With the release of the single "Play Me A Christmas Song", Stephen Dowd manages to bottle the very specific, blue-hued silence that falls over a living room once the wrapping paper has been cleared away. It is a curious thing, really, how a melody can act less like a sound wave and more like the smell of a candle that was blown out five...

Some musicians don't simply make music for the sake of expressing themselves; they also do it to comfort listeners and bring them together. Among the rare breed of artists who can also empathise with their audience is the outstanding Christine Tarquinio. Christine's inventiveness is not limited to her projects; she makes it her duty to educate people about how she creates art. This kind of...