HENRI SCARS STRUCK
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music industry
Inspired by all music, Henri Scars Struck has over the years created and developed a formidable body of work encompassing various styles and origins. This includes Jazz, Hip Hop, R'n'B, Pop, Dance, Electronica, Classical and World Music.
Henri is a French pianist and Grammy winner and has worked with visionaries and artists such as Malcolm McLaren (partner), Yves Saint Laurent (YSL 40th year final retrospective), Thierry Dreyfus, Madonna, The Police, Pierre Cardin, De La Soul, KRS One, Rakim, Lenny Kravitz, Barry White, Charles Aznavour, Alicia Keys and Sizzla.
During the wake of the Acid Jazz revolution, which began in London in the late 80's, Henri collaborated with noteworthy greats including the late Andy Hughes (The Orb) and Galliano. At this time, he was noticed by producer Daniel Lazerus (Diana Ross, Donald Fagen, Joe Cocker) who invited him to co-produce on several projects. Soon, his talents were directed to the runways of Giorgio Armani, Jean-Charles De Castelbajac, to name a few. It was at a Castelbajac show where Henri was first introduced to (and subsequently worked with) Malcolm McLaren, a music, fashion and cultural iconoclast.
In 1996, Henri brought Paris to New York and the legacy of music trends from Europe and its culture. Inevitably, he drew massive attention from the local Hip-Hop, Dance and World music communities. Then partnered with Malcolm McLaren, Henri produced the Buffalo Gals: Back to Skool (Virgin Records) album with artists like KRS-1, Rakim and De La Soul. He then executive produced other projects with McLaren including Jungk and several commercials.
Henri later co-composed and did additional production with DJ/Producer Roger Sanchez on his first solo album (First Contact) featuring Sharleen Spiteri (Texas), Armand Van Helden and N’Dea Davenport. “Another Chance”, the first single, led all European charts for 17 weeks.
Further collaborations include remixes for artists such as No Doubt “Hella Good”, which won them a Grammy Award for best remix of the year 2002; Madonna “Get Together” (Confessions On a Dance Floor); Alicia Keys "Butterfly"; The Police “Walking On The Moon”; Lenny Kravitz “Black Velveteen”; Chic “I Want Your Love”; Prince “1999”; Ricky Martin “Jaleo”; Brand New Heavies “Apparently Nothin” featuring Carleen Anderson; Cirque Du Soleil “Kumbalawe”; Alejandro Sanz & Shakira “Te Lo Agradezco Pero No”; and Simply Red “Perfect Love”.
Most of these records have appeared in Billboard’s Top Ten dance charts. In addition, Henri worked on Roger’s second album Turn On The Music that was released in 2006. Prior to this in 2004, Henri composed and produced tracks on Charles Schillings’ 2nd solo album, released by Pschent Records (Hotel Costes).
Another notable project was The Mango Room, an urban poetic soul collaborative featuring New York’s premier Spoken Word artists, composed, produced and arranged by Henri. This album was a labor of love celebrating the language of love through music.For VP Records (the largest Reggae label worldwide) Henri mixed several DVDs, the first of which being the label’s 25th Anniversary concert with artists like Sean Paul, Shaggy, Elephant Man and Sizzla. While in Jamaica, Henri worked on the Sizzla and Elephant Man DVDs.
As well as producing new artists, Henri was probably the first (1996) and only producer to remix French music legends such as Charles Aznavour and Serge Gainsbourg from the original multi-tracks, before this became a trend. His latest production for an artist can be heard on the album of singer songwriter Sinem Saniye, the twice winner of the John Lennon songwriter’s competition, also winning a Billboard award for songwriting.
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fashion
- Throughout his career, Henri has produced original music for a great number of fashion houses, creating a unique dimension to their runway collections. He takes the vocabulary of the designer and transforms it into music and sounds, giving birth to the soundtrack of their fashion show.
