One day I came home from work, or some other place I went and came from. Wade beckoned me over to the computer, to show me some videos on YouTube. Typical guy.

I suppose it was a serendipitous accident, because as he was searching for musicians, he found a band called Tommee and the Neighbourhood.  He was impressed enough to show me, and I was impressed enough to remember the band for over a year. Now that I've got my kickin' music website, I knew I definitely wanted to feature them. Turns out, though, that the band has…disbanded, and Tommee has a solo act, which is fine with me, because he is still exceedingly awesome. 

After some investigating at Tommee's website, I found that he is from a village in Indonesia, and uses a wide range of indigenous and contemporary instruments to create his super-chill sound. His website even features them, with pictures, explanations, and audio samples, that made my boyfriend's mouth water (he has a thing for world stringed instruments).

Tommee's music is pretty crafty. It's relaxing, but with message, and is oddly simple and intricate at the same time. It has some reggae-island grooves, and a good, organic sound.  

He has two solo albums, Kachampo, and Get On So Well. He is currently touring Europe. Hopefully I'll have an interview pretty soon, but for now enjoy these MP3's and keep checking back for more Tommee goodness.

 See What Got Us Hooked

Links 

Tommee Official Website 

Buy Kachampo

Buy Get On So Well

 Music

 Cengaa Aruziki MP3

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/04%20Cengaa%20Aruziki.mp3] 

Get On So Well MP3

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/03%20Get%20On%20So%20Well.mp3] 

No Reason To Cry MP3

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/04%20No%20Reason%20To%20Cry.mp3] 

Io Ariku MP3

[audio:http://lovethemusicreviews.com/audio/01%20Io%20Ariku.mp3] 

 Tommee's On Tour

A few years ago I watched one of the Academy Awards shows with my mother. I don't remember what year it was, but it was around the time of the release of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, because Sting and Annie Lennox performed together, and she sang a track from the soundtrack. I think. Or it was Cold Mountain. 

Anyways, Sting performed; he sung, and played an instrument I had never seen before. Only this year have I found out what it was—- —–a hurdy-gurdy.

I know, right, "a what?"

A hurdy gurdy, or a wheel fiddle. I remember telling a friend of mine that he had a box strapped to him, with a handle on the side that he turned very consistently, and it made a constant low, humming noise. Sound a bit boring, but the humming was beautiful. Beautiful enough for me to remember it like 5 years later. It stuck out.

I'd like to share what a hurdy-gurdy is with you, by way of a Wikipedia article.

A hurdy gurdy (or hurdy-gurdy, also known as a wheel fiddle) is a stringed musical instrument in which the strings are sounded by means of a rosined wheel which the strings of the instrument pass over. This wheel, turned with a crank, functions much like a violin bow. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses tangents (small wedges, usually made of wood) against one or more of these strings to change their vibrating length, and therefore pitch.

Most hurdy gurdies have multiple "drone strings" which provide a constant pitch accompaniment to the melody, resulting in a sound similar to that of bagpipes. For this reason, the hurdy gurdy is often used interchangeably with or along with bagpipes, particularly in French and contemporary Hungarian folk music.

 There we go, basically. Here's a picture (click on it for a bigger one):

Whats funny to me is that someone who plays the hurdy-gurdy is called a 'hurdy-gurdyist". Original, eh?

Well, I wanted to share this fascinating instrument with you, and for more information, heres a link to the Wikipedia article.

Hurdy-Gurdy on Wikipedia