Laszlo: Mr. Sunshine

As you can tell, I am very eclectic in my musical tastes. I like a wide variety of musical styles and I am not sure how I found the artist Laszlo, but I believe I was searching for mandolin music and this particular cut utilizes mandolin. It is a far cry of the mandolin music I might feature on Traditional Tuesdays, but I like it just the same.

Laszlo is a pseudonym for London based music producer Aaron Frederick Wheeler. It is hard to classify this music as it has West African rhythms, jazz, and technopop influences. Laszlo uses four instruments on the intro of “Mr. Sunshine” that are heavily processed to give the tune its unique sound: mandolin, Spanish guitar, piano, and a Rhodes electric piano.

He also utilizes homemade rhythm instruments and taps the side of the mandolin for percussive purposes. As the song swells to the end, a number of other keyboards are added to the mix. I liked “Mr. Sunshine” immediately. Recently the song was animated and the accompanying video adds some additional sound effects. It also has a surprise ending – watch it in full.

Another cut that can be found on YouTube is “Zeitgeist,” which reminds me of Kraftwerk. The CD features three original tunes and three remixes including the following that really exudes technopop stylings. This is the Raga Waltz Remix.