Henri was honored to be responsible for the music soundtrack of the penultimate show – the final haute couture show of Yves Saint Laurent on January 22nd, 2002 at Le Centre Pompidou, Paris. This event was a defining moment for the legendary designer and is considered to be one of the most important statements in fashion.Apart from working with Pierre Bergé, Henri had the privilege of collaborating with Catherine Deneuve and Laetitia Casta as they sang their homage to the master. The widely acclaimed show, orchestrated by artistic director Thierry Dreyfus, ran for 90 minutes and incorporated in excess of 380 unparalleled signature dresses/suits.
Other work for fashion includes clients such as Jean
Charles De Castelbajac, BCBG Max Azria, Rag & Bone, John Galliano, Pierre
Balmain, Alber Elbaz, Krizia Top (Milan), Rochas, Richard Tyler, Franck
Sorbier, Brood by Serkan Sarier, J. Mendel, Levi's, Hardy Amies, Joseph Abboud, Diesel Black Gold, Catherine Malandrino
(first fashion show at the Harlem Apollo Theater where Henri brought a Gospel
choir) as well as all shows for the 2009 CFDA Vogue fashion fund award winner,
Sophie Theallet, a modern day couturière.
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films
- Creating music for full feature and short films is a natural progression for Henri and his interests, given his ability to compose and produce music in various music genres and his desire to do the unexpected, always pushing his own boundaries. His work has been described as haunting, powerful, having its rightful place in film.Whether writing a tango, a classical piece, or a hip hop song, Henri believes that music has to be deeply rooted within the essence and DNA of the film, so much so that if the music disappeared or is replaced, the movie will have another identity.Furthermore, he observes that many film scores sound alike, generic, with the same chord progressions, drum programming and/or the same licensed songs. He laments the lack of surprise and simple powerful emotion, the elements that audiences recognize when they are exposed to it, evoking an everlasting memory of the film and of a time and place.
For his first foray into feature films, Henri composed and produced the score for “A Big Road”, directed by Alec Tok and produced by Damon Chua (Wong Kar Wai). The film premiered at the Singapore International Film Festival.While thinking of John Barry, Henri composed a piece as a tribute to this legendary composer. A few days later, after Barry’s passing, he renamed the piece “Mr John Barry”, which was subsequently broadcast on Nowness.com.Behind The Scenes while creating music for filmThe film showcased by Wallpaper
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installations
Henri has been regularly commissioned to write music for art installations, notably for the Paris Nuit Blanche, organized by the city of Paris and the Ministry of Culture. In 2006 he performed on the piano live at the Bibliothèque Nationale De France (French National Library) along with band Placebo.
In 2007, he worked on an installation created by Thierry Dreyfus at the Chateau De Versailles and recently, in October 2010, collaborated with Dreyfus again at Notre Dame De Paris. This last installation broke attendance records at Nuit Blanche with more than 50,000 people visiting within the limited hours, transforming the Cathedral with lights never before seen accompanied by music inspired from a dark place. Additionally, he worked on the 30th year anniversary celebration of Didier Ludot in the gardens of the Palais Royal in Paris. Monsieur Ludot is the premier collector and seller of designer vintage clothing. The installation incorporated various styles of music and poetry readings played at ten different locations of this expansive garden. This exhibit was attended by a select group of guests including the French Minister of Culture.
Henri composed music for photographer Justin Guariglia on his traveling exhibition "Shaolin: Temple Of Zen" at the National Geographic museum in Washington DC (2008).
His work in public spaces is known to bring a sense of community and connection with people from all over the world and from all walks of life, bound together by the simple pleasure of sharing music, a rare occurrence in today’s iPod headphone culture.
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corporate
Music is a critical element of the customer experience and a powerful mechanism for companies to achieve differentiation. Through his consultancy, The Other Side Of The Brain (OSB) that was specifically formed to work with corporate clients, Henri Scars Struck has created programs for companies such as Estee Lauder, Lufthansa, Hermès, Pfizer, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and Unilever Prestige.
Authentic emotion is key for establishing a deep connection between a company and its employees and/or customers. Henri believes that companies have only scratched the surface of what is possible in terms of the use of music to inspire engagement and loyalty.
