How music travels in space and time

We all know that music as we know it in the 21st century originated in Africa, but what routes did it go through?

Travel experts Thomson sponsored this wonderful interactive infographic following contemporary music genres as the traveled from Africa to the US to Europe and beyond. From Swing to Disco and from Hip Hop to Trip Hop, check out the history of music.

The perfect gin ‘n’ tone

What are you listening to right now? And what would you like to drink? Well, there is a drink for every occasion. A bottle of Merlot for Ella Fitzerald and  something sweeter for Adele, perhaps a vodka with coconut milk and honey.

Drinkify is a website that suggests the most suitable drink to go along with the band or musician you’re listening to.  You just type the artist name and the application suggests a well known or not so.. cocktail, wine or drink.

See more after the jump

Song of the week

The Adventures Of Rain Dance Maggie by Red Hot Chili Peppers from their album ‘I’m With You’, out today.

Animated music

Musical notes have a life of their own and Dan Cohen managed to reveal it in his Animated Sheet Music, a series of beautiful animations of Miles Davis’, Charlie Parker’s and John Coltrane’s jazz songs.

via Laughing Squid

See also:

• Can you hear color?
• Painting with notes
• Visualising sound

Create your own record cover

Create your own record cover, but from existing ones. That what visual artist and composer Christian Marclay thought to do by mixing and matching different record covers. The result: beautiful musical and visual encounters of different genres and artists.

See more collages after the jump

Song of the week

Happy birthday Mr Robert Allen Zimmerman!

Song of the week

Bridges by the Holy Spirits (motion collage by Nathaniel Whitcomb)

Visualising sound

Music flows and creates worlds of intense emotions, which can take various forms. Visual music artists Abstract Birds collaborated with visual artist Quayola and created Partitura, a custom software to generate realtime graphics aimed at visualising sound. Sound is translated into visual forms, creating endless ever-evolving abstract landscapes that respond to musical structures.

Pretty amazing. Don’t you think?

See also:

• Can you hear color?
• Painting with notes
• Location aware music
• What Pi sounds like?

Read it elsewhere

While you were getting married:

• Bark Twain and other authors as dogs – shortlist
• The interactive thesaurus of Seattle bands – Seattle band map
• Five bands that should be on Rockband (a hint: Pink Floyd) – joystickdivision
• Free yourself from the hassle of folding the map – design taxi
• Computer mouse evolution – dvice
• Instead of keeping diary, just summarize your day in a smiley figure – lost at E minor
• Who are these people? Abbey Road bystanders – snap galleries
• The wood bike that aspires to break the world record for speed – wired

Painting with notes

When notes are not just notes, but have a life of their own. Music Painting, created by Alice Ninni, is a beautiful animation video of the song “Lacrime de Giulietta” by Italian composer Matteo Negrin.

via Laughing Squid

See also:

• Barcodes as notes
• Touch music again
• Musical attack
• What Pi sounds like?
• An empty school comes to life

Two amazing, retro accessories for the iPhone

Granted, these are only concepts. But still they are impressive.

First there is the Leica camera body and lens for the iPhone by Los Angeles-based consultancy Black Design Associates, LLC. It will be the accessory that will transform the iPhone to a full fledged Leica camera. With such a pedigree, hell, I might even jump on the instagram bandwagon.

Then there is the iPhone turntable by designer Olivier Meynard. Not only does it play vinyl records, but it also adds them to your charging iPhone as mp3s. Pretty amazing, huh?

