Logging the Switch

Categorie: Muziek

  • Bendik

    Wát een gaaf geluid! Bendik klinkt als een heel orkest, maar is het werk van frontvrouw Silje Halstensen en drie bandleden. Jammer dat ze niet echt buiten Noorwegen touren, want dit wil je live zien.

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  • Under Byen in Ekko

    Zo, nu het gedoe met de kapotte harde schijf achter de rug is weer eens een gewoon stukkie tekst. Vorige week woensdag zijn we weer eens een bandje gaan bekijken. Ditmaal was het opnieuw een Deense groep, Under Byen (spreek ongeveer uit als ‘onne buuen’) en dat was zeker leuk.

    Met de Flip heb ik een filmpje gemaakt:

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    Rock Werchter 2008

    Zo, dat was m’n eerste meerdaagse-festival-ervaring. En wat voor een! Lekker vier dagen in het Belgische Werchter genoten van geweldige optredens van onder andere Sigur Rós, Radiohead, The Verve, Nightwish en Mika (z’n muziek is zó vrolijk dat je er gewoonweg in een stortbui voor blijft staan/springen!). Natuurlijk werd er ook genoten van het lekkere weer en van het feit dat je helemaal niks te doen hebt… Lekker relaxen dus :-)

    Op chronologische volgorde de bands en artiesten die ik heb zien optreden. Er zijn ook nog wat foto’s gemaakt die ik op Flickr heb gezet (waarom Flickr? dan kan ik ook eens de last.fm event tag gebruiken :D).

    donderdag

    • Counting Crows. Leuk, maar ik vind ze niet helemaal iets voor de main stage van een festival; het moet in een intiemere omgeving of Adam Duritz moet niet zo emotioneel doen.
    • Mika. Kijk, dat past dan weer wél op een hoofdpodium. Wat zet die gast een show weg, zeg. Je hoeft helemaal niks om de muziek te geven om toch een leuke middag te hebben. Zelfs de regen boeide niks, je blijft gewoon kijken.

    Omdat ik door de regenbui dus behoorlijk doorweekt was en het begon af te koelen ging ik “even” terug naar de tent om me om te kleden en mét de juiste spullen terug te komen. Bij de tent aangekomen ging ik eerst liggen en ik kan me de eerste drie nummers van Lenny Kravitz nog herinneren, om om half 12 te worden gewekt door de rest die terugkwam van R.E.M.. Ikzelf was toen volledig verbaasd dat het al donker was en realiseerde toen pas dat ik in slaap moest zijn gevallen :D

    vrijdag

    • Duffy. Schattig. Een beetje jammer dat het programmaboekje haar Amy 2.0 noemt, want wat mij betreft is het gewoon Dusty 2.0.
    • The Verve. Blijk ik toch uiteindelijk meer van te kennen dan alleen Bitter Sweet Symphony, alleen weet je niet dat het van hen is. Leuke band, misschien nog es wat meer van beluisteren.
    • Neil Young. De gemiddelde leeftijd van het festivalpubliek was vandaag al wat hoger en Neil Young was de reden. Deze rocker op leeftijd zette een fijne show weg.
    • Moby live: remixed. Een complete omslag op Main Stage als de hyperactieve Moby het podium bestormt. Hij remixt zijn eigen repertoire tot soms onherkenbare nieuwe nummers. Natuurlijk vergezeld van een flinke beat die tot in de verre omtrek te horen valt, zoals op de camping. Inderdaad, voor het einde weggegaan, maar dat deert dus niet, want je hoort het toch wel :D