Henri speaks frequently on the subject of the emotional side of business, and the role of music in particular. He is a regular speaker on MBA and corporate programs, and was the keynote speaker in the series “A New Perspective” hosted by the Le Méridien hotels in multiple cities around the world.
As early as 1994, Henri created an immersive multi-sensory experience for Swatch in conjunction with the designer Jean Charles De Castelbajac. The installation was hosted at the Louvre and the 1994 winter Olympic games. It featured music and sounds under the Louvre pyramid - in the morning music/sounds of Parisian cafés were heard and scents of coffee were sprayed. In the afternoon, sounds of Provence and lavender scents were triggering the senses of many visitors.
In 2007, Henri composed a ground-breaking 24-hour soundtrack exclusively for Le Méridien Hotels (Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide) in support of the launch of their new program ”Unlocked Art.” The auditory experience was implemented in 110 properties throughout the world and involved music for two moments critical to the guest experience – as they enter the hotel; and as they ride the elevator to their room. The soundtrack was divided into four sections of 6 hours: morning (waters), afternoon (forest), evening (markets & cafes) and night (crickets & campfire). This soundtrack incorporates rich natural sounds and original music compositions influenced by different cultures from around the globe.
This program earned many awards such as “Best Innovative Concept in Full Service Hotels” at the 2009 Worldwide Hospitality Awards.
The Other Side Of The Brain’s services include the creation and execution of assignments, negotiation of all aspects of conception, production, recording and/or licensing, and the management of the process to completion. OSB also advises TV/film producers and directors, providing them with original music or serving as the music curator for a project.
OSB has a department, The Other Side Of Music, that provides the businesses of hospitality and retail locations with unique music playlists (original or selected).
Henri Scars Struck's work has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, New York Magazine, Art News, Fast Company, The New York Sun, Libération, Le Monde, and Trace Magazine as part of the feature, “New Yorkers on the Verge”. He is currently featured on the series “New Revolutionaries” on the Sundance TV Channel.Click here to visit The Other Side Of The Brain's website
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Posts
Unlocking The Truth - Malcolm Brickhouse & Jarad Dawkins
via facebook.com/THEAVANTGARDEDIARIES
twitter.com/theavgdFresh Air !!!!!!! Big Up !!!! HsS
Kriss Kross this isn’t. Lock up your daughters, America: these sixth-grade metalheads from Flatbush, Brooklyn are on a mission to rock your socks off. More on theavantgardediaries.com
Directed by Luke Meyer / Produced by Julia Wilczok & Tom Davis / Director of Photography: Hillary Spera / Camera Assistant: Matt Burke /Additional Filming by Luke Meyer / Location Sound Recordist: Guillermo Hernan Peña-Tapia / Edited by Harry Nelson / Music by Unlocking The Truth / Special Thanks to Annette Jackson & Tracey Brickhouse
To my dear friend @sophietheallet from a place where a lot of inspiration came from. #jardinsdemarjorelle #Yvessaintlaurent #sophietheallet #henriscarsstruck
- Louis XIII Cognac - Original Music Composition For The Launch Of The Rare Cask 42.6
As you may know by now, I am always attracted to craftsmanship, history and legacy, whether it involves music and its old traditions of making instruments, or just the art of creating things by hand instead of mass manufacturing.
This week, I am honored to have created original music for an iconic brand, the Louis XIII Cognac…Owned by Remy Martin, this cognac is a blend of 1200 eaux de vies ranging from 40 to 100 years old, spanning four generations of Cellar Masters. It is, of course, made in Cognac, France and aged in oak barrels which are several hundred years old. The very unique bottle of Louis XIII has been made by Baccarat since 1936. Do you already feel the poetry of this ??
This year, Louis XIII is releasing for the second time a very limited edition of this cognac ~ Rare Cask 42,6. To give you a little idea, the “regular” Louis XIII bottle costs $2,700. The price for the limited edition is $22,000 a bottle !!!
