Music, music, music...

Quite a productive week. Although, all the new songs for my new album are completed there are some unfinished songs that Mark & I thought we would finish too. Well… when a song doesn’t want to be written there is nothing you can do !! An enticing melody is indifferent to feeble lyrics no matter how enthusiastically you try to sing them, and a predictable middle eight cannot be made more interesting by the amount of times you say,"Oh, that will be interesting once we add…" It never is. Thankfully, we had also set aside time to record some new podcasts. Martin Winning, who plays clarinet & saxophone, came by and joined us on these recordings too, a real pleasure since he is both a lovely player and a very entertaining story teller. I will post those podcasts soon, and hopefully I will soon wake up with the solution to those unfinished songs! love, tt.

ps : the photo that illustrates this post is totally irrelevant but I really like it ! It's called noodles ! Photo courtesy of Sylvie Bardet [link]

Sister Rosetta Tharpe : Up Above My Head

I've been in a real guitar mood recently so this week's wake up song features the legendary guitarist and singer-songwriter Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Blending Rock n'Roll and gospel she influenced many, many artists not least Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Aretha Franklin ! Her playing is wonderful and the age of the clip makes the guitar sound even better ! Love tt

Sungha Jung

I was delighted by this version of "Twist in My Sobriety" played by young Guitarist Sungha Jung. I’m a bit jealous too, he plays it much better than me and I wrote it !! Love tt

DVA - France trance

This video by DVA really made me smile. The band are new to me (even though the video is from 2008) all I know about them is what I have read on their myspace page [link]. They are from the Czech Republic & have also played live music accompaniment to the classic silent film "Dr.Caligari" which makes sense once you hear the music ! Love tt.

Charlotte Mendelson / Writer

The first person to take the TT test this year is Charlotte Mendelson [link], a writer whose novels have garnered so much praise it’s almost embarrassing ! Her second novel "Daughters of Jerusalem" was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize & Somerset Maugham Award and her third, "When We Were Bad" was short listed for the Orange Broadband Prize for fiction. She has written for the Guardian, TLS, and Independent among other publications, is an editor at Headline Review and I have heard a rumour that she also plays the French horn ! I’m very happy that she is taking part in the TT test ! What is your wake up song at the moment ? "Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler. I am obsessed with it. In fact I have a friction burn from dancing to it on Christmas day and then sliding across the floor dramatically at the climax. Maybe I love it TOO much. Which work of art or single event has most influenced you in your chosen profession ? Difficult to say; I've always read and so many books have helped me to become a writer; I could name a hundred. But I do remember that when we read "The Dragon Book of Verse" at school my brain fizzed with excitement at what words can do and that feeling has never left me. If you could travel back in time, which period would you most like to visit and why ? I've always thought the eighteenth century had a certain sexy charm, but as I wouldn't have been an English duchess with a complicated love life but a poor cross peasant starving to death in Central Europe, I'd better choose Paris in the 1920s... any Friday night at 20, rue Jacob. I love eating out and discovering new restaurants, can you please recommend one to me ? Jin Kichi in Hampstead for fantastic Japanese [link] - try the pork and shiso skewers. What is the best advice you ever been given relating to your professional/creative life ? Craig Raine, poet/novelist/critic, told me to stop worrying about inspiration or subject-matter or Being A Writer and just... write. He was right. BONUS QUESTION : You are quoted in an interview with the Guardian as saying "I do think that choosing a life that makes you happy takes bravery. It takes a lot of courage if you're a person who cares at all", I find this really intriguing, can you tell us a bit more about what you mean ? I was talking about trying to be as fulfilled and as happy as possible, rather than accepting the life that society, or family, think you ought to live. This particularly applies, at least for me, to writing and to love; I could have been an academic or a lawyer, and married a man, and made everyone happy - except me. Choosing a more uncomfortable, complicated life took much more courage, which I didn't even know I had but has been the making of me

