With the year drawing to a close, we asked fourteen Rewire 2018 artists and three Rewire staffers to share one piece of music that inspired them in the past year: 17 songs that soundtracked 2017.
2017 has been a remarkable year in music. With so many incredible releases already name-checked in just about every end of year list across the web, we figured we’d open up our own recap to our Rewire 2018 performers, and some Rewire staffers, and ask each them to recommend one piece of music that truly resonated over the past 12 months. For some, it’s a composition that inspired them andinfluenced the way they make music, for others it’s an album with which they’ve developed a powerful emotional connection, and for others still an ear-worm they just can’t get enough of. Without further ado, here are 17 inspirational songs that soundtracked 2017.
“I’ve been in love with this for 2 years solid, no breaks no hint of being tired of it, by a mile my most played song ’16/’17. It has everything in it, wrapped around this amazing chord progression that unfolds different beautiful solutions in every inversion. It’s in my headphones in the airport, I play it (badly, but that doesn’t matter) for hours on the piano, I drive round with it on repeat. Sometimes I listen to the Coltrane original, then return to repeating this to try to understand it better. Thank you Pharoah.”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/LEfOkuigXsk
“The fantastic Bernice from Toronto.”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/D7OeYbZI2Gg
“For Organ & Brass is a composition that I kept regularly coming back to in the past year. The piece was written for a nearly 400-year old organ with a specific kind of historical tuning known as meantone temperament, as well as a brass section (horn, tuba and trombone). The unconventional tonal register, the slowly changing minimal melodies and the subtle interactions between the organ and brass instruments form an almost meditative listening experience, beautifully understated and compelling.”
I’m very excited that Ellen Arkbro and the Zinc & Copper brass trio will be able to perform the piece at Rewire 2018. There are only a few organs with meantone tuning and after a some research we found out that the Lutherse Kerk, one of our festival venues, actually has a small Italian organ with meantone tuning. I look forward to April when the pieces will come to life on this very special occasion!”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/5GFfIe3mr20
“On repeat heavily this past year has been Dennis Young’s “Wave (Electronic Music 1984-1988)” album, and my absolute favourite track is “Spirit of the Ages,” an incredible synth jam that pours layer upon layer of mournful dances across the keyboard into a pot of gorgeous analogue electronic stew. And when I say dances, I can also vividly see choreography set to this piece, with swells of bodies plaiting and slipping through space. Probably won’t happen, but it’s an amazing show developing in my mind, at least!”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/fqgbES3mFV0
“Song For Rathlin sneaks in the darkness with ghostly beats and evokes night creatures. For us it’s a sort of call to night life, not only meant as club life, but meant as an awakening of a world that finds its best expression in the dark, amplifying senses like hearing instead of sight. Our new album, called Vida Eterna and inspired by Vampirism, is conceived as a journey through a dreary, damp jungle, populated by creatures that capture vital energy from the dark and the night, and that’s the reason we somehow felt inspired by Lakker’s track, and all of their work to date.”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/QhEcHjJAVnk
“It’s rare but it happens, when within seconds of listening to a track, I feel an immediate connection. This exact type of instant access happened when I first listened to ‘hangar queen’. It’s a very emotional, pure or raw sorta feeling and might as well be the reason why months later, I’m still hooked. Digging a little deeper and seeing who’s behind “House of Kenzo” really just adds to how powerful and fresh this music feels to me. I’m all in!”
“2017 was a year of political upheaval in the United States, and mass movements have continued to gain steam in the fight against injustice. Every day our inept President boggles minds worldwide with his stunning callousness, meanwhile wildfires spread unchecked across California. So long as we’re trapped on this crazy train, we can at least have a good soundtrack.”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/Uxkmpbhlnko
“These three are some of my favourite artists from the contemporary Arabic music scene. Maurice Lauca is tries and succeeds (again) to give a new feel and new ideas to Egyptian popular music. What is particular with this song is its lyrics. The nerve to use bad words and talk about drinking and depression, which is very cretic to Arab listeners. I love how Mariem and Tamer sing so much as well. As a listener, I am their biggest fan!”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/dmoKlieywX0
“Mono No Aware became an instant a classic. With each track being a standout in their own right and contributing to the whole even more so, it captivates from first to n-th listen.”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q0UMnxmMAZ8
“This music fascinates me. It sounds as if it just is, without having ever been created – magic contradictions.”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/DKzDcc-Ccqo
“I’m quite obsessed with arrangements. There’s nothing better than sitting behind a piano in a warm room when it’s cold outside discovering a sequence of events in sound. This is Shelly Duvall singing Nilsson’s ‘He Needs Me’ from the Popeye soundtrack in her gorgeous, unaffected way. Arrangements by Van Dyke Parks, who is one of the great heroes of 20th century pop music IMO. The artifice is very much on the surface here, all schmaltz and swing like a good Nilsson tune should be, but oh so special when it’s all pivoting on VDP’s vortex of strings.”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/PTxMtTYjXPQ
“2017 was an inspiring year in music for me, with plenty of distinguishing performances and releases to give credit to. To keep it simple: I will never forget Waclaw Zimpel’s performance at Lutherse Kerk. His minimalistic, subtle compositions hypnotized from start to finish – a very strong collective experience.”
“I learned about this song from a friend. When I listen to this song, I always think of the majestic natural scenery of Japan.”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/WElaVj4vZg8
“I’ve long had a tradition of sitting and listening to music while drinking my first cup of coffee of the morning. For this I’m often looking for music that bridges the gap between the sleeping and waking minds. This piece by Francesco Messina has played the role a lot lately as fall has turned to winter. Its wonderful use of dimension and depth of field gives the sense of a canvas with a distant vanishing point. It’s like there’s a whole beautiful world of texture and melody emerging from behind the decay of an instrument sitting right next to your ear.”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/y3MTAt8tB5M
“This gives me a very light sensation when I listen to it. Almost fading, but looping instead. That feeling is very comforting and flexible, like in warm water. I find the title very accurate.”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/-EbvPsEnqz0
“Coby’s approach is distinctly musical, using CDJ’s as a rhythm and texture instrument and incorporating bass guitar and electric guitar to support his cyclical, hypnotic vocals that find exotically different backdrops in his live shows.”
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/KpM17VcSd0w
“At the end of 2016 I discovered a track named ‘La Regret d’Héraclite’, after a short poem, much loved by me, as indeed are the poet and the great Pre-Socratic philosopher its title references. Intriguing… From then on, many subsequent discoveries made 2017 a year for listening to Bergsonist, who luckily appears to be as prolific as she is peripatetic – perhaps channelling Heraclitus’ fluvial aphorism to never release on the same label twice? Here’s one of many fragments of rhythmical wisdom from 2017.”
You can catch each of these artists live at Rewire 2018. The eighth edition of Rewire festival takes place in The Hague NL from 6-8 April. Festival passes are available at: Tickets.