A single sip of this makes you travel through time, and can also help pay your mortgage !!!
However, this is more than just drinking an exquisite liquid, it’s about a “moment”, to quote Remy Martin.The music that I have written for this is another great blend, combining classical music and modern sounds, with piano and a full orchestra with strings and horns. The final result was played yesterday when the new rare cask of this limited edition was revealed to the audience in front of an indoor waterfall in a New York mansion.
Another great experience especially when we slowly tasted it !!!!
My special thanks to Yves De Launay and Pierre Antoine Bollet at Remy Martin (below in the picture), and Eyesight Fashion & Luxury for the production of an unforgettable event.
This photograph by Parker Calvert/Travis Rivera
Food Coma is the other thing we share together, other than music with my friend Raul Midon !!!!!
- Malcolm McLaren - Anniversary - April 8th
It’s been now 3 years since my friend Malcolm McLaren has passed. It is important for me to mark this date each time with a little bit of Malcolm’s life and projects as a tribute.
2013 would be the 15 year anniversary of the release of Malcolm’s Buffalo Gals Back 2 Skool album. I moved in 1996 to New York to produce this record and never came back !!!! I was lucky enough to work with artists such as De La Soul, Rakim & KRS One and a lot of the pioneers that started this thing. I even had the memorable pleasure to use Barry White’s vocals singing his own version of Buffalo Gals. (Buffalo Gals Back To Skool : Part 2).
Click here to listen to the intro of the album featuring Malcolm.
This album is dedicated to them and includes all the original Buffalo Gals recordings such as “Buffalo Gals”, “Hobo Scratch”, “Hey DJ”, “Do You Like Scratching” and many more, featuring the unbelievable World Famous Supreme Team, two great MC’s that had the first Hip Hop radio show on WHBI. A lot of snippets of their shows became classic soundbites such as “That scratching is making me hitch !!!”.
Click here to watch the EPK of the Buffalo Gals Back To Skool Project.
The original Buffalo Gals track was produced by Trevor Horn and Malcolm. While you listen to it with its scratches, zulu chants (“She’s Looking Like A Hobo”) and crazy drum programming, you can already hear what will be the sound of Art Of Noise which Trevor Horn created later. Herbie Hancok also admitted that Buffalo Gals was the inspiration for his single “Rock It” when he received his Grammy Award in 1983.The video of Buffalo Gals was shot in New York’s Washington square park and featured break dancers from the Rock Steady Crew with people like Crazy Legs.
Click here to watch the original video Buffalo Gals.
Click here to watch the video oF Rakim’s Remix of Buffalo Gals
Click here to watch the original video of Hey DJ.
And of course, you can buy this album anywhere.
Rest In Chaos dear Malcolm
till next year…
Miss you. HSS
- 12 Microphones That Made History !!!!
Click on the link to read the full piece by Jim Webb
via Avatar StudiosMicrophone development as we know it today was distilled from telephone technology, whose roots go back to the mid 1800s. The word “microphone” was first coined by Wheatstone around 1827 and was used to describe a purely acoustic device, like a stethoscope, which he had developed to amplify weak sounds. The word is Greek in origin, with “micro” meaning small and “phon” meaning sound. It was not applied to telephone devices in general, which were instead called “transmitters,” a practice continued by Western Electric almost until it ceased professional microphone production in the 1940s.
The following list reflects my choice of twelve landmark microphones, some in a series, that had a significant influence on the audio profession and related arts though their unique designs. The mics shown in this article are part of a collection of some five hundred microphones, accumulated over a twenty-five-year period through trade and purchase. It is the second-largest collection in the country, and all of them have been restored as much as possible to their original factory working condition and appearance.
- Stephen Burrows Retrospective: "When Fashion Danced" At The Museum Of The City Of New York
I am happy, thanks to Stefan Campbell, that I have been involved in creating the soundtrack for the Stephen Burrows Retrospective that will open tomorrow at the Museum of the city of New York. As you will read in this article from today’s WWD, Stephen found his inspiration in his time, in music and especially in happiness.
