Woodkid - An Awesome Musical Find

(Woodkid, aka Yoann Lemoine, via Wikipedia)

I always enjoy discovering new music that speaks to me and makes stop and just listen (rather than having it on as background music). I don't usually talk about it, however, but maybe it's the fact that the MTV Music Video Awards are on tonight, and are apparently atrocious, that is inspiring me to highlight something that's actually good.

(Note: I say "tonight," because I'm writing this on Sunday night, yet the post will publish on Monday morning)

It's even more amazing when such a musical discovery comes from a source that you wouldn't normally think of. When the E3 video game expo was held this Summer, one of the highlighted games was Assassin's Creed: Revelations, a game I've been anxiously awaiting for some time. The trailer that was released was super cool, showcasing some awesome graphics and the promise of a story resolution that has been anxiously awaited.

Yet it was the music that grabbed the attention. Music by somebody named "Woodkid." And it is powerful, moving, and haunting at times too.

Woodkid is the stage name for a French music video and film director named Yoann Lemoine, who is best known for directing Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" and Taylor Swift's "Back to December" videos.

However, he is also a musician, and under the Woodkid guise, has released a few tunes on iTunes.

The song that became prominent in the trailer is called "Iron," and here's the original video for it. The song is superb, and gripped me from the first drum beat until the final one.



It's rare when the music in a trailer upstages the images, but with a song this good, that's what happened. Lemoine does sing in English, though it can be hard to understand sometimes. It doesn't matter, because it's the music that gets you.

Here's another song of his, "Brooklyn".



It's so much different than the dark tones of "Iron," almost whimsical and nostalgic, demonstrating his range. (If you click on "Watch on Youtube" at the bottom of the video, the description has the entire lyrics).

This guy is awesome, and I hope that he finds continued success through the exposure that Ubisoft (the game company behind Assassin's Creed) has given him.

He deserves every bit of it.

Finally, if you're interested, here is the Assassin's Creed: Revelations trailer with "Iron" in it.

They did a terrific job of relating the video game action to the music, and it made my anticipation of the game even harder to bear.