11-10-2016

hinahgift030 - The Tami Show

"House Of Earth"

Tami Means and her Tami Show (hinah024, hinahgift013 and hinahgift018) are back again on hinah with a beautiful gift: this time it is a cover of a song by Lucinda Williams and Woody Guthrie, "House Of Earth"!

30-06-2015

hinahgift029 - Rivulets

"hinah session"

For his third hinah session, Nathan Amundson decided not to use our acoustic guitars but instead his own electric guitar - unplugged. With Nathan singing over these muted metallic strings, the songs of Rivulets sound quite new and more intimate than ever.

30-06-2015

hinahgift028 - Love Like Birds

"hinah session"

Love Like Bird -- the project of Elke De Mey, a young musician from Belgium -- is packed with folk music sweetness, in the form of a parsimonious guitar and above all a touching, elegant, slightly nonchalant voice that makes you relax and day-dream. This session was recorded in 2011 and is finally available on our website!

18-08-2011

hinahgift027 - Vida Ray

"Music For Mister Means"

Tami Means had already recorded an album and a hinah gift (covers of Christmas songs) for us, now she is back again, this time under a new name with her brother Craig for an album of covers of country songs that they recorded for their father. A nice gift to keep your ears busy with while the duet is recording new songs!

24-10-2008

hinahgift026 - Fulton Lights

"hinah session"

We discovered Andrew Goldman's music a few years ago, at the time of his folk, melodic project Maestro Echoplex. After playing for a while under the name John Guilt, Andrew started a new project named Fulton Lights, which has just released its second album "The Way We Ride" and its heavier and more distorted atmospheres and tempos. As Andrew was on solo tour in Europe, we invited him over for a session that was meant to be electric but ended up being acoustic after the amp of our friend Eric decided to break down at the last minute. So here is a chance to discover Fulton Lights in its most stripped-down version!

02-06-2008

hinahgift025 - Flowers From The Man Who Shot Your Cousin

"hinah session"

Those who visit our website regularly are bound to have come across the name "Flowers From The Man Who Shot Your Cousin" once in a while in the news section. Indeed, we have been following closely Morgan Caris's project in the last five years and we would very much like to release something with his name on it... But Morgan is a perfectionist and this something is yet to come. Therefore a hinah session had clearly become necessary and the opportunity of an acoustic evening with Shelley Short and Brittain Ashford to inaugurate our Parisian hinah hq was just the perfect excuse!

27-04-2008

hinahgift024 - Matt Bauer

"hinah session"

This is not the first treat we get from Matt Bauer: a few years ago, he had already contributed to our "Tribute To The Anthology Of American Folk Music by Harry Smith" with an edited cover of "Willie Moore". Shortly afterwards, he had sent us his big EP "Wasps And White Roses", a beautiful folk piece on which the banjo blends with Matt's suave voice. In addition, Matt was surrounded with nice people, as Jolie Holland and Mariee Sioux joined him for this EP! So as Matt was touring Europe as part of Alela Diane's backing band in the spring, we invited him to make a detour via Frankfurt for a live hinah session.

16-04-2008

hinahgift023 - Brittain Ashford

"hinah session"

This is what you could call a last-minute hinah session. We were in Paris, where we had organised an evening with - we thought - two sessions, by Shelley Short and Flowers From The Man Who Shot Your Cousin. But then we met Brittain Ashford, whose debut solo album had just come out on Waterhouse Records and who was about to go on tour in France with Pollyanna. We invited her to come along... and we'd say it was an excellent idea, given the four folk songs full of autoharp and dulcimer that came out of this session.

06-04-2008

hinahgift022 - Shelley Short

"hinah session"

In January 2008, Shelley Short (a folksinger from Portland, friend of M. Ward's and of the members of Norfolk & Western, with albums out on KEEP Recordings and Hush Records - what else can we ask for?) contacted us with a request: as she was coming to Paris for two weeks holidays, she was trying to sort out a gig there. Our fine friend Erwan Broussine from Waterhouse Records helped organise a show at the "Pop In" together with Brittain Ashford and Pollyanna. Luckily, we were in France at that time and took the opportunity to record the very first hinah session in our new Parisian flat.

16-12-2007

hinahgift021 - Laura Gibson

"hinah session"

In the autumn of 2006, we received an email from our friend Paul Austin from the Transmissionary Six. He was just back from Portland, where he had attended a show by a folk singer named Laura Gibson, whom he very warmly recommended to us. So we followed Paul's mouthwatering advice and, much to the pleasure of our ears, discovered "Hands In Pockets", "Nightwatch" and other jewels produced by another friend of the hinah family, Adam Selzer from Norfolk & Western. That made us want to bring back to life the cd series after a year's hibernation and we asked Laura if she would be interested in releasing something on hinah. In the end, Laura did not have the time for a cd release but we have kept in touch and, when she told us that she would tour Europe, we invited her to come and play a house show, which we recorded as a hinah session.

