Join us for the Baltics Family Cultural Celebration on November 20 at 2:00 pm at the Downtown Library! We’ll get to hear Baltic music, listen to a Latvian folk tale, learn the Estonian Frog Rite Dance, see a real Latvian in a genuine Dancer’s Costume, and do Latvian, Estonian, and Lithuanian crafts! We’ll even be lucky enough to have a taste of Jāņu siers, a delicacy from the region. Learn all about Baltic culture at this fun event!

Shortlisted for the Orange Prize, The White Woman on the Green Bicycle is the first title in our collection by novelist Monique Roffey, made memorable in its audiobook format by the narrator.

Adjoa Andoh is an accomplished British film, television, stage and radio actor who made her Hollywood debut as Nelson Mandela's Chief of Staff Brenda Mazikubio in Clint Eastwood's Invictus. She brings drama and texture in narrating this story of a marriage both passionate and tortured - between expat. George (British), Sabine Harwood (she is French) and Trinidad, the island that came between them.

Lush, and full of opportunities for a white man, George was immediately seduced by the landscape, and the easy expat. lifestyle, stretching a 3-year contract stay into a lifetime. Sabine hated the incessant heat, humidity, and the savage brutality of an island awakening to nationalism where the colonials were barely tolerated. In the early days, the only comfort which Sabine took was in the green bicycle that she rode all over the island oblivious to the stares and speculation, and her secret fascination with the charismatic freedom fighter Eric Williams, an Oxford-educated black man.

"Roffey succeeds wonderfully in writing an informative and deeply moving novel about her homeland. The white woman on the green bicycle is in fact her mother."

"Narrator Adjoa Andoh becomes each of the characters in turn, flawlessly giving voice to a variety of accents--from the languid and lilting cadence of the natives of Trinidad to the clipped and imperial English of the main character, Sabine. In addition to being a virtual chameleon in the realm of accents, Andoh portrays both men and women with equal ease and breathes life into each character so that the listener is apt to forget that anyone is narrating at all. As a result, it is less of a listen and more of an experience."

Toronto-based independent music label Upper Class Recordings has had their paws in the T-dot low-fi music scene for the last decade. The small label is home to some stand-out musicians (from CA and USA) worth a listen on this side of the border. What’s interesting is that none of the artists can be filed solely under one category, be it pop, electronic, indie, or hip-hop.

The Russian Futurists is Matthew Adam Heart. His bedroom-pop (yes, that’s a genre!) has been wooing critics and fans for the past ten years. With some skillfully mopetastic song writing and electronic pop fun, Hart allows for some dancing to cure the broken heart blues. Definitely a stand-out artist on the label. Me Myself And Rye is a “best of,” if you’re looking for a taste.

Ever blending rap and electronic, and continually pushing barriers and jumping over them, the robust sounds from Cadence Weapon are severe, in a good way. At the ripe old age of 25, he has worked with some top notch musicians, and has remixed many others. His latest is TRON Legacy: The Mixtape, which is remixing the Disney version featuring Daft Punk, is a download only album where you set the price. He said it was a hoot hanging out with Jeff Bridges and Daft Punk while making it. No doubt!

For more electronic stylings, check out Girls Are Short, The Cansecos, or the DVAs. Girls Are Short are full on energy and fun. “This is how we do it in stereo, we’re from Toronto, Ontario.” Also fun, yet cerebral, The Cansecos tracks are indie-electro with synth beats, vocals, drum machines, and the usual electronic bliss. The DVAs feature electronic-pop with hints of funk, house and soul laid over electronic mixes.

I was pretty much sold on Food For Animals when I read the following: “Surely you’ve considered Aphex Twin and Chuck D teaming up in a studio… well that’s pretty much the explosion you get with Baltimore noise-gangsters Food For Animals.” Intriquing, right?

American classical composer, Steve Reich, has at least one thing in common with great science fiction writers: they put your mind through a blender. This week, Reich celebrates his 75th birthday while he continues challenging audiences with a new musical language.

Never heard of Reich? Watch this short documentary on his life and you may have to restrain yourself from checking out everything the AADL has by him. As the documentary says, Reich’s work is often based on repeated melodic patterns set to a regular pulse. His instrumentation is often unusual, such as using hand clapping and tongue clicking for an entire piece, or swinging microphones on pendulums over speakers to produce rhythmic feedback.

