Los premios Solal Europe son otorgados a aquellos centros comerciales que han realizado las campañas de marketing más efectivas y novedosas. Y la efectividad debe ser medida por el incremento en las afluencias y sobre todo en las ventas del periodo en el que fueron desarrolladas además de ser diferenciales en el sector retail.

Uno de los centros comerciales premiados en la pasada edición fue GranVia2 (Barcelona) por el desarrollo de su campaña Shopping 2.0.

Si necesitáis más información en la web ICSC podeis encontrar la documentación necesaria para presentarse a estos premios de acciones de marketing o a los premios Maxiawards con otras categorías como: mejor reforma, reposicionamiento de Centro Comercial, ampliación, etc…

Elle lui tendait les mains. Il les prit, et il plia le genou devant elle. Inspirée, elle plia le genou devant lui, et si noblement qu’elle renversa la théière, les tasses, le pot à lait et toutes les rondelles de citron. Agenouillés, ils se souriaient, dents éclatantes, dents de jeunesse. Agenouillés, ils étaient ridicules, ils étaient fiers et beaux, et vivre était sublime.

Albert Cohen, Belle du Seigneur.

I’m Rollin’ – Solal ft. The Nashville Bluegrass Band
The Grand Duchess of San Francisco – American Music Club
The Flicker of a Little Girl – Tindersticks
Cracking Up – The Jesus and Mary Chain
The Nun’s Litany – The Magnetic Fields
Doves Circled the Sky – Bodies of Water
Cold Shoulder – Adele
Oh My God – Mark Ronson ft. Lily Allen
When a Pretty Face – Adam Green
Gilt Complex – Sons and Daughters
Weekend Without Makeup – The Long Blondes
All My Friends – Franz Ferdinand
Words You Used to Say (Sand Pebbles Remix) – Dean & Britta
Enchanted – Patrick Wolf
Soul Singer in a Session Band – Bright Eyes

Para quem não está a identificar o nome, Philippe Cohen Solal é um dos membros fundadores dos Gotan Project, trio parisiense que fez renascer o espírito do tango na Europa, juntando-lhe elementos electrónicos ocidentalizados e pondo meio mundo a ouvir aquele CD de cartão que parecia conter magia no interior. Desta feita, Solal sobe o continente americano e predispôs-se a descobrir, desconstruir e sugerir um novo olhar sobre a música country neste Moonshine Sessions, de finais de 2007. Não existem aqui batidas electrónicas ou variações na instrumentação. Solal pega em músicos country e bluegrass experientes como Jim Lauderdale, Lucas Reynolds, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Ronnie Bowman e não tenta inventar nada de novo. É apenas a sua abordagem europeia a um género musical profundamente norte-americano, de onde resulta um disco limpinho, bem arranjado, que pretende, parece-me, aproximar o público europeu do country, género que tem teimado em não querer nada com o velho continente. Esta tentativa de aproximação é de tal modo evidente que somos presenteados com versões country de bandas europeias tão diferentes como os Sex Pistols (Pretty Vacant, com Rosie Flores na voz) ou Abba (numa versão pastoral de Dancing Queen). O resultado é globalmente positivo e Solal arrisca-se a ser em breve o Ry Cooder da primeira década do século.

(come dire una prova, un inizio. come dire che almeno ci tento di nuovo. a mettere musica sul blog, intendo, che qui ci sta un po’ come il cioccolato a metà pomeriggio. per ora cominciamo così)

TITLE: The Moonshine Sessions / ARTIST: $olal / LABEL: ¡Ya Basta / RELEASE DATE: 25th February / CAT NO: YAB035CDLTD

“The Moonshine Sessions” – the new album from Philippe Cohen Solal, French composer, DJ/producer and co-founder of Gotan Project – is as unexpected as it is remarkable. Recorded near Nashville with an ensemble of virtuoso musicians, and devoid of dance beats or electronica, this is an album of purist acoustic country music. Haunting, ghostly, unobtrusively emotional, its frugal use of melody is in vivid contrast to Gotan Project’s multi-million selling, velvety fusion of live tango and electronica. But it’s a piece of creative risk taking that has paid off dramatically.

Produced by Philippe Solal and Bucky Baxter during an enjoyably fruitful fortnight at Baxter’s rural Three Trees Studios, “The Moonshine Sessions” became a labour of love for all concerned, creating a buzz around Nashville’s country scene, and features musicians such as Richard Bennett – who’s worked with Neil Diamond and Emmylou Harris – Kenny Malone, Stuart Duncan and Shawn Camp.

Philippe’s love affair with country first began when he heard Neil Young’s Nashville-recorded album “Harvest”. Years later while touring with Gotan Project, he found himself writing darker, more personal songs. In June 2004 he took a bluegrass course at the Maryville College near Knoxville, Tennessee to improve his flat-picking guitar technique, hang out with fellow country enthusiasts, and wallow a little in the atmosphere of the Deep South. He drove to Nashville in search of the right producer and musicians to record and perform what was now an album’s worth of songs, and found Bucky Baxter and his Three Trees Studios. Baxter – a musician of no small repute – toured for 8 years with Bob Dylan as a multi-instrumentalist and colourful on-stage foil. He also played on the Ryan Adams albums “Gold” and “Demolition”, and the vinyl-only album, “Country Mike’s Greatest Hits”, with the Beastie Boys.

You can feel the languor of a Tennessee day and the heat of a Tennessee night ever-present on the album. Songs like “The Academy of Trust”, sung by Jim Lauderdale, carry a depth and intensity that belies their simple arrangements: the gentle acoustic guitar, the sighing pedal steel, the bitter vocals. There is longing, in Melonie Cannon’s exquisitely sad vocals on the tender “I Lost Him”, about the sudden death of a loved one. “Always Alone” is sung by Ronny Bowman, who magically appeared when Philippe was looking for someone who sounded like James Taylor doing country. This song brims with the kind of loneliness and regret that make country the best break-up music there is. But there is light amongst the shade in two playful, contrary, yet complimentary covers: ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” and the Sex Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant”.

Back in Paris, $olal tried to add electronic beats and textures – but it didn’t work. He decided to accept that “The Moonshine Sessions” should be totally acoustic, adding noises of the Tennessee day and night, snippets of conversation, the noise of a truck engine rumbling into life and the hum of crickets – all elements that bring a contemporary edge to an album that is pure country, refracted through the eyes, ears and experiences of a French DJ and producer not afraid to push his creative freedom to its limits.

—

If you would like some more information or you want to preview or review this release and would like to receive a promo copy, please contact sophie@rocketsciencemedia.com or simon@rocketsciencemedia.com