01-11-2007

hinahgift020 - HitchcockGoHome!

"hinah session - 2"

Three years ago, we recorded in our Parisian flat the first hinah session of HitchcockGoHome! with the whole band. Since then, there have been quite a few changes, with Martin Leclerc living in Grenoble and us in Frankfurt. As luck would have it, the three of us were in Paris in September and we took the opportunity to ask Martin to grab his banjo and play a few new songs from the band. The full-sized version of these songs will be on HitchcockGoHome's second album forthcoming on Drunk Dog Records in 2008.

15-09-2007

hinahgift019 - LunDi

"Songes égaux"

Along with the latest CD release by LunDi on hinah, "4", we are happy to offer this new gift from Claude-Marin Herbert: "Songes égaux", his third recording from last year, a hinge element between "Mobiles/motifs" and "4". On this record, Claude-Marin gradually unveils his views on politics (besides, "Songes égaux" was not for sale but sent in exchange for another record, an object, a recipe...).

20-12-2006

hinahgift018 - The Tami Show

"Holiday Album"

In these times of holiday greetings, the American band The Tami Show offers you a gift that comes in timely: covers of Xmas songs! The band's folk/country music fits the songs perfectly and Tami Means' voice is more than delicious. Now it's your turn to sing along to these tunes ;-)

01-11-2006

hinahgift017 - The Transmissionary Six / The Green Apple Sea

"hinah session"

Our dear friends from The Transmissionary Six have often been featured on this website, but there was one hinah experience they had not gone through yet: coming to the hinah hq to record a hinah session. We took the opportunity of their tour in Europe to invite them home and rectify this omission! Paul Austin and Terri Moeller came along with Stefan Prange (from the German band The Green Apple Sea), who is accompanying them until the end of their tour. And of course, we also got him to play two songs from his band.

23-04-2006

hinahgift016 - H-Burns

"hinah session"

H. Burns is the solo project of Renaud Brustlein, who also plays in the band Dont Look Back. Renaud had really impressed us when he opened for Okkervil River in 2005 and so we offered him to record the last hinah session in our former headquarters in Paris. H-Burns played two songs from his first album ("Songs From The Electric Sky", out on 15 May on Noise Digger/Differ-ant) as well as many covers, two of which are now included in our Tribute to the Anthology of American Folk Music by Harry Smith.

20-11-2005

hinahgift015 - Don Nino

"Live"

Under the name Don Nino, Nicolas Laureau (member of NLF3 trio, ex-member of Prohibition and founding member & A&R of Prohibited Records) released in 2001 his first solo album "Real Seasons Make Reasons". After a long series of gigs with Shane Aspegren et Lori Chun Berg (Berg Sans Nipple) as a backing band, Nicolas played his last show of the year at les Instants Chavirés, together with his label fellows (Berg Sans Nipple, his brother F.Lor, the Herman Düne brothers, Wilfried*...) who were invited to join him onstage. The three tracks in the hinahgift were recorded that night!

22-05-2005

hinahgift014 - LunDi

"Cendres ascendantes"

LunDi is the solo project of Claude-Marin Herbert, a young man deeply inspired by the delicate music of pop heroes such as Mark Hollis and the Nits. It is no surprise that this project reminds us of a band like Bed (who is quite undeniably influenced by Mark Hollis), yet with a noteworthy difference: Claude-Marin's lyrics are in (beautiful) French. "Cendres ascendantes" is his debut recording under the name LunDi, and we do hope that this gift will make you want to hear more - for instance "Mobiles/motifs", forthcoming on hinah.

10-05-2016

hinahgift013 - Tribute To The Anthology Of American Folk Music By Harry Smith

"Anamude, Matt Bauer, Dave DeCastro, Donna, Everything is Fine, Grumpy Bear, H-Burns, Half Asleep, Kenyon, Marc Manning, Guillaume Maupin, oRSo, Perio, Pollyanna, Charlie Parr, Sandusky, Shelley Short, The Tami Show"

In 1952, Harry Smith - an artist, a mad collector, and much more - compiled for Folkways Records 84 songs recorded between 1927 and 1932. This three-volume anthology, genuine memory of the American popular music, influenced the folk songwriters of the '60s to a great extent, Bob Dylan leading the way, and it still haunts today's artists (Will Oldham, 16 Horsepower, Willard Grant Conspiracy, Kristin Hersh...). A fourth volume, containing 28 more songs recorded from 1928 to 1940, came out a few years ago on Revenant Records and brought the anthology back to the fore. As we are big fans of this collection, we've asked some of our favourite bands to pay a tribute to the anthology. The covers will be available on this page as we receive them!

