Luis Enriquez Bacalov - Bicycle (Bicicletta)

Artist: Luis Enriquez Bacalov

Song: Bicycle (Bicicletta)

Album: The Postman – Original Soundtrack (1995)

The Postman is the soundtrack of the 1994 Academy Award-winning film The Postman (original title: Il Postino). The original score was composed by Luis Enríquez Bacalov.

The album won the Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score and the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music.

Romantic, charming, yet simple and poignant is the main theme from the Postman. As if that weren't beautiful enough, it is also recorded in various arrangements (harpsichord and string, for one, anda guitar and bandoneon versio). All are delightful!

What was also a pleasant surprise was the poetry recitals on the CD (these were not actually in the movie). I found myself repeatedly listening to Morning by Sting and to Poetry by Miranda Richardson. Much of the music is accompanied by the beautiful themes of the movie, too. Perhaps the greatest consequence of the CD was that it led me to Neruda's Poetry (love sonnets, odes). The poetry on the disc is just the surface. Did you know Neruda won the Nobel Prize for his beautiful poetry in 1971?

Musically and poetically, this CD is a must-have.

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the movie

Taggart - Heavy Pedal

Artist: Taggart

Song: Heavy Pedal

Album: Parts of My Bicycle Are Made of Chrome (2002)

This quartet has some quality songs, but the style seems to run the gamut, from straightforward emocore pop in the vein of Jimmy Eat World to an underlying punk attitude on many numbers. "Lifeboat" as well as "Chelsea" have some Rancid overtones to them in their confrontational delivery of them. "Empty Introduction" is indicative of the cumbersome problems that rear their small but ugly head, a nice introduction which switches instantly into a nu metal configuration. When the band does find their mark, it's a very positive result, with the rock of "Bufferless" infectious in its tone and gentleness. Inspired by some rock deities, the group tends to get much tighter musically and lyrically as the album progresses. "California" and "Rotten Life" give a shot in the sonic arm, while "Everything Pales" makes everything else within pale by comparison. The group delves into many areas, but a decent if not entirely remarkable recording is the end result. ~ Jason MacNeil, All Music Guide All Music Guide

Taggart is a tremendous rock and roll outfit from the depths of Philadelphia. Taggart's swaggering debut is a melodic mixture of emo, garage, punk, and alternative that's just one hit song away from a commercial breakthrough. Poignant, rowdy, melancholy, and reckless

Cécile Schott (Colleen) - Bicycle Bells

Artist: Cécile Schott (Colleen)

Song: Bicycle Bells

Album: Colleen et les Boîtes à Musique (EP 2006)

Cécile Schott, from France, made her debut as Colleen with 2003's Everyone Alive Wants Answers. Released in 2003 on England's Leaf label, its dreamy and ambient but melodic material was based around heavily treated samples from her record collection. The album's reception led to performances, but she found herself uninterested in relying strictly on a laptop, so she incorporated instruments and effects, in addition to loops. As a result, 2005's The Golden Morning Breaks took on an organic sound relative to her debut, with several acoustic instruments (including guitars, old pianos, mallets, and even toy instruments) treated by effects. Her third proper album, 2007's Les Ondes Silencieuses, was preceded by an entry in the Staalplaat label's live series Mort aux Vaches, as well as the EP Colleen et les Boîtes à Musique (which was made with music boxes).

…is a generous EP (nearly 40 minutes) containing 13 pieces. Cécile Schott (aka Colleen) was commissioned to create for a special broadcast by the French government's Radiophonic Workshop, with the addition of "I'll Read You a Story," reprised from her 2005 album The Golden Morning Breaks. As the title implies (translation: Colleen and the music boxes), every one of these pieces apart from the languorous "Story" (which also features classical guitar) was made exclusively using music boxes, and it is likely as thorough an exploration of the possibilities of that instrument as has ever been conducted. Although the sonic palette is necessarily rather limited (Schott does expand it somewhat via electronic recording techniques), the range of moods and qualities she manages to evoke with it is impressively broad, encompassing the bleary, distended melancholy of "The Sad Panther," the jokey, scrappy "Charles's Birthday Card" and "A Bear Is Trapped" (shambolic reworkings of, respectively, "Rockabye Baby" and "Pop Goes the Weasel"), and the pure susurrating sweetness of the two-part "What Is a Componium?" (incidentally, it's a music box that allows you to create your own tunes using punch cards). As a whole, the record is both a marvelously inventive compositional project and a delightful, delicate, and enchanting collection of music, certainly among the loveliest offerings in Colleen's

Various Artists - White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960's

Artist: Various Artists

Album: White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960’s – The Joe Boyd Story (2006)

