A Train Entertainment

We are very happy to announce that the Wim Wenders documentary Pinawith Jun Miyake’s music Lilies of the Valley and others (and the song composed by him and sung by Lisa Papineau, The Here and After) is now one of the 5 final selections for the documentary section of the Oscars as announced today by the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Oscar winners in each category will be announced on February 26.

On January 17, Pina was also nominated by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in the section “Best Non-English Language Film” for the BAFTA Award 2012. The ceremony will take place in London on February 12, 2012.

Wim Wenders and his co-producer Gian-Piero Ringel were already awarded the European Film Award as best documentary, on December 3, 2011.(European Film Academy Documentary 2011 – Prix Arte)

The film is now showing to full houses in New York and L.A. and will certainly extend its impact further.

Congratulations to Jun Miyake!

Billboard Magazine’s The Year 2011 In Music:
#1 Bluegrass Album – Alison Krauss’ Paper Airplane (contains Peter Rowan’s “Dust Bowl Children”)

World Music Charts Europe:
#4 The Secret – Vieux Farka Toure (Six Degrees)
#11 Agadez – Bombino (Cumbancha)
#29 Lagrimas Mexicanas – Vinicius Cantuaria & Bill Frisell (Naive)

NPR 50 Favorite Albums of 2011:
Tommy Guerrero’s Lifeboats and Follies

iTunes Mexico:
#1 Pecados y Milagros – Lila Downs (Sony Music Mexico)

Available now, her newest CD and first with Sony Music Mexico, Pecados y Milagros (Sins and Miracles), the current number 1 record on iTunes Mexico, is an exploration of faith in light of modern events, both tragic and inspirational. The title gives away some of the topics which she covers on this latest disc: the miracle – who is her young son – and the sin which is the corruption and violence of modern Mexican society. The title and concept are also inspired by the traditional “Ex-voto” paintings of Mexico which, as a concept, was incorporated into the project. Fifteen renowned Mexican contemporary visual artists have joined Lila in this project and each has created a work of art to accompany each song on the CD and are included in the booklet. The original paintings are currently being exhibited at the MUNAL, the fine arts museum of México City, where viewers will experience the paintings and music as an integrated experience. These images have also been integrated as video projections which will be part of her concert performances.

“We have all sinned and also have an idea of what that means. It always gets a laugh when I say it, because the first thing that comes to mind are sins of the flesh, but there’s also the other side, which is all about power, about being a leader and having responsibilities, which is what I focused on.” ~ Lila Downs

www.liladowns.com

Well this may sound like some wacky wish fulfillment but the A Train juggernaut has hitched itself up to cherry pick and develop various artists who currently work with Total Creative Freedom Ltd in North and South America. The idea behind TCF really is that the lunatics have taken over the asylum and guess what, they are doing a great job. Musicians and labels within the TCF structure are empowered to make their own choices as they negotiate their way through the digital age and all the many possibilities it presents.

Currently TCF license and manage releases for Knumskull HQ, Sup Peeps Records, The Big Chill Label, Bob Hillary and The Massive Mellow, Mezzowave, Mano De Dios, Paul Diello, Holotronica and Patrick Bergin. Major label refugee and recording artist Eugenie Arrowsmith and producer, re-mixer and artist Lee Pepper founded TCF. Eugenie had been signed to Virgin 10 Records as a teenager in the late 80s (and yes there are YouTube videos out there to prove this). She made a half a million pound album with the likes of Steve Hillage, members of Shriek Back and Mercury nominated trumpeter Guy Barker. Similarly Pepper (as he is commonly known) had been signed to EMI and spent 3 years working in Paris and New York.

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