Listening to this music, made of old classics and not such obvious sweetness, with the great pieces that will be shown, will only make you smile and make you want to be in NY in 1978.
Apart from the many pieces that will be shown from the designer, this retrospective will feature as well videos and photographies that you will LOVE !!!!!!!!
Henri Scars Struck
From WWD.com
By ROSEMARY FEITELBERGStephen Burrows made sure that The Supremes’ “Up The Ladder to the Roof” will be piped into the retrospective of his work that bows Thursday night at the Museum of the City of New York.
Aside from it being a favorite song he liked to blast, it could double as an anthem for his career. Fittingly, the exhibition is called “Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced.” And dance he did, regardless if it was to Motown, rhythm and blues, New York sound or rock ’n’ roll. The music, like the up-until-dawn club scene he was once part of, has fueled his creativity as much as the buzz and street life he finds so stimulating about New York City.As 25 helpers scrambled about on Tuesday afternoon pinning muslins, rolling on photographs like wallpaper and setting display text, Burrows did not seem to be the least bit wistful, frazzled or reflective about being surrounded by his past. (Never mind that he has spent the better part of the last six weeks helping to track down and select 50 pieces for the show.) Other flashbacks could be heard loud and clear in a documentary about the 1973 “Battle of Versailles” between French and American designers, of which Burrows was one. “It’s humbling to have so much attention. Usually something like this doesn’t happen until you pass,” he said. “Being successful is being happy in what you’re doing and being able to make money at something that you love to do. I can’t imagine anything that makes you happier than finding true love.”
Born in Newark to divorced parents, Burrows has always thought of himself as “bicoastal” in that he always traveled between his mother’s New Jersey home and his father’s Harlem one. After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology, his senior co-op job at the missy blouse company Weber Originals turned into a full-time one. “I was making $125 a week. That was a fortune back then,” he said.
By 1968, he had ventured out on his own thanks to private clients like the Brazilian artist Jim Valkus, Bobby Breslau and Roz Rubenstein. In 1970, his Fire Island friend Joel Schumacher — a Henri Bendel-er before he hit Hollywood — suggested he meet with the store’s then-president Geraldine Stutz and a 12-year alliance was formed. Hardworking as he was, Burrows ran with a fast crowd, including Pat Cleveland, Alva Chinn, Halston, Joe Eula and Elsa Peretti. After an after-dinner nap, Burrows would get up around 11 to hit the clubs with his friends — The Loft, Sanctuary and others. At 3 or 4 a.m., they would head home for a few hours sleep before going to work. Burrows said, “We didn’t really talk about fashion unless to tell someone we loved what they were wearing that they had made. It was mostly about dancing and the nightlife. Music was a big force.”
Alcohol and drugs were other forces too, though Burrows didn’t go into detail about those aspects of the period. “We were a product of the times. All that stuff was around, available and taken into account when needed,” he said.
Standing in the Commune section of his retrospective, which plays up his disco-era rainbow-colored designs, Burrows said he is partial to the early days. The show opens with a colorful photo of Grace Jones snarling opposite a black-and-white one of a bespectacled Burrows wearing a Jell-O printed shirt. Eyeing an image of his first photo shoot in Central Park in 1970, Burrows said the Seventies were all about freedom of expression. That same year he became the first African-American designer to win a Coty Award. “It didn’t matter who you were with as long as you were happy,” he said. Gesturing towards framed sketches and vibrant knitwear, Burrows said, “I’ve always had a thing for phallic symbols. It’s kind of a signature.”
Others know him for joining Halston, Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta and Anne Klein in the “Battle of Versailles,” the legendary fashion showdown with Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Cardin and Emanuel Ungaro. “It was such a proud moment for American fashion,” Burrows said. “Of course, when we did it, we didn’t think about it that way.”