Boyd Produced and was Instrumental in Creating Some of the Most Important Recordings of the 1960s (As Well as the '70s and '80s). He is Best Known for his Work with English Folk Musicians, Having Shaped the Early Sounds of Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band, Fotheringay, John Martyn and Nick Drake. But He also Provided the Base of the Early Sounds of Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, Soft Machine, Nico, Geoff and Maria Muldaur and Shirley Collins. This Collection Brings You Some of Boyd's Exemplary Pieces from the 1960's by the Aforementioned Artists and Many More. Also Featured Are Two Previously Unreleased Tracks from Boyd's Archive by the New Nadir and Dudu Pukwana and Spear. Discover the Modern Glory Days of Making Records in a Period When Musicians Could Share their Musical Abilities with a Master Sound Auteur, Resulting in Recordings that Remain Fresh and Transcend Time.

This CD is basically a companion piece to Joe Boyd's book of the same name containing key selections of the bands he produced / managed. Joe Boyd was an American who helped shape the careers of Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band, Pink Floyd and others by being a great producer and even greater manger with enough understanding about the music biz and the musicians under his Witchseason Productions company. I could go on but if your interested into what was happening in swinging London during the mid to late 60's than get this along with Boyd's book and you can have fun with a "six-degrees-of-separation" involving key players in the music business of the 1960's.

the book

the book 2

Carrie Rodriguez - Seven Angels on a Bicycle

Artist: Carrie Rodriguez

Album: Seven Angels on a Bicycle (2006)

The Associated Press raved, "...her voice has a character few achieve. Rather than a support player taking a minor turn, she uses her first solo album to mark her ground as a singular talent.

(…) Although this is officially singer/fiddler Carrie Rodriguez's solo debut, her musical mentor Chip Taylor--with whom she has recorded three previous discs of duets--is an integral ingredient. Taylor wrote or co-wrote all but one track and is also the album's producer. With Seven Angels on a Bicycle, the partnership that worked so well on Red Dog Tracks, The Trouble With Humans, and Let's Leave This Town has yielded another winner. The songs shift between folk, country, and even jazz, the latter aided by the amazing Bill Frisell, whose delicate, restrained textures and effects create an introspective mood as much as Rodriguez's lovely, sensitive voice. Much of this atmospheric release floats by with barely-there percussion, haunting tunes, and a languid yet exquisite sense of subtlety rare in contemporary music. Rodriguez goes into hoedown mode only once--on the frisky "Never Going to Be Your Bride"--but her fiddle colors these songs in muted shades that perfectly enhance their emotional concerns. She's a stirring singer--somewhat like Suzanne Vega--whose vocal innocence in tracks like "This Kiss" provides a perfect counterpoint for lyrics predominantly concerned with lost love and lovers. This is a stark, beautiful set of pensive songs that results in a low-key jewel of an album made for listening, not dancing. The talented Rodriguez needs no further proof that she is very much ready for prime time. --Hal Horowitz

Marian McPartland - Hide and Seek with the Bombay Bicycle Club

Artist: Marian McPartland

Song: Hide and Seek With the Bombay Bicycle Club

Album: Ambiance (1995)

Marian McPartland has become famous for hosting her Piano Jazz radio program since 1978, but she was a well-respected pianist decades before. She played in a four-piano vaudeville act in England and performed on the European continent for the troops during World War II. In Belgium in 1944, she met cornetist Jimmy McPartland and they soon married. Marian moved with her husband to the United States in 1946, where she sometimes played with him even though her style was more modern than his Dixieland-oriented groups. McPartland eventually had her own trio at the Embers (1950) and the Hickory House… Read more

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Todd Walton - I Steal My Bicycle

Artist: Todd Walton

Song: I Steal My Bicycle

Album: I Steal My Bicycle and Other Stories (2003)

genre: spoken

Dramatic, humorous readings of three great short stories interspersed with lovely guitar and violin duets. STEAL MY BICYCLE features three of Todd's most requested short stories. I Steal My Bicycle is a poignant narrative told by a man whose search for his stolen bicycle turns into a fascinating journey of self-healing and forgiveness. The Dreidel In Rudolph's Manger is a hilarious tale of the clash and harmony of Christmas and Hanukkah. And Of Water and Melons is a classic parable of hope and love set during the Great Depression.

Todd has published five highly acclaimed novels, among them Inside Moves which was made into a motion picture of the same name. He is also the author of The Writer's Path and Open Body: Creating Your Own Yoga. And he has just published a beautiful case bound edition of BUDDHA IN A TEACUP—forty-two contemporary dharma stories.

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