VJ Heaven

Hardly a day goes by, it seems, that someone isn’t talking about the death of the album, replaced by singles. When they say “album,” however, they tend to mean “pop album,” using as their primary metric sales of the very top end of the spectrum. In electronic music, the album has never been about sales. For one, singles have long ruled the dance floor, long before iTunes began peddling online downloads of a la carte tracks. But more than that, albums are a unit of time, a packaged statement of aesthetic thought. They’re a story. And after an explosion of flash-pot diversity, labels today begin to be valued for their longevity and endurance. Albums once justified the label. Now, labels are a reason for albums to exist.

Of course, actually figuring out how to do that is as challenging – in business and cuisine – as running a restaurant. You need enough diversity to keep people coming back, but without becoming chaotic or losing the plot. You need a quantity / quality list.

Ghostly International is to me one of the superstar musical chefs that’s done it right. This summer, they’ve reached the milestone of 100 album releases. That may sound like a lot, but Ghostly has had just over a decade in operation, meaning they’re averaging just around ten releases a year.

I’m not personally shelling out for one of the 50 in this series, but I really admire its design. It embodies Ghostly’s philosophy – and it’s also a symbolic milestone. With its beautiful, organic design, it’s a physical manifestation of the new, enduring album, the album that survives even in the age of torrent sites and iTunes singles and enormous hard drives and music as commodity. As Ghostly puts it:

The Ghostly Bento was inspired by Japan and its tradition of quality, service, and design—values that Ghostly has always cherished. “Manzoku” is a Japanese word that roughly translates to “satisfaction.” Thus, the Bento is an intimate celebration of satisfaction in multiple forms—tactile, visual, aural—packaged in a handcrafted wooden box, stained and etched with a stunning image by LA artist Dosa Kim.

Putting out pretty wooden boxes isn’t going to justify any label, but Ghostly is busy, as always, this month.

Here in New York at digital tech research hub Eyebeam, a handful of artists will gather to collaborate with the label on visualization of music, under the tutelage of digital artists Aaron Myers and Aaron Koblin, as covered previously on CDMotion:
Matching Visuals to Music: Round-up of Inspiration
I hope to be there covering what happens, and coding myself.

This Friday July 9 in San Francisco and Saturday July 10 in Los Angeles, Ghostly will celebrate its 100 discs with live events, featuring favored artists like Tycho, Shigeto, The Sight Below, and Mux Mool. (If anyone from CDM’s readership would like to go cover, we’d be much obliged!)
XLR8R.com, SF event, LA showcase

And if you want to include records other than just Ghostly’s in your listening queue, check out their lovely look back at the past decade at the end of last year – plenty of agreement in my own music library here.
Ghostly’s 110: Our Favorite Albums of the Decade

Meanwhile, if you want a look behind the scenes with a Ghostly artist, here’s what Christopher Willits is up to with Livid Instruments’ Block (see last week’s round-up) and Ableton Live with Max for Live, for our friends at XLR8R.

View full post on Create Digital Music

The wait is over. The IPL 2010 is here. The opening ceremony of the DLF IPL 2010 twenty 20 promises breathtaking performances by a a number of Bollywood celebrities as well as International artists. The opening ceremony of the 2010 IPL 3 would start today, March 12 at 6pm IST. The live coverage, videos and streaming will be available on a number of sites. In India Sat Max TV channel will telecast the live opening ceremony of the IPL 2010.

The audience will be dazzled by the performances by Bollywood Bombshell Deepika Padukone and international artists like Akon, Abba Revival, Lionel Richie, Ali Campbell of UB20′s and Bjorn. The IPL opening ceremony will indeed be a treat to watch. VJ and current host of some television shows, Ayushmann Khurrana will be the new addition to this season’s extraa innings T20.

The IPL 2010 is expected to become the world’s most viewed sporting event. The IPL T20 cricket matches have taken cricket to another level. The IPL 2010 tickets for different matches are available online and the site also offers to ship the tickets at your doorstep via bluedart courier services. However, tomorrow’s opening ceremony tickets are all sold out.

The IPL T20 ticket booking can be done online from Kyazoonga and bookmyshow sites. Bookmyshow announced that they are the exclusive ticketing partners for Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab. They are also the official online ticketing partners for Delhi Daredevils. One can even book the tickets throuhg WAP and mobile applications.

The IPL 2010 Twenty20 match tickets are priced between Rs.400 to Rs.4000 depending upon the availability and the the teams playing the match. The Tickets for the Royal Challengers Bangalore matches are available in most of the city’s popular cafe days and from Union Bank of India branches.