    zaterdag

    Eigenlijk dé dag van het festival vanwege die ene band…

    • The Hives. Wat een schreeuwerige zanger en overdreven gespeelde anti-autoritaire populairdoenerij, bah.
    • Kate Nash. Moet toegeven dat ik weinig heb meegekregen van het optreden, we zaten een beetje verderop en keken naar de schermen en luisterden met een half oor. Ik weet dus niet precies wat ik ervan moet vinden :)
    • KT Tunstall: Weer zo iemand waarvan blijkt dat je ‘r allang kent van dat ene nummer Black Horse and the Cherry Tree en ook van Suddenly I See Leuk optreden.
    • Sigur Rós. Afgesproken voor de geluidstoren, helaas naast luidruchtige dronken Engelsen, dus na elkaar gevonden te hebben vrij snel verhuisd. De show is vernieuwd, weg is het gordijn, nieuw zijn lichtgevende bollen en kostuums die zo weggeplukt lijken uit Pan’s Labyrinth. De hele dag was het al regenachtig, maar natuurlijk klaarde de hemel een half uur voor het optreden helemaal op en kregen we een prachtige rode avondlucht te zien, zoals het hoort bij Sigur Rós. De nieuwe nummers werden goed ontvangen, en bij het blije Gobbledigook vraagt Jónsi opeens “maybe you can klapp to that” (uiteraard met vet IJslands accent) aan het publiek… Wauw! Communicatie! Een doorbraak :D Gelukkig was Popplagið nog steeds de afsluiter, dus werden we met een knaller heengezonden. Een registratie van het concert is te vinden op de FTP-site van de band (ja, het is zo een van die bands die dat wel leuk vindt als mensen concerten opnemen!).
    • Radiohead. Begin van gezien, zag er veelbelovend uit, heel arty en het klonk ook erg goed. Het was alleen al een beetje een lange dag geweest en we waren weer best moe van het gesjouw de hele dag. Weer gold dat we op de camping alsnog alles konden volgen op de lichtshow na.

    zondag

    • Anouk. De enige Nederlandse act op het festival had haar twee kinderen meegenomen voor de cute-factor. Knallend optreden. De kleine Benjamin mocht voordoen hoe het moet op een basgitaar en als hij vervolgens “nee” antwoordt als hij van het podium moet merkt Anouk op, “jee, wat een attitude zeg, van wie zou hij dat nou hebben?” :P
    • The Raconteurs. We zaten erbij en keken ernaar… Mjah, vond er niet zo veel aan eigenlijk.
    • Kaiser Chiefs. Hyperactieve Ricky Wilson leidt het publiek langs alle kanten van het podium en daar omheen. Op een gegeven moment is hij gewoon kwijt en vinden we hem even later terug in de geluidstoren om het podium eens vanuit het publiek te bekijken, “dat is m’n favoriete band daar… jammer dat er geen zanger is, misschien moet ik maar teruggaan”.
    • Underwold. Ik wilde hier eigenlijk heen gaan, maar de tent was overvol en buiten is het niet leuk. Na tien minuten ga ik terug naar het hoofdpodium.
    • Beck. Zij staan tegelijk met Underworld en hoewel de naam me wel iets zei realiseerde ik me niet dat ook dit weer zo’n band is waarvan je nummers kent zonder het bewust te weten. De zanger doet me denken aan de frontman van Dungen en ik bedenk dat ik die ook best eens live zou willen zien. Maar goed, in ieder geval was dit weer zo’n band waarvan je vindt dat je er eens wat meer van moet beluisteren. Ze spelen onder andere Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime van Korgis wat me bekend voorkomt, totdat ik me realiseer dat Krezip dat pas geleden nog heeft gecoverd. Verder opzoeken blijkt het de titelsong van Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind te zijn (als Jim Carrey huilend in de auto de tapes aan het beluisteren is).
    • Nightwish. Terwijl zo’n 65000 man naar afsluiter dEUS gaan blijft een kleine 2000 man in de marquee om de “Finse metal-goths” hun festival te laten afsluiten. En mooi is het, hoewel ik moet zeggen dat de nieuwe zangeres Anette Olzon het toch nét niet haalt bij de opera-geschoolde sopraan Tarja Turunen, maar het blijft prachtig. En leuk dat ik nog zoveel nummers herkende, ook al heb ik het al een tijd niet meer geluisterd. Met veel dubbele bass, pyrotechniek en snerpende gitaren, maar ook met piano sluiten ze een prachtfestival af.

    maandag

    ’s Ochtends staan we vroeg op om de spullen in te pakken en te verdwijnen voordat de grote meute op gang komt. De tent kunnen we achterlaten in de auto bij vrienden van Jolanda, dus dat scheelt weer een hoop sjouwwerk. Een krappe drie-en-half uur treinen later kom ik m’n kamer binnen en zie ik mezelf voor het eerst in vier dagen in de spiegel… Het lijkt wel of ik een snelcursus zwerver gevolgd heb…

    Volgend jaar weer? Of misschien een ander festival? De Metro heeft vandaag Rock Werchter met Pinkpop vergeleken, ze komen er niet helemaal uit. Elk nadeel heb nou eenmaal z’n voordeel.

