Nokia Music Announces “New American Noise” — A New Film Series Revealing The Burgeoning Music Landscape In America; New Orleans Teaser Clip Currently Premiering At SPIN.COM

January 8, 2013 – LOS ANGELES – Nokia Music, a free music streaming service from Nokia that offers free and unlimited access to playlists and songs on Nokia Lumia smartphones, has teamed up with Sundance Channel and SomeSuch & Co to produce an exciting new documentary series entitled “New American Noise”. The series features six short films created by leading independent directors, including Abteen Bagheri, Emily Kai Bock, Bob Harlow and Tyrone Lebon and features a variety of emerging music talent, including Angel Haze, Mykki Blanco, Nicky Da B, Diplo, and more (complete list below).

The series will air in a one-hour special to air on January 18, 2013 on Sundance Channel. Each film will explore the burgeoning underground music landscape in six cities, including Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans, Portland, Atlanta, and Detroit. The films will be available on www.sundancechannel.com/nokiaafter they have premiered on the network.

Nokia Music is partnering with BUZZMEDIA, (www.buzz-media.com), one of the largest and fastest growing digital media companies, to premiere individual teaser clips from each of the films, across its portfolio of sites leading up to the airing of the special on Sundance Channel. SPIN (www.spin.com), BUZZMEDIA’s leading music brand, is premiering a teaser clip of the New Orleans short film today HERE.

In addition, Nokia Music today announced that it will partner with SPIN to host a special private screening of the one hour television special, including a lunch and intimate Q&A with the directors. The event will take place on January 18th at the exclusive Claim Jumper in Park City, Utah, during the upcoming annual Sundance Film Festival.

That same day, special playlists featuring the music used in each film will be made available via the Nokia Music, the free streaming service available free on all Nokia Lumia devices. (A complete list of artists whose music is featured in the films can be found below.)

“Music is a huge passion for many people and I’m extremely impressed by the way each of these directors has been able to capture the unique music scenes in each of these cities,” said Jyrki Rosenberg, vice president of Nokia Entertainment.

Nokia Music is now available in the United States on our full range of Lumia smartphones – including the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 on AT&T, Lumia 810 on T-Mobile and Lumia 822 on Verizon.

Artists featured in the film series include:

Detroit: Deastro – Lord Scrummage – Flint Eastwood

Atlanta: Trinidad James – Two9

New York: Mykki Blanco – Angel Haze – Kirk Knight – CJ Fly – The Underachievers

Portland: WL – Sundaze – The Appendixes – Lubec

New Orleans: Sissy Nobby – Nicky Da B – Diplo – Big Freedia

LA: SVF Acid

The song “Bright Lights” from Austin based critically acclaimed blues, rock and soul artist Gary Clark Jr.’sBlak and Blu album by will be featured in the promos and the closing credits of the series.

For more information visit http://www.newamericanoise.com/# or follow #NewAmericanNoise

About Nokia Music: Nokia Music features playlists that are curated by an expert team of global and regional musicologists, spanning a wide spectrum of genres from underground Detroit house tracks to New York Philharmonic favorites.  Completely advertisement-free, and requiring no registration or subscription, Nokia Music allows consumers to enjoy the songs of their favorite artists without any disruption. Nokia Music can also be enjoyed offline so consumers can listen to their favorite playlists anytime, anywhere.

For more information visit www.nokia.com/music or follow #MusicGetsYouTalking

About Sundance Channel: Sundance Channel is the destination for What’s Next, Now.  Showcasing both today’s creative icons and the emerging talent of tomorrow, Sundance Channel tells bold stories with a fresh point of view. In addition to award winning films, Sundance Channel is home to daring new original programming. Launched in 1996 and owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc., Sundance Channel provides perspectives dedicated to founder Robert Redford’s mission to celebrate creativity.

About BUZZMEDIA: BUZZMEDIA is defining digital culture; publishing more than 40 leading brands whose original voices define their categories. BUZZMEDIA reaches one in four millennials in the U.S. monthly through its portfolio of award-winning and influential brands including: SPIN, Celebuzz, Stereogum, Videogum, Buzznet, TheSuperficial, Idolator, PureVolume, Hype Machine, AbsolutePunk, What Would Tyler Durden Do?, SocialiteLife, Go Fug Yourself, Just Jared, Pink is the New Blog, Gorilla vs. Bear, RCRD LBL, TheFrisky!, Concrete Loop, Brooklyn Vegan and Punknews. As measured by comScore, BUZZMEDIA is the largest digital publisher of entertainment news and the fourth largest digital publisher of original music content in the U.S. BUZZMEDIA draws on original editorial content, deep audience engagement, and knowledge of the young adult audience to provide customized, innovative marketing and advertising solutions across its branded properties.

