by Noreña • • Comments Off on Fiona Silver @ Mercury Lounge
When I first heard Fiona Silver sing, I was taken aback by how rich and velvety her voice sounds. Watching it emanate from such a petite and girlish frame I was certain it was an affectation, like successfully imitating the…
by Noreña • • Comments Off on Thelvnguage/The Textiles at Pianos
Thelvanguage/The Textiles A cold Saturday night in February, and I’d turned the corner onto Ludlow. Once past the black clad, gorilla doormen insisting they’d reached capacity and a fickle crowd of pre-gaming college types, I made it to the showroom…
Aubrey Johnson delicately holds the mic in her hand as she sings into it with her eyes closed and brow slightly furrowed. She doesn’t strain to reach a particular note so much as to find the right tone to…
by Noreña • • Comments Off on Tehnoloogiline Paike “Technological Sun”
Tehnoloogiline Paike is an experimental electronic pop group from Estonia, with the notable credit under its belt as the 2012 “Album of the Year” award recipient from the Estonia Music Awards. Their third release is a 7 track LP entitled…
by Noreña • • Comments Off on The Legal Aid Society: Second Annual Winter Benefit 01/28/16
The Legal Aid Society is a private, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing legal representation to low-income New Yorkers. With offices in Manhattan and Brooklyn and specializing in Civil, Criminal, and Juvenile Rights Practices, they bear out through works their belief,…
I was never a Bowie fan (Sacrilege, I know). I didn’t dislike the guy; it’s just that nothing about his involvement in the worlds of high fashion or movies or synth-pop endeared him to me, and the latter was his…
by Noreña • • Comments Off on Ron Pope + The Nighthawks @ Irving Plaza 01/09/16
Ron Pope is a singer/songwriter who plays an accessible style that meanders between country-pop-ballad, on its softer side, and a markedly southern rhythm and blues, on its edgier. Running through it all is an attention to lyrical and emotional detail…
by Noreña • • Comments Off on Matt Wilson’s Christmas TREE-O ’15 @ Jazz Standard
The Jazz Standard is the internationally renowned music venue beneath the Blue Smoke restaurant. Down a flight of steps and into a dimly lit bar and dinning area, the room gives way to a stage. Wall sconces and votive candles…
Friday night. Brooklyn. A non-descript door is the entrance into Aviv, a 6-month-old do-it-yourself music venue. The Do-it-yourself must also apply to staying cool and ventilated because after being hit by the decibels from an ill-placed speaker, you are swallowed…
by Noreña • • Comments Off on From the South of Spain to the West Village: Albert Alabedra and Noemi Perez Flamenco Fusion
What I love about Flamenco can be the very thing that turns some people off. There is a beautifully chaotic and aggressive character to certain palos, which can sometimes belie the complexity of the music and unsettle the faint of…