Product design that gives true meaning to the retro-futuristic trend.

via core77 and Yanko design 

See also:

• Barcodes as notes
• Touch music again
• Time put to words

Song of the week

Face In The Crowd by Cat’s Eyes

Read it elsewhere

Check them out:

• A dramatic reading of Gwyneth Paltrow’s cookbook, complete with a beret and (e)spanish accent (video) – kottke
• Is the cupcake dead? – Johnson Banks
• John Lennon’s bitter letter to Linda McCartney – flavorwire]
• Do you know how much power your appliances use? (interactive infograph) – GE visualization
• The evolution of web design – mashable
• He’s an actor, he’s a writer, he’s a musician: download Hugh Laurie’s new blues track for free – pop culture brain
• What if Barbie was real-size – msnbc
• The latest tumblr to take the world by storm – hipster animals
• If logos were honest - buzzfeed

10 + 1 ways to visualize lyrics

Really good songs have usually really good lyrics. And good lyrics stay with you. When we were at school we doodled them on our books and carved them into the desks. What do the digital natives do? Here are the best ideas (and, incidentally, really good songs for the most part) we found around the web:

1. Pick a photo, apply a vintage effect and write the lyrics in helvetica

Paris by the Friendly Fires (the Aeroplane version featuring Au Revoir Simone  kicks major ass, too)
(visual first seen at letlooselove, our title inspired by this)

2. Make a flowchart*

Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash
(visual first seen at Urlesque)
*but be careful not to be trapped on an infinite loop

See 9 more ways after the jump

Song of the week

Bizness by tUnE-yArDs

Musical attack

See what happens when a house in the suburbs is attacked by six drummers.

See also:

• An empty school comes to life
• Barcodes as notes
• What Pi sounds like?

Thus sung Zarathustra

We know what Zarathustra has said, but what did he sing?  So hear the ten following songs which allude to Friedrich Nietzsche:

1. “So God is dead, like Nietzsche said/Only 16 years of age he said” 1985, Manic Street Preachers
2. “He did ten years in Attica, reading Nietzsche and Wilhelm Reich/They threw him in a hole one time for tryin’ to stop a strike”, Joey, Bob Dylan
3. “I want a god that stays dead, not plays dead/ I, even I, can play dead” Nietzsche, The Dandy Warhols
4. “Oh mother of pearl/Lustrous lady of a sacred world/Thus even Zarathustra/Another-time-loser/ Could believe in you” Mother of Pearl, Roxy Music
5. “The insects point toward with numbers on their collars/ I ‘m dancing with a sandwich that cost 11 dollars/ That’s Nietzsche’s way of telling you/ That’s Nietzsche’s way of setting you down” Nietzsche’s Way, Robyn Hitchcock
6. “Written in pain, written in awe/ By a puzzled man who questioned what we were here for” Oh You Pretty Things, David Bowie
7. “In 2001 a Life Code/ It pays to talk to no one/ Proliferating across the earth/ Also Sprach Zarathustra/ Faction Europa/ Free Range!” Free Range, The Fall
8. “I wasn’t honest, I tried to philosophise/ Only too late did I see that I wore Nietzche’s eyes” Nietzsche’s eyes, Paula Cole
9. “Your god is dead an no one cares/ If there is a hell I ‘ll see you there” Heresy, Nine Ich Nails
10. “There’s nothin’ Nietzsche couldn’t teach ya ’bout the raising of the wrist/ Socrates himself was permanently pissed” Bruce Philosophers Song, Monty Python

Taken from the UNCUT Book of Revelations 2

See also:

• Ten rock movies we would like to see
• Songs as books
• The lyrics on the wall
• Make up your mind for your mind
• A tale of twins (or how to explain relativity theory)

Song of the week

Will Do by TV on the Radio (from their fifth studio album Nine Types of Light.

Nine Types of Light is also a movie, which is meant to be a visual re-imagining of the record, and includes a music video for every song on the album. You can watch it here.

Songs as books

These renditions of music albums as books have been going around the web lately:

Which reminded me of these by Little Pixel:

Which in turn reminded me of these posters by Hunting Bears:

This idea just never grows old.

See also:

• The lyrics on the wall
• We sure are cute for two ugly people*
• Ten rock movies we would like to see

The Man in the Black Coat

If this is not a brilliant example of visual poetry, what will ever be?

“Yellow Star” a poem by Kate Ruse
Music: “Interval One” from “The Quiet Lamb” by Her Name is Calla, 2010
Spoken by Kate Ruse

via Society 6

See also:

• Poetry after the beep
• Art above time
• Beauty in motion
• In literature / hidden haikus I have found / unexpectedly