- The latest cover -
Guillaume Maupin "La Danseuse"

13-11-2004

hinahgift012 - Drekka / Rivulets

"hinah session"

Between two shows in Bordeaux and one in Paris, Drekka and Rivulets spent one night at hinah hq. In the evening, they played to a small audience. On the next day, before they headed for the Guinguette Pirate, we suggested to record tracks for a new hinah gift. Michael from Drekka performed an a cappella song, and Nathan from Rivulets offered us a brand new song he'd just written!

01-11-2004

hinahgift011 - Charles C. Oldman

"Low Nicotine Aromatic Addiction"

The mysterious Charles C. Oldman is actually a well-known musician around here: Charles-éric Charrier, a cheerful guy mostly known as the acoustic bassist in a Nantes-based duet named man. As Charles happens to be less talkative when it comes to writing, let's try to introduce this track by ourselves. It was recorded live in 2002, and Oldman first sets up noises of scratched strings, which provokes a pleasant excitement on the skin, and then he builds up - very slowly - atmospheric layers and loops on top of one another. Now close your eyes and just let yourself drift away...

12-09-2004

hinahgift010 - HitchcockGoHome!

"hinah session"

We discovered the french band HitchcockGoHome! via the website of their good friends Cyann & Ben. And we were bound to fall in love with their sound that blends old folk music (Martin Leclerc plays the banjo!) with more noisy sounds (they are also fans of post-rock band like Godspeed You Black Emperor!). So after long hours of talking about music with them, it was more than normal for us to invite HGH for a hinah session!

22-07-2004

hinahgift009 - Marianne Dissard & Calexico

"Casey's Last Ride"

The first time we saw Marianne Dissard, she was singing on one of Calexico's hits at a live radio session in Paris ("Black Session" on France Inter). Later on, we followed her and her chum with Amor Belhom Duo and then Amor. As for Joey Burns, we had been in touch with him at the time of the first "Acuarela Songs" compilation but unfortunately, the band spent so much time touring that they had to decline our invitation. So it's a great pleasure for us to have Marianne and Joey together on a song that will make you sway all summer long!

29-04-2004

hinahgift008 - Arman Méliès

"hinah session"

We literally fell for Arman Méliès's debut folky and delicate mini-lp "Le Long train lent et les beaux imbéciles". Above all he has this impressive gift to mix two usually incompatible fields: lyrics in French and deeply American music. So we asked him to come at the hinah hq to record a session. Here it is!

17-01-2004

hinahgift007 - Adam Selzer

"hinah session"

Exactly one year after his first visit at the hinah hq, Adam Selzer came back to see us after a tour in Germany, but this time without his Norfolk & Western crew. As he hadn't planned any shows in Paris, we invited him to play in front of a bunch of friends. Adam kindly said yes and he played brand new songs for our delighted ears!

10-11-2003

hinahgift006 - Half Asleep

"Live"

For their third gig, and thanks to Fred Paquet from Intercontinental Records, Valérie Leclercq and her very young sister from Half Asleep were happy to come to Paris. So were we, because we couldn't wait to find out whether their performance would touch us as much as their cd. And it did -- now we love their music even more!

24-06-2003

hinahgift005 - The Transmissionary Six

"Live At Kud, Ljubljana"

In February of 2003, The Transmissionary Six toured Europe for the first time. They played Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Eastern Europe... but not France. We were sad. But then the band sent us the recording of the last show and offered us to pick some tracks for a hinahgift. That's fine with us... oh yes, quite fine indeed!

20-04-2003

hinahgift004 - Igrecohen

Now that you've heard Ambroise Yon play tablas on one song of Kenyon's hinahsession, here is a demo of his solo project named Igrecohen. Nothing oriental on these tracks, but instead inspiration from across the Atlantic with simple, clear, rootsy folk songs.

16-04-2003

hinahgift003 - Kenyon

"hinah session"

Pierre Laplace (singer from Vera Clouzot) came to Paris for a gig as Kenyon -- his new project -- with his young friend Ambroise. Although Pierre behaved like a kid, stayed out most of the night and hardly slept a wink, we fell on him as soon as he woke up and forced him to play a short acoustic session, among which these two intimate folk songs.

24-12-2002

hinahgift002 - Norfolk & Western / Adam Selzer / Peace Harbor

"hinah session"

We took the opportunity of having Norfolk & Western in Paris (on their way to supporting Sparklehorse during their European tour) to ask them to play a hinahsession for us between the meat and the cheese. And so we've got four tracks by Norfolk & Western, one track from (N&W leader) Adam Selzer's solo project, and two tracks by Peace Harbor -- the project of N&w guitarist, lapsteel and banjo player Zak Riles.

18-12-2001

hinahgift001 - Empty House Cooperative

"Improvisational Dinner Music at Middle East Restaurant"

In order to celebrate hinah's first birthday and Christmas at the same time, Empty House Cooperative kindly gave us this improvisational concert at a restaurant. It's likely to destabilize the listeners, but it will also enable them to discover the fascinating music of this band using the surrounding noises as a new musical parameter.