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    Efterklang in Ekko

    Zo kom je nog eens ergens! Van Tutus kreeg ik vorige week een mailtje doorgestuurd,

    3×2 TICKETS: EFTERKLANG, 13/4 @ EKKO, UTRECHT (NL) De sprookjesachtige muziek van Efterklang brengt iedereen in vervoering. Jij kunt ze live zien als je mailt wie de extra violen speelden op “Under Giant Trees” naar prijsvraag@kindamuzik.net met als onderwerp Efterklang. ===> http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/efterklang

    Ik doe dat gewoon, krijg ik een mailtje van Kindamuzik terug…

    Je staat op de gastenlijst met een +1.

    Waaat, zo droog? Dus gingen Marly en ik gisteren lekker naar Utrecht voor Efterklang naar het gezellig kleine zaaltje genaamd Ekko aan de Bemuurde Weerd, wat naar het blijkt toen ik daar aankwam wel heel dicht bij Frank en Helie blijkt te zijn… Krijg ik deze tweet binnen als reactie op een live naar Twitter geuploade foto.

    Ideaal, dat Twitter, maar nee sorry, was dan een beetje laat geworden, gok ik. Volgende keer beter ;)

    Efterklang

    Het was leuk. Erg leuk, knus en gezellig. Oh, en ik heb ook nog een onherkenbaar fotootje gemaakt en live geupload van de support act Peter Broderick, van wiens muziek ik zo onder de indruk was dat ik gelijk z’n CD heb gekocht.

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  • U2 - Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

    I was pointed to this U2 music video (transcoded to h.264) yesterday.

    People who’ve seen Himmel über Berlin will recognize the theme… And the sequel to that movie is called… In weiter Ferne, so nah! or in English “Faraway, So Close!”

    Further, if you take a close look at the leader, you’ll notice that Wim Wenders himself was the director of the video. It was produced in 1993, the same year as the follow-up movie.

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    Fellowship of the Ring: Complete Recordings

    Extreme bargain alert! I got this 3CD plus a DVD with the complete recordings of The Fellowship of the Ring at a ridiculous price of € 5,95 at Makro… Something of a 90% discount off the Amazon-prize. Someone really must have messed things up since I’ve seen it at said Makro for something around € 40,- not too long ago.

    Contents:

    • A booklet with information on the various themes in the music, certainly an interesting read.
    • 3CDs with the complete musical sound track of the first of the Lord of the Rings movies.
    • 1DVD which contains the same music, only now in four formats: standard Dolby Digital Stereo and Surround and in 48kHz 24bit Advanced Resolution Surround and Stereo Sound. Anyone who can play DVD-Audio?

    It seems that software to play the DVD-Audio portion (it’s what goes in the AUDIO_TS directory on a DVD) simply doesn’t exist. One has to have a hardware player for it, but now the same hardware players are dropping support for it in favour of HD content.

    I really enjoy this “Extended Edition” of the soundtrack, it’s fun to picture the complete film along with the music :)

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  • Kaizers Orchestra In Effenaar

    Great concert, little short maybe, but well… Making it longer won’t make it long enough :)

    The setlist was something like this (taken from a gig in Danmark, changed where I knew the differences):

    • KGB
    • Delikatessen
    • Knekker deg til sist
    • Hevnervals
    • Container
    • Señor Flamingos Adieu
    • Blitzregn Baby
    • Bøn Fra Helvete
    • Mann Mot Mann
    • Kontroll På Kontinentet
    • Christiania (yes, the self-governed community in Denmark, but also the former name of Oslo)
    • På Ditt Skift
    • Die Polizei (request from audience)
    • Di Grind
    • Dieter Meyers Institution
    • Evig Pint
    • Ompa til Du dør
    • Maestro

    Reprise:

    • Mr. Kaizer…
    • Bak et Halleluja
    • Resistansen

    Thanks to Lotte, Sjoerd, and Bram for joining me. Ah, and Lowlands is a no go, since I’ll be in Iceland by then after all (I thought Lowlands was in July).

    And I found some English translations to the lyrics!

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    Sigur Rós in 013: Breathtaking

    Just came back from Tilburg, after a long day of being jumpy (couldn’t really handle myself somehow) and andskotinn, what a difference with Paradiso!

    Not that the Paradiso gig was bad, this was different! For one, 013 The Choice is much bigger. For Sigur Rós this can be both a good thing and a bad thing. They should play intimate, yet they need the space for the things Orri does to his drums ;-) Paradiso is perfectly suitable for an intimate performance, which it was, but the sound just didn’t have that oomph thing (although I think the bass drum was set too loud now).