About The Directors: 

Stanford graduate and Los Angeles, CA-based writer and director Abteen Bagheri has a strong passion for visiting and documenting unfamiliar places while striving for authenticity and emotion. He has directed music videos for A$AP Rocky, Delta Spirit, Blood Orange, and The Presets.  For this project, his films will transport the viewer to New Orleans and Portland, where realistic vignettes will reveal cinematic portraits of underground music scenes, genres, and sub-cultures.  Bagheri says, “The goal of the project is to uncover the culture of an American city – specifically through music – and allow everyone to experience the scene as if they’ve lived it. It’s great to see cities and their music scenes for the first time, looking in with an outsider’s perspective.”

Canadian director Emily Kai Bock received her BFA at Emily Carr University.  After college she relocated from Toronto to Montreal where she co-curated a loft/venue space that functioned as a hub for local artists and musicians.  There, she began work on a series of short docs about the underground music scene and collaborated on performances and music videos with her local musician friends. After her music video for Grimes’ “Oblivion” became an online sensation, Emily was recognized as a true contender in music videos with a unique vision.  She has worked with artists such as Grizzly Bear and Sebastian Schuller and moved into the commercial world with a beautiful piece for Coca-Cola. Her film in this series will explore the alternative hip-hop scene in New York City.

UK-based Bob Harlow studied film and television at Ravensbourne.  While there, he directed three videos for the band Hadouken, the first of which went on to receive over 4 million plays on YouTube.  He has directed videos for Rudimental, Best Coast, The Vaccines, Pulled Apart By Horses, and done live video work for Lykke Li, Enter Shikari, and Jamie Woon.  He has also completed campaigns for Adidas and Range Rover.  Harlow has chosen to focus his film on the city of Detroit due to its deep musical roots.  From the blues of the 40s and 50s through Motown in the 60s and 70s to the birth of techno in the 80s, Detroit has always been an exciting musical mecca.  There’s a need to survive in a city that for years has been on the brink of collapse and riddled with poverty, yet the inspiration and the creativity flow.  His film will explore the talent emerging from the Motor City.

London-based filmmaker, photographer and creative director Tyrone Lebon made his first documentary film at the age of 18, a surf film called Daves Indo Tour.  At 19, he received his first photographic assignment for i-D magazine.  He went on to earn his MA in Social Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh.

His works have been featured on the pages of Arena Homme Plus, Dazed & Confused, Pop, and Love magazine and included in group shows at Christie’s Rockefeller Center (NY), Galerie Azzedine Alaïa (Paris), and the Saatchi Gallery (London). In 2006 his documentary ‘Mengejar Ombak’ (Chasing Waves), about the life of Indonesia’s Top Surfer Dede Suryana, won various awards including best emerging talent at X-Dance Film Festival in Utah, USA.

His clients for film and moving image include Dr. Martens, H&M, Island Records, Maison Martin Margiela, Nike, Louis Vuitton, Stussy and Supreme.  For this film series, Lebon created films following musicians trying to break the industry by promoting their music through the strip club scene in Atlanta.  For Los Angeles he pulls back the curtain and shows portraits of artists, the people they surround themselves with and the environments they inhabit.

About SomeSuch & Co: Somesuch & Co. was founded in the summer of 2010 by Sally Campbell, Tim Nash and Nick Gordon. Sally and Nick previously worked together at Academy Films; Sally as a Partner/Producer and Nick as a Director. Before Somesuch & Co, Tim worked for six years at Atlantic Records gaining recognition as one of the top music video commissioners.

The three make a strong team and the company has gone from strength to strength, building a fresh and varied roster including Kim Gehrig, Daniel Wolfe, Ewen Spencer and Bob Harlow as well as directors from international partners Iconoclast; So Me, We Are From L.A and Romain Gavras. The company also successfully champion new talent such as Emily Kai Bock, Ben Strebel, Abteen Bagheri and Tyrone LeBon.

Somesuch & Co. have made commercials for San Miguel, Stella, Guinness, Nokia, Ballantines, Skoda, Seat, Doritos, New Look, Vodafone, HTC, Cobra, Coca Cola and Asics.

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