Brian Eno says his music wouldn’t exist without Reich’s influence. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas says, “I know when I’ve truly learned [Reich’s] pieces because they stop hurting.” Reich has named Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Charlie Parker’s music as strong influences on his work. Put these pieces together and you get a complex rhythmic experience akin to setting your brain blender on ‘Frappe.’

If you have enjoyed the books of Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith, we have a real treat for you in the audiobooks section. Confessions of a Serial Novelist is a recording of a hilarious, live presentation by him in New York City while on tour.

Many of us know him as a talented and amusing author of numerous series, including The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency, The Sunday Philosophy Club and 44 Scotland Street. If you are a fan of his writing, and enjoy his erudite commentary, cheerful manner and quirky sense of humor, this recording of him talking about being an author and reading from his work is so laugh-out-loud funny and so thoroughly delightful and entertaining it is not to be missed.

YOU can access almost 1,000 digital music albums directly through our AADL.org catalog. Stream or download as much as you like, DRM free, on any device you choose. No waiting for a copy. No due dates. Hooray!

POP / ELECTRO ROCK
Emma's Mini: Glamorously Femme Electropop
Emma's Mini is a duo based in Seattle, WA. In April of 2003 they self-released this album, "Beat Generation Mad Trick". Taking their cue from bands such as Lamb, Massive Attack and Moloko, Emma's Mini seamlessly blends Suzanne McClean's rich, lush vocals with Demian Shoemaker's innovative beats and soundscapes.

CLASSICAL / CHAMBER MUSIC
Colin Booth: Solo Harpsichord Music
Peter Philips, one of the great musical geniuses of the age of Queen Elizabeth I, was forced into exile in Europe because of religious intolerance in England, following the failed Spanish Armada. Not only did he become a famous composer throughout the continent, but his music, unlike his person, was celebrated in his home country. This album, "Peter Philips - The English Exile", has received enthusiastic praise from reviewers. Listen to Colin Booth play the music of Philips on a large and unusual harpsichord -- a copy of an Italian 17th Century instrument with two keyboards.

AMBIENT / ELECTRONIC
Dr. Sounds: Spacey Ambient/Dark New Age
Dr. Sounds is Alexander Forselius, a Romanian-born artist, creating spacey, ambient/dark, new age tracks using mostly free software packages. Alex has Aspergers Syndrome and feels he is a little different in thinking about and experiencing the world. "I think my brain values mathematics and logic before feelings...I mostly feel integrated with the computer, and feel a deep relationship with it...my experience in childhood, and autistic experience of the unorganized social world, is transmuted to unique, illustrative, ambient soundtracks that don't follow a given musical genre."

PUNK / ROCK
Rocket City Riot: High Energy Rock and Roll
Snotty punk rock reminiscent of the Sex Pistols. This 10th-anniversary redux of "We Name the Guilty Men" is raw and vital rock and roll that shakes your teeth. You will hear songs about love, death, and drinking, the holy trinity of punk rock. This is not the kind of music that RCR makes anymore, so get it while the getting is good.

WORLD / FOLK
Kara Nomadica: A Fresh New Sound Driven by Traditional Arabic and Turkish Rhythms
Kara Nomadica is a fusion of ancient and exotic instruments from the Middle-East, North Africa, and Australia. This album is driven by traditional iqaat (rhythms) and maqamat (micro-tonal scales) of Turkey and the Arab world. The band explores original compositions and breathes new life into a select repertoire of traditional Middle-Eastern classics. Denver music reviewer John Zwick says, "Kara Nomadica is what happens when you bring together a mess of overqualified music geeks with Middle Eastern instruments you've never heard of...it's a damn captivating sound."

Drive, an action-packed speed thriller starring Ryan Gosling as a Los Angeles wheelman for hire, stunt driving for movie productions by day and steering getaway vehicles for armed heists by night.
When he falls for Irene (Carey Mulligan), a vulnerable young mother dragged into a dangerous underworld, he find himself shifting gears and going on the offense. Based on the mystery novel Drive by James Sallis (also available in audio).

