Great news - Devon Sproule, who recorded her lovely, haunting song ‘Plea for a Good Night’s Rest’ for us in November accompanied by the legendary BJ Cole on pedal steel guitar, is appearing on Later with Jools Holland this Friday (29 February at 11.35pm).

The song, originally recorded on her 2003 album Upstate Songs, begins with the words “There are thick stars, up above where the trees part themselves…” and is full of beautiful vivid detail that takes you to a balmy night in Virginia.

Jools’ guests this week are Supergrass, Vampire Weekend, Chris Barber, Andy Fairweather Low, The Kills and Devon.

Monday: we met our environmental charity partners World Land Trust at their offices in Halesworth in Suffolk. It was a marvellous meeting – since we first created our partnership agreement with them for the Ecuador project two and a half years ago things have really moved on. World Land Trust are very excited about the project - dare I say it, even surprised by where we are already! Helpfully they are putting the feelers out for Latin American singer-songwriters too. There’s more to tell, some exciting possibilities…

Tuesday: Brazilian singer Cibelle recorded an acoustic take of her song Instante de Dois (from her latest album The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves) - the 9th recording for Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador. Despite feeling ill on the day she managed to pull off a recording that our producer Peter and I love: very beautiful, gentle and mysterious, like a mist passing between trees in a cloudforest, and with a hint of the Sixties about it. And as always with Peter’s recordings, she sounds like she’s in the room with us.

Friday: Devon Sproule (who recorded her song Plea for a Good Night’s Rest for us) emailed me to confirm she’s appearing on Later with Jools Holland at the end of February!

Onwards and upwards…

It’s been a while since I updated the blog but a lot’s been going on.

A few days ago, Dobet Gnahoré, accompanied on guitar by her husband Colin, recorded a new song written specially for the project. The song, called Ko Kpa (Forest), is written in Dida, one of the languages of the Côte d’Ivoire. This completes track 7 of the Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador album.

Dobet is a 23-year-old singer and songwriter from Côte d’Ivoire who learnt her multi-disciplinary approach to music in an artist community near Abidjan, and was voted BBC World Music Awards: Best Newcomer in 2006. She settled in France in 1999, and her socially conscious lyrics are performed in 7 different languages. Onstage, she is a singing, dancing, multi-instrumentalist and powerful presence.

Discography:

• Ano Neko (ContreJour, 2004)
• Acoustic Africa (Various artists, Putumayo, 2006)
• Music from the Chocolate Lands (Various, Putumayo, 2004)
• Na Afriki (Cumbancha, 2007)

Here are the other tracks recorded so far for Tropical Forest Project: Ecuador:

Kate Walsh (UK) You Are Home

iTunes No.1 album singer-songwriter Kate’s song makes people stop in their tracks and listen – world class (our producer’s words!)

Devon Sproule (US) Plea for a Good Night’s Rest

We first heard Devon sing this song in a stripped down version accompanied only by her guitar and legendary slide player B.J.Cole’s haunting tones at the Spitz. We had to have it! Devon kindly popped into our studio to record before supporting Lucinda Williams at the O2 that evening.

Valentin Gerlier (Italy/UK) This is the Waltz

Novelist Valentin’s extraordinarily constructed song, sung in his angelic voice, sounds at first like something from a French movie in the swinging 60s, or maybe opentop Bond negotiating hairpin bends in the Southern Alps… until you tune into the words and then you’re back in the trenches of the First World War. A masterpiece.

Nathan Ball (UK) Hideaway Snowflakes

Heart-throb Nathan Ball arrived at the recording session barefoot, and his beautiful song takes us on several journeys, taking in the skies over Wales and going on from there.

Alan Lacroix (UK) August

Alan’s song made me cry the first time I heard it.

Martha Tilston (UK) Untitled

We thought Martha’s exquisite, episodic and complex new song, written at breakneck speed and finished in our producer’s living room, was perfect when we first heard it, but she is a perfectionist and is returning to re-record shortly.

Great news – again! – singer-songwriter Martha Tilston (www.marthatilston.co.uk) has agreed to record a track for our tropical forest project: ecuador CD. I love the song ‘Space’ on her myspace – it has a mesmerising guitar riff that could go on forever; other members of the team seem to prefer one of the other songs.

Martha is even considering writing a new song inspired by the project. (more…)

Yesterday I picked up an email with fantastic news from singer Kate Walsh, who recorded her song ‘You Are Home’ for our tropical forest project: ecuador CD at the end of February.

The Times report that Kate’s album ‘Tim’s House’ topped the iTunes album chart last week, displacing Take That and The Kaiser Chiefs!

This is, of course, great news for us, and for the hummingbirds and other extraordinary life forms whose forest habitats will be brought under permanent protection through sales of tropical forest project: ecuador.

I asked Peter Larsen our producer to play back Kate’s song as soon as I got to his studio in South London the day she recorded for us. Just before he hit ‘play’ I asked him how it had gone (more…)

Welcome to Ginkgo Music’s website and blog. We exist to provoke and inspire the creation of music that makes a difference. Our mission is to halt deforestation and ensure there is a future for gorillas, hummingbirds, orchids, butterflies, birds of paradise and the other 10 million species with whom we share this beautiful and extraordinary planet. (more…)