This is one of my favourite websites. It’s French, so it can be tricky to find your way about, but it is totally worth it once you do. Your favourite bands, as you’ve never or rarely seen them, as well as what will be your new favourites. Beautifully captured by French film maker Vincent Moon, the musicians play acoustic sessions on quiet streets, on busses, under the Eiffel Tower. Arcade Fire, The Shins, Beirut, Fleetfoxes, Bon Iver, to name only a few from a huge list.

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A Beirut-based design trio have created an awesome spoof video about an iPad app they’re releasing soon. The app, ISpicePhotos, will create a new experience around Facebook photos, while the teaser trailer parodies the ‘deep voice’ narration of feature film trailers. We like.

The crew at 4AD, watching over perhaps the hottest artist roster of any independent label in the world, have put their collective minds together and come up with an album that holds every potential of being the finest release of the year. The formula is simple: you grab a batch of the hottest bands and artists around at the moment (take your pick from Arcade Fire, Yeasayer [pictured above], Bon Iver, Beirut, Sufjan Stevens; the list continues without the slightest dip in quality), throw in David Byrne for a touch of that priceless musical wisdom, quickly hammer together a few inspired duos, like Gillian Welch and Conor Oberst, or The Books and Jose Gonzalez, name it after a seminal Blind Willie Johnson track, and then get the brains behind one of the great bands of the last few years, The National, to produce it. Finally — take a deep breath — all the proceeds go towards the fight against AIDS. Dark Was The Night isn’t released until February 16th, but the scent on the wind is good. David Byrne and the Dirty Projectors’ opening track (listen below) is brilliantly fresh, while Yeasayer have channelled their wild spirits into a song textured as intricately as a Peruvian silk skirt, with a rainstick for effect.

There’s a deep complexity about the photographs of Beirut-based Gregory Buchakjian. The colours are ambitious and he invariably captures those moments of quiet reflection where, despite the motion of his subjects, you get a sense that there are layers upon layers of storyline sitting just beneath the glowing veneer. Earlier this year he presented his first solo exhibition of photographs as part of an exhibition called Nighthawks.