I Don’t Know How She Does It is based on the novel by Allison Pearson. Sarah Jessica Parker plays Kate Reddy, whose daily life is a non-stop balancing act - between her job and family. Complicating matters is Kate's charming new business associate Jack (Pierce Brosnan), who begins to prove an unexpected source of temptation.

Straw Dogs is based on The Siege of Trencher's Farm-Straw Dogs by British writer Gordon Williams. In this re-make of a 1971 film, David and Amy Sumner, a Hollywood screenwriter and his actress wife, return to her small hometown in the deep South to prepare the family home for sale after her father's death. Once there, tensions build in their marriage and old conflicts re-emerge with the locals, including Amy's ex-boyfriend Charlie, leading to a violent confrontation.

Killer Elite is based on a shocking true story that pits two of the world's most elite operatives --- Danny, an ex-special ops agent, and Hunter, his longtime mentor --- against the cunning leader of a secret military society. Originally published as The Feather Men by Ranulph Fiennes.

Michael Lewis's Moneyball : the art of winning an unfair game (also in audio) is now adapted in a film starring Brad Pitt as Billy Beane - the Oakland A’s general manager who reinvents his team to outsmart the richer teams by signing undervalued players considered flawed but who have a knack for winning games.

What’s Your Number? is based on the novel 20 Times a Lady by Karyn Bosnak. When Delilah Darling reads a survey revealing that most people have 10.5 sexual partners in their lifetime, she begins to feel like a tramp. She’s slept with 19 men so far --- almost twice the national average. Unwilling to up her number, but also unable to imagine a life of celibacy, Delilah tracks down every man she’s ever slept with in a last-ditch effort to make it work with one of them.

YOU can access almost 1,000 digital music albums directly through our AADL.org catalog. Stream or download as much as you like, DRM free, on any device you choose. No waiting for a copy. No due dates. Hooray!

BLUES / JAZZ
Bluesboy Jag: Authentic 1920's Solo Blues Guitar
Pared down to the down-home marrow of their bluesy bones, the twenty-six acoustic tracks of "Four Strings" are like an ultra-pleasant visit to guitarist Jag's front porch, where he plays for you on his hand made cigar box guitars. Intimate, unvarnished, authentic. Iced tea or lemonade with that?

CLASSICAL / OPERA
Philharmonia Baroque: Historically-Informed Classical Orchestra
Celebrated Dead Man Walking composer, Jake Heggie, has a fascinating take on the Persephone myth. In this recording, Philharmonia Baroque brings the tale to life with the help of Broadway superstar Patti Lupone and soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian. "To Hell and Back" traverses an impressive amount of musical territory in just five scenes—a turbulent overture, a dulcet duet, a potent cabaret number, and a penetrating aria among other things. Heggie uses these stylistic choices to develop his disturbing, deeply affecting portrait of spousal abuse and the familial denial that perpetuates it.

HIP HOP
Jay Love Baby: Booty Shakin' Baby Makin' Music
Atlanta-based B-Boy/breakdancer/deejay/producer/artist, Jay Love, delivers his new release, Ego Centric, a great party starter album packed with dance floor classics. It's highly energized with the feel of the Black Eyed Peas, beats like Timbaland and a vocal flow similar to T Pain and Flo-Rida. Booty shakin' is guaranteed.

FOLK / NEW AGE
Lydia McCauley: Intriguing Piano Compositions with Dynamic Accompaniment
ForeignLander is a collection of innovatively arranged pieces from 17-20th Century British Isles and Appalachia, beautifully performed by Linda McCauley and her Ensemble, along with special guests. A well known artist in the Celtic and New Age worlds, she slightly detours on this album by taking traditional Appalachian melodies and working her magic on them. While careful to preserve Appalachian traditions, Lydia creates a fresh sound that pleases both traditional and progressive music audiences.

ALT ROCK / EXPERIMENTAL
Kavanah: Eclectic Intense, Industrial Ethnic, Classical Phrasing, Soundtrack, Cirque
This soundtrack to the hit traveling circus show, Cirque Montage, is an eclectic mix of World Music, Electronica, Jazz and Cirque. Composer Martin St-Pierre and vocalist Kate St-Pierre are both Cirque du Soleil and Dragone (Le Reve) alumni.

