#4713, From New Sounds Live Silent Films, Yasmin Williams: 'The Kid'

New Sounds | Feb 8, 2025

When Yasmin Williams plays guitar, it looks like she’s trying to play something else. With the instrument laying on her lap, she attacks it from above with both hands, producing a kaleidoscopic array of sounds. Her keyboard-like percussive approach might have come about from playing (and eventually beating) the Guitar Hero video game. She then got a “real” electric guitar, and figured out how to master it her own way. Williams also plays banjo, bass, kora, and as she puts it - “anything with strings.”

Williams is also a fan of Earth Wind & Fire, and inspired by them she’s added the kalimba, or thumb piano, to her music. By taping the kalimba to the body of her guitar, she’s able to play both instruments at once; her distinct style also leaves her tap shoe-wearing feet available for her to make beats. Listen to most of Yasmin Williams' new soundtrack to Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, recorded in January of 2023, at Brookfield Place.

Yasmin Williams on the Soundcheck Podcast (remotely) in 2020:

Program #4713, From New Sounds Live Silent Films, Yasmin Williams: 'The Kid' (First aired 2/9/23)

ARTIST: Yasmin Williams
WORK: Restless Heart [3:24]
RECORDING:  Unwind
SOURCE/INFO: yasminwilliams.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Yasmin Williams
WORK: Original score for Chaplin's "The Kid", excerpt [21:05]
RECORDING: NSL Silent Films at Brookfield Place, Jan. 26, 2023
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. 
INFO: yasminwilliamsmusic.com

ARTIST: Yasmin Williams
WORK: Original score for Chaplin's "The Kid", excerpt [11:09]
RECORDING: NSL Silent Films at Brookfield Place, Jan. 26, 2023
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. 
INFO: yasminwilliamsmusic.com

ARTIST: Yasmin Williams
WORK: Original score for Chaplin's "The Kid", excerpt [9:19]
RECORDING: NSL Silent Films at Brookfield Place, Jan. 26, 2023
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. 
INFO: yasminwilliamsmusic.com

ARTIST: Yasmin Williams
WORK: After the Storm", from the Original score for Chaplin's "The Kid", excerpt 6:43]
RECORDING: NSL Silent Films at Brookfield Place, Jan. 26, 2023
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available. 
INFO: yasminwilliamsmusic.com

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