He recalled sitting beside Blass in first class as they flew to Paris for the show. “We didn’t know about the party the models were having in the back of the plane,” said Burrows. Nor did they know the figurative drawings Eula had spent hours sketching in New York would not fit to scale Versailles’ vaulted ceilings. “The Eiffel Tower he drew looked miniscule,” Burrows said. “The room dwarfed the scenery. We had to use a bare empty stage. The situation, we thought, was kind of hopeless. But it turned out to be such a knockout.”
Meeting Josephine Baker — “divine in a catsuit looking like she was naked” — and Saint Laurent were Versailles snapshots he will never forget. “Saint Laurent came up to me and said, ‘You make beautiful clothes,’” Burrows said. “He was sitting in the next booth at the event. The designers weren’t allowed to be with the clothes during the show.”
As for the current designer scene, Burrows rattled off Rick Owens, Lanvin and Jean Paul Gaultier as three favorites. Less enthusiastic about younger designers, he said, “I don’t understand what’s happening with fashion today. It looks very added-to, like everything in the kitchen sink. But that’s just me.”
Celebrity designers don’t hold his interest either. “They come up and just die. There are all these celebrity lines and in 200 days they’re gone. Meanwhile, someone else who does design can’t get going,” Burrows said. “The word ‘designer’ is so loosely used today. Of course, I don’t know what the cure for it is. It’s an animal in its own right.”
Asked about the lack of non-Caucasian models on many designer runways, Burrows said, “I find it peculiar, because part of their customers are not Caucasian. I don’t know that it will ever change. I always use and will always use all different girls.”
Minority designers also still struggle to get financing. “It’s particularly difficult for the minority designers. I don’t know why that is. I find it curious. It’s something that minorities will always be facing.”
At its most profitable in 2006, Burrows’ label was a $2 million business, but there have been fits and starts along the way. After running his own company from 1970 to 1982, he shuttered the doors and bowed out of the limelight. Caring for his cancer-stricken father and brother consumed most of his time, though he continued to create clothes for private clients and design costumes for the off-Broadway show “Momma I Want to Sing.” In 2001, Henri Bendel convinced him to come out of retirement and the following year he set up his own studio on 134th Street to relaunch his label. By 2008, he subletted space on West 37th Street — a few blocks from where his grandmothers first met as sample hands for Hattie Carnegie in the Twenties.
In August, Burrows had to deal with the blow of losing his business partner of 15 years, John Robert Miller, who died unexpectedly. Now he and the brand manager Mary Gleason are speaking with potential investors and hope to have new financing in place for a spring 2014 collection. Occasionally he designs for private clients “but not so much because I hate sewing,” Burrows said. “I’ve never had the patience for sewing. It’s terrible — I can’t sew a straight line.”
As for how he sees his role in the fashion world, he said, “The essence of Stephen Burrows — be happy when you’re in the clothes and have fun with what you’re wearing. I’m very simplistic about things like that. That’s just how I am.”
Museum Of The City Of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue at 103rd Street
New York, NY 10029
212-534-1672 Phone
212-423-0758 Fax
info@mcny.org E-mail This is an article that was written by an MBA student, Ashwathy Sreenivasan, from Thunderbird (prestigious MBA school based in Arizona) whose class I had the pleasure of welcoming to my recording studio to talk about the emotion of music in the corporate world.
Thank you to Ashwathy Sreenivasan, the whole class, Jonathan Knowles and professor Richard Ettenson.
Henri Scars Struck
Henri Scars Struck sharing his work during New York Fashion Week, creating or selecting music. This is a video about some of the shows he has been working on.
Click here to see the video
This was made so you can use Shazam and buy the tracks to support these artists. Some of the music here won’t be recognizable as there is also some additional production by HSS.
to be continued…
The Other Side Of The Brain LLC
A Steinway is a handcrafted instrument, individually unique, built to be best in class, tested by the centuries and designed to be passed from generation to generation.
via greenbiz.com
- Forget mp3 and come back to music (By Henri Scars Struck)
What does that mean? Did you know that your favourite song you’re listening to right now on your iPhone and mp3 player is a tenth of the quality that your artist intended to in the original master recording?
