Happy Birthday Tori!

While we here at Undented are at the tail-end of the international day (it’s Monday in Australia, yo!), our birthday wishes for Tori are no less heart-felt. Here’s hoping for a lovely, relaxing birthday for her — and for many more!

Map The Music

After the unexpected death of her father, Samantha Hale embarked on a journey following Imogen Heap around on tour, much in the same way that many of us do with Tori Amos, albeit for a different reason. Music was her path to healing; as she says, “Music has been my therapy ever since. And going to a live show was my group therapy.”

While out on the road following Imogen and other artists, she started documenting her fellow travelers and how live music matters so much to so many people. The result is Map the Music, a documentary film that “explores the power and importance of music.” Tori and we Toriphiles are featured in the film, as well as other artists including Imogen Heap, Rachael Yamagata, Cary Brothers, Kate Havnevik, Joshua Radin, Jim Bianco, Zoe Keating, Charlotte Martin and, of course, their fans too.

Check out the trailer below and, if you’re interested in picking up a copy, it can be pre-ordered from Insound. It’s currently slated for a September 7th release.

Only The Puppet Could Explain Just What He Was

A couple of theatre-oriented news sites have posted articles which shed some new light on the current state of The Light Princess, the musical Tori is writing the music for that we first heard about in an interview way back in May 2007.

According to Show and Stay and WhatsOnStage.com, the production, under the guiding hand of director Marianne Elliott (War Horse, Women Beware Women, Mrs. Affleck), has gone through its first workshop at the National Theatre which is said to have involved puppetry. Perhaps Mr. Puppethead was more than just a passing fancy after all!

Both pieces also state that The Light Princess is currently slated to premiere at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre in 2012.

Thanks again to Shireen86 for passing along these links!

Releases From The Artists Den

Live From The Artists Den: Season 2, a new collection featuring live performances from the upcoming season of this television program, is now available exclusively on iTunes US.

The compilation features 10 songs from the series, including Tori’s performance of “Ruby Through The Looking Glass” from the Park Avenue Armory in New York City.

You can preview all tracks from the collection in their entirety using this handy-dandy player from Fairtilizer — and if your browser supports iframes, it’ll be on the right side of this story for easy-peasy streaming. Tori’s track is the second one.

Thanks to JamesB for that tip!

On a related note, the eagle-eyed joe noticed, buried in the text of the press release announcing the line-up of season two:

Artists Den Records offers live concert CDs and DVDs from our shows, such as our upcoming release, Tori Amos: Live from the Artists Den, recorded at New York’s Park Avenue Armory.

So it looks like we’ll have a live release of this collection to look forward to soon! More details as they are announced!

So You Think You Can Dance To Tori Redux

Don’t to be outdone by the Aussies, the Polish version of So You Think You Can Dance? has also featured a dance performed to Tori’s music. This time, competitors Leal & Bartek dance a modern piece choreographed to Tori’s version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The segment that features the performance can be watched on YouTube — it starts at the 1:30 minutes mark:

Thanks to Jarek for the notice!

So You think You Can Dance to Tori?

On the Australian edition of So You Think You Can Dance, Tori’s rendition of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” was the backing music for a contemporary dance piece by contenders Phillipe and Jessie H. In the episode wrap-up on the show’s website, the performance was noted to be a “dance highlight” by the judges.

Unfortunately for those outside of Australia, the video clip of the performance is only available to Australians…but perhaps it will make its way onto Youtube eventually. Wink wink nudge nudge say no more!

Thanks to Brian and Mel for the heads up about this!

Here Lies Love Released Today

From David Byrne:

Today the Here Lies Love package comes out – multiple formats and lots of stuff to absorb. There are download versions and CDs, and the top of the line is a 120-page book with 2 CDs and a DVD of 6 videos. That can be ordered on line as well. In case you don’t know about this project, it’s a series of 22 very danceable songs about Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines, and Estrella Cumpas, the woman who raised her. The material was written by myself and Fatboy Slim, and is sung by 20, count ‘em, 20, amazing singers. A theater piece for your ears. Reviews are coming in if you’re curious. Click on the image to find out more…

NPR First Listen: Here Lies Love

Here Lies Love, the David Byrne/Fatboy Slim collaboration featuring numerous guest vocalists including Tori, is now streaming in its entirety at NPR Music. Tori sings on two tracks: “You’ll Be Taken Care Of” and the album’s closer, “Why Don’t You Love Me?,” a duet with Cyndi Lauper. The album is released on April 6th but you can check out the whole record or those two songs after the jump!

Thanks to Anthony and Sarah G for the tip!

Update: As the album is released today, NPR will be taking down their stream sometime during the day. It’s still up there now (7:00 AM Eastern) but probably won’t be there for long. However, you can purchase the album from all the usual places as of this morning if you haven’t pre-ordered it already.

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Imogen Heap Covers Cornflake Girl

At the request of a fortunate fan who won a charity auction benefiting Concern Worldwide, Imogen Heap performed “Cornflake Girl” at a concert in Melbourne, Australia last Thursday, March 25th. As those who are familiar with Imogen’s music might guess, it’s a unique interpretation of one of Tori’s signature songs, but like it or not, it was for a good cause and is worth checking out:

Thanks to limbonite, Imagaro and everyone else who let us know about this!

Stream "Why Don't You Love Me?" At DavidByrne.com

“Why Don’t You Love Me?”, the duet by Cyndi Lauper and Tori that closes out Here Lies Love, is this week’s featured track from the forthcoming collaboration by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. In addition to a complete stream of the song, you’ll also find an except from the hardcover book that accompanies the deluxe edition of the release about the song as well as its complete lyrics.

Thanks to Lico and waitressboy for the tip!

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