YOU can access almost 1,000 digital music albums directly through our AADL.org catalog. Stream or download as much as you like, DRM free, on any device you choose. No waiting for a copy. No due dates. Hooray!

FOLK-ROCK
Robin Grey: Gently Experimental Nu-Folk
Robin Grey writes beautifully ironic, poetic-based tracks for the story-lover in all of us. His voice and attitude harkens back to Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, with masterful lyrics and deadpan delivery. Strangers With Shoes is colored with acoustic guitar, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, piano, double bass, organ, percussion toys and any other instruments he can fit into his little London studio. As one reviewer stated, "Grey is one of those wonderful talents that could recite the phone directory on record and you'd still be enthralled".

WORLD
Daniel Berkman: 21st Century Ambient African Kora
A wonderfully laid-back album, Calabashmoon blends Daniel Berkman's gorgeous kora playing with subtle beats and other little touches of vocals from regional performers for an overall feeling of sunny, world-influenced goodness. Berkman is known for his innovations to this 21-stringed instrument. In this collection of crafty and poignant pieces, he expertly weaves together a tapestry of sounds that gives the listener a sort of relaxed acoustic portrait of modern West Africa, from whence it comes. Be sure to check out the excellent title track, "Mystery Box House."

CLASSICAL
Sergio Azzolini & Vito Paternoster play Mozart and Haydn
Can a cello and bassoon form a duo? Three different composers thought so. W.A. Mozart composed a beautiful sonata for cello and bassoon, F. Danzi transcribed some of the most beautiful Mozart melodies, and F.J. Haydn composed two duets for cello/bassoon. Italian bassoonist Sergio Azzolini and Italian cellist Vito Paternoster demonstrate how these pieces continue to enchant, delight and amuse listeners today.

METAL / INDUSTRIAL / HARD ROCK
The Wretch: Painful Ambient Industrial Noise
Fantastically dark and elegantly industrial, Cyst by The Wretch is a surprisingly nuanced album that favors dynamic variation over mindlessly repeated loops. It's a hybrid of noisecore and drum 'n' bass, but with really smart rhythms and a noise-ambient wash that lends a huge amount of atmosphere and depth. The juxtaposition of totally glitched out, ever-changing beats with the eerie ghost calls and dystopian waveforms in the background works really well. The opening track "Turned" and "Do You" are great. "This is Terror" is beautifully brutal, and don't miss "Feel The Burning."

AMBIENT / NEW AGE
Tilopa: Healing Magic of the Japanese Zenflute
Pared down and austere, Tilopa's album, By The Way, sounds like serenity itself. The Japanese zen flute (kyotaku) is occasionally accompanied by monastic sounding vocals, and the overall effect is very subdued and meditative. "Red Fullmoon" is a particular standout on this album, a track that makes evident why this type of music was once favored by sects of wandering Buddhist monks. Most of the pieces on this album have that same type of traditional Zen sound, but there are a few more modern pieces here too, such as "Amigos De Viaje," which features acoustic guitar as accompaniment to the kyotaku.

Nick Ashford, who with his wife, Valerie Simpson, wrote mega-Motown hit after mega-Motown hit, died yesterday in Manhattan.

Ashford grew up in Willow Run, where he performed at the Willow Run Baptist Church. In 1996-1997, the Willow Run Community Schools included him in their first group of inductees into The Willow Run Hall of Fame.

Ashford attended Eastern Michigan University for awhile before moving to New York, where he fell on hard times. At 22, he met 17-year-old music student, Valerie Simpson, at the White Rock Baptist Church in Harlem, and thus music magic was ignited. The couple married in 1974.

Among their now-golden oldies hits are Ain't No Mountain High Enough, You're All I Need to Get By, Let's Get Stoned, and Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing,. Included in the star-studded roster of voices who performed their music are: Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Chaka Khan, and Whitney Houston. More recently, Ashford and Simpson were given credit on the late Amy Winehouse's Back to Black (2006) album for her Tears Dry on Their Own cut.

Ashford, who suffered from throat cancer, was 69.