Lo’Jo has won Best Group in the Songlines Magazine Music Awards, for Cinema el Mundo!
“Sounding as fresh and intriguing as ever after their 30 years together, the French collective’s tenth album offers the usual enticing global pick’n’mix of musical influences and styles. The great Robert Wyatt is among the guests supporting the enigmatic poetry and singing of Denis Péan and the thrilling voices of the el Mourid sisters.”
Ravi Shankar’s GRAMMY-winning Living Room Sessions Part 1 on East Meets West Music through Harmonia Mundi Distribution is up for the Songlines Magazine Best Artist Award!
From World Village, Lo’Jo is nominated for Best Group with Cinema el Mundo and Emel Mathlouthi is up for Best Newcomer with Kelmti Horra!
The enigmatic Lo’Jo tours the UK in May! See their schedule here.
Their latest albumCinema el Mundo is on iTunes.
Songlines Music Awards nominees for 2013 include Ravi Shankar for Best Artist, Lo’Jo for Best Group, and Emel Mathlouthi for Best Newcomer! The winners are announced in June.
(via Lo’Jo CD review in DooBeeDooBeeDoo » DooBeeDooBeeDoo NY)
“…The production is fascinating. The way the vocals were mixed is particularly creative. They often place the female vocalists in a distant background, without diminishing their presence or impact. Pean’s vocals are very prominent in the mix; standing at the forefront, like the singer himself leaning close and quietly speaking to you…
The songs are quite imaginatively composed. Each one has its own character; yet they all blend well into a cohesive whole; rather like chapters in a book – or scenes in a movie. The musicianship among the band is flawless…
Cinema el Mundo is one of those CDs that is best listened to at night; preferably in the company of friends and loved ones. The overall feel of Lo Jo’s music is that of being invited into the inner circle of a distant culture, and experiencing firsthand the lives of others, and delighting in the contrast between that which is unfamiliar, and that which you recognize as your own.”
![(via Terakaft | Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center | International | Chicago Reader)
“Mesmerizing north African guitar band Terakaft named their fourth and best record, Kel Tamasheq [on iTunes]…Adams has brought a new clarity to the cycling guitar licks and stabs, clopping percussion, and syncopated hand claps, and he joins some folks from Maghreb-influenced French band Lo’Jo to contribute extra guitar and background vocals. But that’s not to say the four members of Terakaft need help—they’re a seasoned unit, driving their arid grooves and nasal incantations with an implacable sense of purpose.”
When: Tue., March 12, 6:30 p.m.
Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center
78 E. Washington St. Loop
312-744-6630](http://25.media.tumblr.com/171006f514b88b7d28dfee1790e7aaa1/tumblr_mj5ih0vUOy1qlwm53o1_250.jpg)
(via Terakaft | Preston Bradley Hall, Chicago Cultural Center | International | Chicago Reader)
“Mesmerizing north African guitar band Terakaft named their fourth and best record, Kel Tamasheq [on iTunes]…Adams has brought a new clarity to the cycling guitar licks and stabs, clopping percussion, and syncopated hand claps, and he joins some folks from Maghreb-influenced French band Lo’Jo to contribute extra guitar and background vocals. But that’s not to say the four members of Terakaft need help—they’re a seasoned unit, driving their arid grooves and nasal incantations with an implacable sense of purpose.”
When: Tue., March 12, 6:30 p.m.
312-744-6630
(via World Music Pick - The Cinematic Sounds Of Lo’Jo | TPR)
“Celebrating thirty years of performing, Lo’Jo, the French group from Angers, have released their thirteenth album. The title of the album says it all ‘Cinema El Mundo’, and the music unfolds as in a film.
It starts out with the aptly named “At The Beginning” and brings us along on a journey which incorporates music from North Africa. Vocals from the iconic English singer Robert Wyatt are added, and no Lo’Jo album would be complete without the El Mourid sisters…”
(via Concert Fip : Lo’Jo et Le Cabaret Contemporain - Site Fip)
Crank the (low) volume and enjoy Lo’Jo live a Fip!
You can also stream Lo’Jo’s GlobalFest performance on WNYC! Lots of great music online today.
“The French group Lo’Jo is something of a throwback: For 30 years, it’s made world music best described as “worldbeat,” a melange of a little of this (French chanson) and a little of that (dollops of North and West African colors and textures) within a musical community that tends to prize strongly rooted tradition. With Denis Péan’s gravelly vocals complemented by the Berber singing sisters Yamina and Nadia Nid El Mourid, the band circumnavigates the globe — often within the confines of a single song.”
Iranian kamancheh (spike fiddle) player Kayhan Kalhor is a master of Persian classical music. This is not an easy thing to be. NPR’s Anastasia Tsioulcas suggests that to get an understanding of what mastery actually means in this case, “Imagine a framework that combines the technical demands and intellectual structures of both Western classical music and jazz, and you’ll start to get some sense of Persian music.” Now, picture the very best of all of that, and you’ll get some idea of Kalhor’s talent and skill. And this is his finest work yet. Performed entirely on the shah kaman, a new variety of spike fiddle designed just for Kalhor, with a lower tone and deeper resonance than the classic kamancheh, and featuring a single collaborator, bass santour (hammered dulcimer) player Ali Bahrami Fard, I Will Not Stand Alone is an extraordinary and groundbreaking work of art performed by an extraordinary and groundbreaking artist.
This concept album, which follows the arc of a film and presents each song as a scene, marks French global folk-pop group Lo’Jo’s 20th anniversary. They’ve done a lot since then, exploring and breaking down most every world music boundary you can think of. Cinema el Mundo is an enticing exploration of some of the better things they’ve found, with a few new stopovers as well, but even with international influences as varied as gnawa and desert blues and Balkan brass and vintage film music and all manner of other things from around the globe, the result is something that is ultimately French, in the classical and romantic sense, but in the modern multicultural sense as well.
