For those funky lines and great soulgrooves… MonoNeon! (my favourite bass player on YT)

Gosh, I really love this guy’s playing. I embedded only two examples here, but he has tons of stuff on his YouTubechannel. It’s Dywane Thomas Jr., as an artist going by the name of ‘MonoNeon’. He’s a young bass player from the United States. I found his videos a year ago on YouTube.
Yes, once I stumbled upon his channel I couldn’t of course miss his funny colourful presentation and his peculiar way of playing (and dressing up) his instrument – while being right handed, Dywane plays a right-handed bass guitar upside down with the left hand! – but right from the start I was infatuated by his bass playing alone. Awesome funky lines and soulgrooves all over the place.
It’s also obvious from MonoNeon’s videos that he’s an adventurous musician, looking for ways to try out new things and further develop his playing. Outside of his blues- soul- and funky homebase his playing of other genres is also pretty amazing. He knows his Zappa and his Coltrane and he even does a few videos where microtonal playing is involved, ranging from Indian raga-related to modern Western stuff.
I made a YouTube-playlist with a great selection of his videos, you can play my playlist from here. Otherwise, you can of course also visit his channel. This dude’s playing is a real delight, so check out what he’s got in store for you. Enjoy!

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Impressive overtones of Natascha Nikeprelevic

An artist I’ve been admiring for many years is Natascha Nikeprelevic. With overtone singing as her basic means of musical expression she performs, improvises and interprets contemporary music. For a reference: on her MySpace page she mentions Pina Bausch, Kazuo Ohno, Robert Wilson, Michael Vetter and Karlheinz Stockhausen as her most important influences. Here’s a beautiful excerpt from ‘Alice in Wonderland’, her ‘journey of the human natural voice to the wonderland of synthetic sounds’.


Is there anything Natascha Nikeprelevic can’t do with her voice?

In Natascha Nikeprelevic’s work harmonic melodies and overtone arias emerge from what seem to be amorphous sound structures, noises and almost bizarre atonalities. Since 1997 she collaborates with Michael Vetter. Natascha Nikeprelevic has performed all over Europe and in the Far East and besides performing she also lectures for programmes of musicology, dance/theatre and jazz at several universities in and outside Europe.


An overtone singing workshop led by Natascha Nikeprelevic

If you want to hear from herself about her music and career check out this interview with Deutschland Radio Berlin.


RECITAL’REZITATIV for voice and tambura

And speaking of Natascha’s work, I can’t resist referring to a video and a soundscape I made for fun a few years ago, in which her voice is one of the predominant elements. This one…

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The exceptional musical energy of Magma exemplified in ‘Zombies’

Earlier on I highlighted Christian Vander’s Magma here on my website. I thought it would be nice to share another fine example of the band’s exceptional energy. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and highly admired the music of Magma since my high school days. Christian Vander’s music, mostly created in the 1970’s, sounds unique and timeless. For those unfamiliar with the band, watch this powerful performance of ‘Zombies’ – recorded in 2005 – and you’ll probably grasp what’s so special about Magma.

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