"The best way to express myself, and to understand the world"
062: Nesrine Belmokh
Good morning! This is Play It Like It’s Music. I’m Trevor, thanks for listening.
On Wednesday, October 28th of 2020 music is not content. It’s connection.
I voted this past weekend. Have you? Are you planning to? Good idea to get it done early when you can. Especially with how charged everything is now. Because who knows what kind of drama is gonna get thrown at us next week.
Today on the show we’re talking with someone all the way over in Barcelona, Spain. I was captivated by today’s musician the moment I first came across one of her performances on YouTube.
As you know, I keep an eye out for singing cellists. But that can be a pretty mixed bag and a lot of second-rate stuff gets put out in the name of novelty. But French-Algerian Nesrine Belmokh (whose stage act goes by just her first name) is bringing it on a lot of levels: she kills it with the cello in all the traditional ways, but she adds to that with a great vocal delivery, bandleading and songwriting chops which are nothing to sniff at by themselves.
It all comes together in a mesmerizing show.
Nesrine’s musical world is without borders; the combination of cello with her powerful voice and the interaction of her North African roots with her European present are irresistible. There is an economy of expression here, and the poise and culture of clas- sical music are juxtaposed with rhythms coming from both pop and jazz – it is a fascinating and constantly shifting blend.
Her brand new self-titled album comes out this Friday, so follow the links here in the show notes and grab a full listen. In the meantime, here’s a bit of music and conversation with the amazing Nesrine.
Quick ask: if you believe this show deserves a wider audience, please tell a friend:
It’s an honor to have her on the show.
Press PLAY above to hear my conversation with Nesrine.
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Thanks for listening to Play It Like It’s Music. Thanks so much to Nesrine for spending some very generous time with us. You can find her work at Nesrine Music dot com and also on IG @nesrinemusic.
Her new album comes out on Friday, but in the meantime here’s a link to the single.
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We're all contending with a mutating professional landscape, jacked revenue streams, a catastrophic global pandemic and plenty of other noise out here.
But you gotta keep playing:
We don't draw any lines here between scenes or styles.
As always, thank you for listening and remember to play it like its music.
You can check out my music on bandcamp and other places. It’s all at my website, trevorexter.com. Sign the mailing list on substack to get this show sent right to you the very moment it comes out.
Music is a beautiful thing and it makes the world go round.
Big love to your ears.
Trevor
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