will often send me artist recommendations and about two years ago, Ane Brun was one such recommendation. I typically say that there are two key types of music listeners, three if you combine 1 and 2 – 1) those who primarily focus their attention on sound, instrumentation, and the composition; 2) those who primarily focus their attention on lyrics and songwriting; and 3) those who listen to the whole song as a package with an equal focus on 1 and 2. People who have been around me while music is playing, or who know me well would say that I definitely fall under category 1. However, the first time I heard Ane Brun’s music, my attention was quickly drawn to her lyricism. In my opinion, she is one of the greatest and most poetic female songwriters I’ve ever heard; I couldn’t imagine a world without her songs. What distinguishes her from other talented songwriters is that she has the vocal and musical ability to match her songwriting skills. Ane Brun’s music is incredibly soulful and impressively eloquent. At times it may seem haunting and other times playful, while she seamlessly weaves her words into each note, beat, melody, and hook so that you feel effortlessly connected to her songs.

Why You Should Listen to Ane Brun: Not only is Ane Brun a gifted songwriter, vocalist and musician, and social activist, but she is also music business savvy and leads an inspiring DIY example for today’s emerging artists. Ane Brun has been self-releasing her own music since 2003, initially on the artist collective label DetErMine and subsequently on her own indie record label, Balloon Ranger Records. To date, she has released one (1) EP, six (6) full-length albums, and her latest (highly-anticipated) full-length entitled, It All Starts With One is slated for release this September!

Listen
Song: “Wooden Body”

Song: “Rubber Soul” (Feat. Teitur)

 

3. IN TALL BUILDINGS, Chicago IL
Minimalism | Indie Folk Rock | Experimental

How I Discovered In Tall Buildings: To preface – I live in Canada and licensing constraints place a limit on access to the gamut of music subscription and personalized internet radio services available. Fortunately, residents of Canada can access the services of Last.fm and in 2009 I created an account. Since then, it has become my primary source for custom internet radio, with over 43,500 songs scrobbled. One day, while at work and listening to a Last.fm radio station, The Way To A Monster’s Lair by In Tall Buildings came on and it railroaded my attention, so I immediately switched screens to check the Last.fm window to learn who this was. To my delight, I discovered that it was the new solo project from Erik Hall, member of NOMO, His Name Is Alive, and Saturday Looks Good To Me, all of whom I was already familiar with and greatly enjoyed.

Why You Should Listen To In Tall Buildings: Because I think he’s going to rise to indie fame like Sharon Van Etten did this past year, and more so, because he’s ridiculously talented and refreshingly down-to-earth. As a multi-instrumentalist, Erik Hall (a.k.a. In Tall Buildings) plays electric guitar and percussion in NOMO, bass in His Name Is Alive, and drums in Saturday Looks Good To Me. For his debut album, In Tall Buildings, Erik wrote every song, performed every instrument and produced the entire album himself. To take all of this on and to craft such a sonically intoxicating and affecting debut album is a feat worth praising and a joy to indulge your ears in.

Listen
Album: “In Tall Buildings”

In Tall Buildings by In Tall Buildings

 

4. ZOË KEATING, San Francisco CA
Avant-Garde | Experimental | Classical

How I Discovered Zoe Keating: It should come as no surprise that a number of my close friends share a similar passion for music. A few years ago, I informally started up an evening of music listening with two of my friends from Spain who were living in Vancouver at the time. We coined the evening, ‘musiskey’ and it generally involves dimming the lights, sipping whiskey and taking turns playing music while intently listening. During one of these evenings, the song Fern by Zoe Keating was played and that started my active interest in her music and career.

Why You Should Listen To Zoe Keating: She composes and performs music with a cello (for starters) and her music is intricate and intoxicating to listen to. Her performances are beautiful and fascinating to watch and her music is warmly textured, evocative, and often relaxing. Liken to Ane Brun when it comes to remarkable leaders of the DIY movement in music, Zoe Keating has woven ingenuity, flexibility, allure, and marketability into her career as a performing and recording artist. Whenever an artist asks me for advice on how to become more successful with their music career, I often reference Zoe Keating. What is it about Zoe Keating that warrants this reference? Well, she has a few things already going for her: she composes instrumental ‘avant-cello’ music, which is widely marketable to a variety of age groups around the world; she resides in San Francisco – proximate to the Silicon Valley – and composes music using a cello, foot-controlled laptop, and three different software programs, so she is an attractive performer at live events and conferences for nearby tech companies like Intel, IBM, and Apple; she has the chops to compose uniquely beautiful original scores for film, theatre, and dance; she has over 1,300,000 followers on Twitter; and she has demonstrated her music business savvy in selling over 35,000 copies of her self-released albums.

Listen
Song: “Optimist” Optimist by zoekeating

5. HAUSCHKA, Düsseldorf, GERMANY
Avant-Garde | Electronic | Modern Classical

How I Discovered Hauschka: Over the last few years, Hauschka (the alias of pianist/composer Volker Bertelmann) has come up in conversation once or twice by friends who have recommended that I check out his music. I’ve also heard his compositions a fair amount on various Last.fm stations that I’ve listened to based on the music of John Cage and Erik Satie. And while I’ve always enjoyed his music, it never really pulled at me until this past April, when I went to see him perform live at the Media Club in Vancouver. It was there, in this intimate venue where I was able to witness the awe-filling creativity that went into his ‘prepared piano’* and the skill that he demonstrated while playing it, that I had a renewed appreciation for his music and compositional style.

* The prepared piano has been described as “a playfully disruptive intervention into the preconceived idea of the piano and a pure-toned, perfected instrument waiting for a gifted virtuoso to play on it.”

Why You Should Listen To Hauschka: If you enjoy avant-garde music, Hauschka is required listening. He’s a musical genius, and if you ever have the opportunity to see him perform live it’s an absolute must! His music is imaginative, inspiring and evocative, his performance is captivating to watch, and he’s warmly conversational and engaging between songs. Each of Hauschka’s nine releases center on the prepared piano and range from solo piano, to orchestral compositions, and prepared piano dance tracks. His latest FatCat release, Salon Des Amateurs is an exciting departure from his previous work, as he continues to expand the potential of the prepared piano by creating techno and house music in collaboration with Múm drummer, Samuli Kosminen and Calexico drummer, John Convertino. I was fortunate enough to catch a live performance of songs from this album by Hauschka and Samuli Kosminen in April. I’ve included a couple selections from this release and a few of his previous releases below, enjoy!

Listen
Song: “Girls”

Hauschka – Girls by user2183934

Song: “Radar”

hauschka – radar by Folk Radio UK

Song: “Alexanderplatz”

Hauschka – Alexanderplatz by Hauschkamusic

Song: “Freibad” (Follow the link to listen to this track.)