Charvela Vargas: Volver,Volver

My wake up song this week is a voice and a song that can easily thaw this freezing weather ! The song is "Volver,Volver" sung by the amazing Charvela vargas. A woman whose life is like a movie: in her youth she dressed like a man, lived hard (alcohol, guns & cigars), had many passionate love stories (including Frida Kahlo), endured a time in the wilderness where she managed to beat alcoholism and then a triumphant return in the early 90s embraced by such artists as Almodovar, in fact you can hear her music in some of his films. When asked if she had any regrets after living a life that must have at times been very difficult she answered, “I was me and I lived.” Well, you can’t argue with that. Hope you enjoy this wonderful performance, lots of love tt

Podcast 8

Podcast 8 has been added !! If you haven't already just sign up to the mailing list to gain access to the Attic to listen to the podcast. Hope you enjoy, lot's of love, tt

Lhasa de Sela

Very sad to hear that Lhasa de Sela has passed away. She had such a rich musical universe and beautiful voice. She will be greatly missed. Love tt

Happy New Year !

Happy New Year and a belated Merry Christmas !! I have been away in a very rainy Southern Spain - developing a real weakness for Seville which manages to be both lively and cosy. I'm also impressed by the amount of live music you hear walking around the streets and how many people I saw carrying guitars ! Anyway, I wish everyone a New Year full of wonder and excitement. As for my new year all my new songs are finished it's just a question of recording them and I hope to have more news about that soon, lots of love tt

Photos (c) Sylvie Bardet

Carmen Herrera

Just read this great article from the NYT about the Cuban artist Carmen Herrera [link]. Her story is so inspiring and work so beautiful if you have a moment it is worth checking out and don't forget the slide show ! The above painting is called "Red with white Triangle" (1961). Lots of love, tt

Racha Rizk. Mreyte Ya Mreyte

I have to thank Peeping Tallulah for my choice of wake up song this week, as I had never heard it before she mentioned it in the TT test. The song "Myrete Ya Myrete" sung by Racha Rizk and written by Khaled Mouzanar for the film "Caramel" is truly gorgeous and sensual. I hope you enjoy discovering it as much as me ! Love tt

Peeping Tallulah / Photographer

This week the TT test is taken by the intriguing photographer Peeping Tallulah. In her own words, she plays on the theme of the subservient fear of female eroticism. Taking photographs in public and private spaces, Peeps (as she is affectionately known by her muses) illustrates and annotates a very adult world of submission and domination. Even though this is a world I’m not ordinarily drawn to, I find her work to be challenging and refreshing and her answers to the TT test very interesting !! What is your wake up song at the moment ? I’m totally obsessed with a Middle eastern feel at the moment... And so the song, "Mreyte Ya Mreyte" from the film "Caramel" is what I look forward to in the morning, preferably with a strong coffee and cigarette... Which work of art or single event has most influenced you in your chosen profession ? Of all the art stuff that’s gone in, none really stand out as pinnacle moments. I loved Dali as a child, religious icons, Bacon as I got a little older. And then all the usual, I suppose the Sensation exhibition opened my eyes to something knew. In truth though... I think the biggest influence was my last lover... who taught me something about the darker side of love. If you could travel back in time, which period would you most like to visit and why ? Probably a time where very pale skin, plump bosom and a tiny waste was the fashion... maybe Victorian, but only if I was stinking rich… I've always been intrigued with Neanderthals, so maybe cave man times would suit me best. I love eating out and discovering new restaurants, can you please recommend one to me ? My house... I know its not quite a restaurant, but I can recommend it. Or... if your are ever in Columbia Road market, there's a very sweet coffee shop on Hackney Road. Coffee is superb and they make perfect sandwiches and cakes, "Taste of Bitter Love" [link]. What is the best advice you ever been given relating to your professional/creative life ? "If you think it’s a good thing for you... then do it.” Bonus question: I have 2 questions really: When you first started photographing this night time universe were you looking for something transgressive to document or did you always feel like an insider and were actually telling your story ? I found something like home in the alternative scene in London. It seemed entirely natural to photograph it. Many of the people you photograph are playing roles or living out fantasies that they may not be able to in their daily lives so how do they feel about being photographed knowing that the photos may well end up being published or exhibited to a wider audience or even family and friends ?! To be entirely honest... I'm not sure how they feel about it. I think they like it... being admired, desired... wanted and shared. I only work with people who want it... and feel that its good for them, and then it becomes a shared moment. After that, my work belongs to everyone who wants to see it.

