‘Gypsy’ probably isn’t the right word. It’s just that it slips off the tongue better than ‘Eastern European’. Whatever you want to call it, there does seems to be an emerging trend for all things gypsy/eastern european. Apparently, “Gypsy Holidays” are the hip new short-holiday experience. There’s even a major US television series currently airing following the lives of a family of travellers called The Riches.

However, it’s music where it’s really having a big impact. There’s the “Gypsy Punk” of Gogol Bordello that’s been around for a while, but it’s the newer eastern-european folk influenced artists that are ticking all the boxes for me. Check out the slavic radiohead stylings of Beruit, or other eastern-bloc tinged artists like DeVotchKa, A Hawk & A Hacksaw or Matt Elliot.

Quick! Buy yourself a battered caravan, before everybody wants in on the trend!

Record your next album in style. If I was a rock star, I’d definitely be recording my next hit album at the Deltalab studios in downtown Copenhagen.

Delta Lab Recording Studios are the world’s first designer recording studios and the premiere studios for artists seeking both a singular, creative experience and comfortable, professional environs for their recording, production, and mixing needs.

Ok, so maybe you’re not a rock star, but if you love modern design interiors, go and check out the photos on the Deltalab website. You’ve got to love some of the Clockwork Orange inspired moments.

Find out more at Deltalab.

I tried, I really did. I tried to watch the film, Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle, but I just didn’t understand the appeal (I suppose the fact that I’m not really into football doesn’t help.) According to IMDB, the movie is, “Halfway between a sports documentary and an conceptual art installation, “Zidane” consists in a full-length soccer game (Real Madrid vs. Villareal, April 23, 2005) entirely filmed from the perspective of soccer superstar Zinedine Zidane.”

I was intrigued to see what M/M Paris did with the opening credit sequence of the film, but the real star of the film is the soundtrack by Mogwai. The soundtrack is contemplative, and quietly seething. It’s beautiful music, and if you’re into the more laidback sounds of a band like Air, you’re bound to like the Zidane Soundtrack too.

Check out the track Black Spider for a taste.

If you like other-worldy haunting music, check out Jóhann Jóhannsson. Jóhann Jóhannsson has created an album titled IBM 1401, a User´s Manual. The story behind the album is quite touching. Jóhann’s father was an engineer on a very early IBM 1401 computer, and learned of an obscure method of making music on this computer – a purpose for which this business machine was not at all designed. When the computer was taken out of service in 1971, it was given a little farewell ceremony, almost a funeral, when its melodies were played for one last time. This “performance” was documented on tape along with recordings of the sound of the machine in operation. Jóhann Jóhannsson’s album is based on those 30 year old recordings of the IBM 1401 computer.

Check the video on YouTube for the song Sun’s Gone Dim, & The Sky’s Turned Black to get a taste of this hauntingly soulful music.

Verdict: A two-hour version of Falco’s ‘Rock Me Amadeus’. That’s not to say I didn’t like it; embarrassingly, I quite like Falco’s ‘Rock Me Amadeus’. However, Falco was rocking the eighteenth-century costumes, baroque interiors and 80′s music well before Sofia Coppola got around to it.

View the trailer for Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette.

The Marie Antoinette Soundtrack is the real outstanding work of the film. Suprisingly, the modern day music by the Aphex Twin, 80′s tracks and classical pieces don’t seem out of place at all. This soundtrack, and Late Night Tales by Air (which also contains a mixtures of 80′s tracks and classical pieces — it must be a french thing) is all I’ve been listening to recently. For some reason, both albums have a cool calm european sort of chill-out vibe thing happening, which works for me!

First of all, let it be known that I don’t speak french. So, for all I know, Dominique Ané (known as “Dominique A”) could be singing about almost anything — but, I don’t care! The music speaks for itself — as cheesy as that sounds. My iTunes has been playing the album L’Horizon non-stop since I bought it. It ticks all my boxes. Moody? Check. Dark? Check. Possible soundtrack to your imaginary life as a tortured artistic genius living in a Parisian garret? Check.

If someone translates my favorite tracks like ‘Antaimoro’ and ‘Rouvrir’, and it turns out he’s singing about sunshine and rainbows, I’m going to be seriously annoyed. In fact, I don’t want to know. Ignorance is bliss!