Mp3 is a format which uses a form of lossy data compression. Imagine you put all these drums, percussions, bass, guitars, horns, strings and vocals etc…of the artist you cherish the most and at the end, you get a very compressed sausage in your ears !!!!! What a beautiful image? This is what you have been listening to for years !!!!!
Yes indeed, records are mixed since a long time, using high end machines in a very high end format, the CD format. We even have higher formats available but I won’t go there today. The good news is you can still listen to high end audio quality recordings on your mobile devices. The iTunes software or other music library softwares can definitely import your music library from Cds into Wave files. You just need to change the settings of how you import your CD in the preferences/general/import settings (iTunes). The only drawback is that the size of your file will be 10 times bigger than the mp3. But now, with the price of hard drives getting so affordable, what’s wrong with listening to the real thing ?
I always ask myself why as audio consumers, we are going backwards. It is interesting to note that in photography or film, we produce with a very low budget, high resolution films or images with cameras that we couldn’t dream of, ten years ago. The difference is that we watched them on good quality screens, HD televisions, or retina displays, instead of doing it on a commodore 64 display - Just because we need to watch them the best they really are.
It’s the opposite with music because we definitely are able to produce records with amazing sound as music gear became so affordable. Some of us, producers, more stubborn than the others, always like to blend good old analog machines that are expensive with the most recent technologies to get the best of both worlds.As you can see in this little diagram (provided by Jamie Tate/The Rukkus Room), you can understand how much we like these old tubes and these digital/analog high end converters and how pissed we can be of the fact that you listen to our stuff a 10% at what we have in the studio !!!!! Of course Fisher price speakers are forbidden, only a good quality headphone or a decent sound system which are all available now for reasonable prices. Last thing, you can still import your music in higher mp3 format, 256 or even 320kbps (instead of 128kbps) if you need the space.
So, do a test and just import one of your favorite albums, hear the difference and please comment on this and how you listen to music.
to be continued…
By Henri Scars Struck
Www.henriscarsstruck.com
Www.theotherisdeofthebrain.com
Www.freshfruitsforrottenpeople.comHenri Scars Struck lives in New York.He is a music composer, pianist, Grammy-winning producer and principal of The Other Side of The Brain, a brand consultancy focused on emotional branding through the power of sound and memory.
- Attention Span
By Henri Scars Struck
Our focus and concentration has changed over the last decade. All of us are bombarded with content that has to be absorbed. Our brain has the choice of many great things to read, listen and watch. The result, certainly for most of us, is the lack of focus on one thing only - like choosing not to finish reading this article, watching a complete video or listening to the full song. In a way, we are afraid to miss out if we focus on only one thing, thereby missing other “opportunities”. This is what we call the bookmark generation where we put aside the yellow post-its and newly renamed url links in order to come back later to it….but we never do.
A typical example of this is the huge music library that we each have in our pockets. Back in the day, a fraction of this used to occupy a full wall in our apartments. This change is nothing less than a miracle! We have so much at our fingertips, however what is interesting is that many people will not listen to a song from beginning to end. Faced with an orgy of choices, and some 15,000 titles, we sometimes listen to one song and choose to go to the next one suddenly, without waiting for that epic guitar solo that we used to wait for impatiently. I’ve watched people in the subway doing this all the time. So much so that there are parts of songs that are never heard or instrument solos that were recorded for nothing! I also know people who have not yet listened to or watched part of the terabytes of music and films they have downloaded legally and illegally, keeping it in their hard drives for use one day.
Is it that important for everyone to listen to a song till the end, to watch a movie entirely or see half of a painting ? Everyone has the freedom of choice so based on what criteria should we try to answer these questions? Is it out of respect for the artist, the creator? We will try to discuss this another time in the future.
And how important or not is it for us to listen to music or watch a movie without doing something else ?
