This morning we are pleased to welcome a long time MailTape listener and Marseille-based vocalist and composer, Siêm Folknomade.
In her own words, her music is ‘the celebration of a nomadic folk imbued with sweet metaphors, dissolutely original and eternally ephemeral’. If you’re in Marseille on 24th May, she’ll be performing at La Mesón.
Siêm Folknomade’s selection
Ry x – Bound
Siêm Folknomade: ” Hypnotic and melancholic. A vaporous spirit that melts me deep in the heart. Love the emergency heartbeat and the silence! Love the minimalist beauty of this artist. Ry x has all the spirit of ubiquity and universality. That’s the ‘Nowhere Everywhere’ songs I love. So nomadic! “
Maii Waleed – يوم الاتني
Siêm Folknomade: ” Meaning ‘Monday’ in Arabic. So ambitious for a Sunday morning mood! haha. Love the rêverie of the track. I am fan of this artist and her neo-alternative musical vision. So mellow like a creamy milky kawa! “
Nonku Phiri – Sîfo
Siêm Folknomade: ” This ode to grief is a recent neo-electro & soulful discovery. I feel this song like a rewarding to shadow. A peaceful inner celebration. Love the life whatsoever and beyond any intuition. “
MailTape’s selection
Siêm Folknomade – Et Même Si
Sanjay: ” Siêm Folknomade has been a listener of MailTape for many years. When she emailed me about appearing as a guest in her own right while offering her debut EP ‘BlackSheepColorist’, I thought it would be pleasure to welcome her melancholy music and lyrics of exile… “
Emiliana Torrini – Tookah
Sanjay: ” There’s something of the pastoral electronica here; rooted in atmospheric folksy melodies upon bubbling percussive beats. ‘Tookah’ is a word made up, apparently, by Emiliana Torrini to describe ‘a sense of inner peace and tranquillity that can be present in everyone’. “
Lilith Ai – Native Tongue
Sanjay: ” Lilith Ai is an accomplished singer-songwriter drawing subtly on folk, soul, hip-hop and R&B. All of this is seen through the barrier-trashing lens of punk spirit, which explains her ‘Fight Like A Girl’ crew. It involves zinework, recording and enthusiastic intimate gigs in makeshift locations, allied to a sense that rigid genre (and rigid gender) boundaries are less important than constructive intent and political engagement. “
The Last Poets – If We Only Knew What We Could Do
Sanjay: ” A scan through hip-hop’s genealogy shows the genre’s flair for dexterous word play is partly rooted in the work of The Last Poets, alongside Gil Scott-Heron. Smooth and cogent, the group—consisting of Seventies-era members Abiodun Oyewole and Umar Bin Hassan, along with percussionist Baba Donn Babatunde and other collaborators, including avant-jazz bassist Jamaaladeen Tacuma—is back with a follow-up. ‘Transcending Toxic Times’ addresses themes it has been tackling since its founding in Harlem in 1968, including racism, oppression and the sins of America’s past. “
That’s it for this morning. As always thank you so much for joining us! Much love and respect to Siêm Folknomade for her Sunday selections, and to Camille Célestin for her stunning illustration.
