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PRESENTED BY ICE MUSIC

Ice Music taps Texas troubadour for new tunes

The world's "coolest concert" is set for a Texas twist in 2015 when Luleå's innovative Ice Music welcomes American musical talent from Austin, home of the South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival.

Published: 19 December 2014 15:47 CET
Updated: 8 January 2015 11:36 CET
Ice Music taps Texas troubadour for new tunes
A scene from a 2014 Ice Music concert in Luleå. Photo: Graeme Richardson/Swedish Lapland

“Musicians from Luleå and Austin will work together in the ice concert hall to create some fantastic new music,” Austin-based singer-songwriter Troy Campbell said.

Last year, music fans the world over turned their eyes to Luleå in Swedish Lapland for the inaugural series of Ice Music concerts featuring instruments made of ice and played in a giant igloo big enough to hold more than 150 spectators.

The concerts with a Texas twist will take place in February. 

SEE ALSO: Sweden's 'coolest' concert: an igloo full of instruments made of ice

Campbell is a staple on the bustling music scene in Austin, home of the famed South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival. His involvement with Ice Music comes via House of Songs, a songwriting collaborative he founded in Denmark in 2009.

With Campbell on board, the project now has stronger ties to SXSW, America's largest music festival, which will help raise Ice Music’s profile among more world famous musicians.

In addition, American percussionist Michael Blair will serve as co-musical director for the upcoming Ice Music songwriting workshop. Blair, who currently lives in Stockholm, has played with musical legends Tom Waits and Lou Reed and is one of Campbell’s partners in House of Songs.

Troy Campbell (l) with Ice Music co-founder Tim Linhart (r). Photo: Ice Music

Ice Music co-founder and producer Birgitta Linhart expressed optimism about the new House of Songs collaboration.

“The future holds many great opportunities and I look forward to experiencing how the voice of ice affects the newly written music,” she said in a statement.

IN PICTURES: Ice Music instruments and last year’s igloo

Topping the massive publicity generated from last year’s Ice Music concerts won’t be easy, but Ice Music co-founder Tim Linhart believes adding some American musicians to the mix will help take Ice Music to the next level in 2015.

“Last year we promised publicity, and it went much better than expected. Together we’ve really put Luleå and Swedish Lapland on the map, and we expect to continue developing things in that direction,” he added.

The far-reaching benefits of featuring American musical influences for Ice Music 2015 haven’t escaped officials with Luleå municipality, who helped fund the project as part of the city’s recently established partnership with Austin.

“Ice Music represents an entirely new approach to music in our winter landscape,” said Luleå Deputy Mayor Niklas Nordström.

“It means a lot when skilled entrepreneurs do things that help the city stand out. Ice Music is at the cutting edge of culture and innovation, and I hope both residents and tourists come to see it this year. It’s not something you can experience anywhere else.”

This article was produced by The Local and sponsored by Luleå municipality and Ice Music.

CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

Published: 17 November 2023 09:05 CET
New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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