When I speak in front of MBA classes about the emotion of music and its growing use within corporations, my first question is “how many of you have listened to a piece of music for 20 minutes without doing anything else ?” - Only a few raise their hands. Who listens to a full album or a significant long piece of music without being close to some type of mobile device, checking emails, having the TV in the background, cooking, or being interrupted by another human being ? I am not even suggesting recordings like Don Giovanni or the Koln concert, but some extremely popular stuff.
Is there something that has radically changed ? Now we have the choice to buy a single track of an album, or listen to it in any order we want for free on spotify or other online music platforms. Maybe the fact that we can have access to anything mostly for free has changed the relationship we have with artists and their creations. Our children and grand children will not understand that they have to pay for listening to music or why a song would have a price. I won’t even start the discussion about the creating process, the hard work, the joy, the pain that goes into that 99 cents acquisition.
When we go to see a movie, unless you go to just buy popcorn or use the bathrooms, you fully focus on the film. We don’t read, text, talk, watch a video, or we would be escorted outside or beaten up !
I used to listen to hundreds of albums in front of my piano, reading all the credits of the recordings. I knew all the players on each song by heart, all the producers, the engineers, and dreamt about the studios I hoped to record in one day (and did). Of course ironically, electronic music is now recorded and mixed frequently in home studios and the credit list is a little shorter since now, one person often does everything through lack of funds or just being pretentious.
Maybe one thing we can try to achieve as a resolution in the new year is to allocate a special time to truly enjoy music. Dedicate a moment in a week or a month to fully listen to what the artist wanted to share. The only reason we create is to share. The magic of music will transport us somewhere else, freeing us from the gravity of our own lives for a couple of minutes or more. Memorable moments can happen and the power of this is obvious. Stop the noise in our daily lives and listen to music.
How can these twelve notes modify our mood, our day, even without any lyrics? For some, music is just an accessory to everything else we do in our lives in any location. For others, it’s just breathing.
Please find here a Mixtape of various styles of music. It’s an exercise to see if you are capable of listening to a song till the end.
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Henri Scars Struck lives in New York.He is a music composer, pianist, Grammy-winning producer and principal of The Other Side of The Brain, a brand consultancy focused on emotional branding through the power of sound and memory.
RIP AUSTIN PERALTA
If you want to know why the death of piano prodigy Austin Peralta was so devastating, watch the video above. Forget the fact that he was only 20 when he performed this. There is a sense of soul, rhythm, and virtuosity that belies any arbitrary marker. His ivory work was possessed but loose, played with a taste and improvisational spirit that built and expanded on McCoy Tyner, adding a hip hop pulse and skateboarder’s gonzo ideas to the post-bop strut of the former Coltrane collaborator.
Bob Dylan once used the phrase, “helpless as a rich man’s son.” But Peralta was anything but: he had the gift to communicate complex chords and delicate emotions through a left handed sweep, killer chops, and infectious grin. Watch that video and see the joy of the jam, the ability to create something that I’m talking about years later, indelible evidence that will remain long after he’s passed.
For the last few years, Peralta was everywhere you turned, with Thundercat and Lotus, he was a third crucial bridge between the jazz and electronic worlds. A kid born out of time, blessed with a talent so far-reaching that he seemed to be one of the best candidates to usher jazz deep into this century. A interstellar and manic counterpart to the steady syncopation of Robert Glasper. The next one. And now he’s dead just days after his 22nd birthday.
What is there ever to say when something this tragic happens. Nothing, really. So go listen. Listen to Endless Planets. Eat well. Be thankful that we’re still standing. Condolences to the Brainfeeder family and anyone who stumbled across him these last few years. And a mournful R.I.P. to Austin Peralta. However ephemerally his star may have shone, we were blessed to have had the chance to hear him.In my regular series “People We Owe So Much” (PWOSM) - Here is a New York Time article about the recent passing of Howard H. Scott, responsible for making Vinyls LPs going from 78 rpm speed to 33.1/3rpm as what they are today.
He was also the producer of the historic recording of the Goldberg Variations by Glenn Gould in 1955 and many others…
Rest in Peace.
HSS