T.TV page

The T.TV page [link] is now online. You can see many of the old videos on this page and hopefully in the new year footage following the making of the next album ; ) love, tt.

Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin : 69 Annee Erotique

My wake up song this week is Serge Gainsbourg’s ’69 Annee Erotique’ featuring Jane Birkin. Perhaps, with this wintry weather I am looking for a little sunshine and as soon I hear the first bars of this song I picture myself driving along the Mediterranean coast in an open-topped car wearing dark glasses. This is really fantastic because I don’t have a car, I'd be completely neurotic about too much exposure to the sun and I hate wearing sun glasses ! Anyway, the following clip, is classic, Gainsbourg manages to sing and smoke (where is he flicking the ash ?!) and Jane Birkin looks beautiful and completely natural lying across a piano... ah, the 60s... early 70s... whatever !… love tt

Langhorne Slim

A really fun night. Over the weekend I was surfing on Spotify and heard this wonderful singer-songwriter called Langhorne Slim [link]. His new album ‘Be Set Free’ is so good, in fact I haven’t enjoyed an album like this for a long time. I then find out he is playing a gig in my town (London) on the Tuesday. Can you imagine ?! And he is playing in a funky little bar where the sound is better if you stand behind the monitors. So that’s where I stood all evening listening to Langhorne Slim and his raucous and energizing band always amazed that there is still so much to discover : ) love tt

Philippe Graffin / Violinist

This week the TT Test is taken by the wonderful French violinist Philippe Graffin (recently included in Classic FM’s top 10 violinists in the world, no less !) who I first heard on a lovely disc "Shades of the forest: The Bohemian world of Debussy, Enescu and Ravel". His repertoire includes many works from his native France as well as re-discovering neglected classics and exploring contemporary works. He has shared the stage with musical giants such as Menuhin, Rostropovich and Martha Argerich, partnered cellists Gary Hoffman and Truls Mark, pianists Steven Kovacevich and Claire Desert and the Chilingirian Quartet, appeared as a soloist with many major European orchestras and is the founder and artistic director of the Consonances chamber music festival in Saint-Nazaire. Whew! With such a busy schedule I’m amazed but very happy that he has found the time to provide such sublime answers to the TT test. What is your wake up song at the moment? It’s already an old new song by Alain Souchon (don’t scream!), "Les Parachutes Dorés", about a guy that looks at the strikes, the protests and everything else from his paradisiacal island after he got out having sunk the company but with his dear "parachute"... not his best tune though. Maybe it’s the sound of French I like. Which work of art has most influenced you in your chosen profession? For my profession: the sound of violinist Toscha Seidel. He was born in Odessa, before the Russian Revolution, was a child prodigy, then immigrated to America, and made it to Hollywood. You can hear his playing on the sound track of Ingrid Bergman's first film in America,"Intermezzo". It is the original sound that everyone has in their ears and tries to go back to. If you could travel back in time, which period would you most like to visit & why? There are a few. The Romantic Era, Vienna between the 1790s and 1828, with Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Beethoven in the same place, just about the same time... that’s pretty good, but really I would love to be in Europe before World War 2, to travel throughout eastern Europe, Vilnius, Warsaw, Berlin etc... just to see this world that has vanished for ever. I think that being a violinist you somehow carry a little bit of that world inside you.. I love eating out and discovering new restaurants, can you please recommend one to me? "Le Jardin des Pates" near the Jardin des Plantes and the mosques in the 5th arrondissement, Rue Lacépéde. They only do a few dishes, always the same for years. It's really a simple place, but I love their food and atmosphere. What is the best advice you have ever been given relating to your professional /creative life? "All you can hope for is to play the violin, where and how will depend, but feel lucky just to play the violin". Mr Gingold (Josef Gingold) my teacher, when he was already a very old man in America. Or another one "Tonight You are the violin". That really helps to go on stage sometimes. Bonus question: You have made chamber music quite a central part of your repertoire (great for me as I love chamber music !). As a listener, chamber music feels like an easier more intimate way to feel close to a composer, to understand their language and movement. Sometimes with the orchestra, especially large orchestras, i feel almost overwhelmed, as if i can't keep up with or really hear the conversation. So if you could recommend a piece of chamber music to someone who may be new to chamber music what would you recommend? And would you be able to recommend someone like me who is a bit scared of the orchestra : ) a concerto for the violin? Thank you for that question: Ligeti string quartet n.1. Metamorphoses Nocturnes, written in 1953. It's as if there had to be just one last piece written this could be it, a tribute to all music. You hear both the "village" that was and everything that will be written afterwards. It's Taraf de Haidouks sent to the moon... A concerto for violin? Maybe the Schumann violin concerto. It is a concerto most violinist don't like. I don't know why. It was discovered in the 30s only. Schumann's wife, Clara, had forbidden it to be played. It was Jelly d'Aranyi, the Hungarian gypsy violinist whom Bartok, Ravel and Elgar all fell in love with, that discovered it. She was told of its existence during a "seance" (this is the official version I promise) in England. Apparently, she did not believe at all in this, I don't either, but she was told to look for this manuscript in a library in (I think) Dusseldorf. It was true and no one knew it. The Nazis, however, insisted that it was played by one of their own, they were banishing the Mendelssohn (who was Jewish) violin concerto from being performed. The piece is amazing, the slow movement, of which there is a recording with d'Aranyi playing the slow movement, is the most beautiful slow movement ever, starts with a cello solo, then the violin plays in the middle register something longing and timeless. Schumann was labelled "crazy" by the time he wrote this, but thank god for this concerto. What I also like about it, is that here is no tradition of how to play it. I love that. It's romantic, by one of the greatest composer, ever, and yet there are no marks. I suspect that is why some violinists don't like it.

Dame Shirley Bassey : The Girl from Tiger Bay

My wake up song this week is 'The Girl from Tiger Bay' from Dame Shirley Bassey's fine new album 'The Performance'. The Manic Street Preachers have written the perfect song for her and it fits easily into her long list of classic material. Anyway, what's not to love about Dame Shirley ?!! love tt.

Carolin Widmann & Denes Varjon

Last night I went to see Carolin Widmann [link] and Denes Varjon, at the Wigmore Hall. It was an all Schumann recital, the three violin sonatas, and it was amazing! Widmann has this uncommon sound, so earthy and full bodied that I found myself in that wonderful place where the newness of the sound makes you a really alert listener. She was evenly matched by pianist Varjon. I strongly recommend that you catch them live, failing that why not try their recording of the Schumann sonatas on ECM ? [link]. Love tt

Michael meets Musa

Yesterday evening I was invited by Refugee Action to a talk given by Michael Palin at the Royal Geographic Society [link] with Musa Ibrahim who recounted his journey from Somalia to Britain and the experience of seeking asylum in this country. After all the trials and hardships that someone in this position faces , what I found most moving was when Musa was asked by a member of the audience how we could help to make refugees more welcome, he answered simply, 'A smile '. If you would like to find out more about Refugee Action and the work that they do please follow the [link]. Love tt.

Roberta Flack : Do what you gotta do

My wake up song this week is 'Do what you Gotta Do' written by the great song writer Jimmy Webb. It's such a beautiful, enigmatic song. I feel it to be about freedom and the wisdom of not trying to possess someone but I'm sure there are many more ways of hearing it. My favourite version is by Roberta Flack, the way she interprets this song has such elegance and compassion, it's a perfect match. Apologies for the scratchy clip, but Flack's great performance still shines through, love tt.