    Okay, over to 013 then, after all I was there and not in Amsterdam today! 013 The Choice is a big hall (actually a very big staircase) with one large balcony and that’s where I went to view the whole thing. Since most things that happen on stage are small, the balcony is the perfect spot to get a good view on things. You also are quite certain that noone is standing in front of you :-)

    The start was the same, first came Amina, played their set - with a new piece inserted between Hemipode and Seoul, I think - and at the start of Ammælis (the yet unreleased poppy electronic Kraftwerk-like piece) got people chuckling and cheering, exactly the same reaction as in Paradiso, which I found funny – and then there was the white curtain again. The lights and shadows give a very nice effect on the curtain, which I missed in Paradiso, I had a better spot this time.

    Curtains open, and then… no Ný Batterí! Haha! Surprise! So Sæglópur is the new “second opening” now…

    New songs in the set include Svo Hljótt and Heysátan, more to come when I get my hands on a complete setlist… The songs just get bombarded over one, you simply cannot handle that much information!

    • Takk…
    • Glósóli
    • Sæglópur
    • Njósnavelin
    • Gong
    • Andvari
    • Hoppípolla
    • Með Blóðnasir
    • Olsen Olsen
    • Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása
    • Svo Hljótt
    • Heysátan
    • Hafssól
    • Smáskifa
    • Popplagið

    That’s quite some change from the Paradiso set! It’s sad to see classics like Ný Batterí and Sfevn-g-Englar go, but when there is a time of coming, there must be a time of going… They cannot keep on playing the old stuff over and over again, they would become like Boney M and noone wishes that for them!

    Hoppipolla and Með Blóðnasir belong together and are played together with only a tiny little pause in between, just enough for some in the audience to start clapping and almost immediately shut up… However, during Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása, just after the ‘við áttum okkur draum, áttum allt’ line, the band just stopped for what was it… 30 seconds? Some started clapping, others shhhh’d them immediately and for about 20 seconds, 013 was completely silent… 2000 people and noone making any noise, just complete silence. I think that’s far more powerful than a stadium doing eeeeeeyooooo’s with the performer.

    As was to be expected, the concert was concluded by an extremely powerful Popplagið (track number 8 on ( )), the curtain was closed during this song and the play of lights and shadow gave it that magical extra touch.

    The audience was different. In Amsterdam it was like everyone there was an artist or in some other way connected to a creative profession. In Tilburg, it looked more like the concert for the rest of us or something. Among them was also Tiësto by the way.

    I got myself a t-shirt with free stenciling of date and venue (great idea!) from the “toothfairies” of Sigur Rós… They surely know how to sell things :-)

    After this, we set out for home… And now I’m typing this, which costed me about… one hour to get it out of my head and hands. Still somewhat stunned.

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    Sigur Rós in 013

    Yay, I’m going to see them again!

    Update:

    the 7th of november concert in 013 in tilburg, netherlands has been rescheduled for the 15th of november. tickets remain valid for the altered date and, if required, refunds are available from the point of purchase. the band and its management are sorry for the inconvenience caused by this alteration and worked hard to make sure they could still get to play in tilburg. the reason for this date change is due to the recording of a bbc music television show in london of which we will have more information very soon.

    and

    sigur rós will be appearing as guests on the bbc show “later with jools holland” in a few weeks. the show will be aired on november the 11th on bbc2 but will be recorded a few days prior to this and this is what caused the tilburg concert to be rescheduled. “later..” is one of britain’s most popular and influential music shows, with each show having several guests – some new and up and coming, some more established and some legendary artists. it promises to be an interesting and exciting event. more information as we get it.

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    Sigur Rós in Paradiso!

    Yesterday, it was 13 July and like I already posted earlier, Sigur Rós was performing in Paradiso Amsterdam.

    Around three I went on my way to our nation’s capital, arriving there by half past four. The weather was nice and the streets were packed with people, so I decided to join them and take a walk through the city. I went from the central station over Damrak to Dam (where I completely forgot to look for the location of the new Apple Store in the center of Amsterdam), then through the Kalverstraat to Leidseplein. There I called Esther to join them (her, her friend Erwin and his (Icelandic) girlfriend Sola) for dinner, they were in the Sarphatipark, very close to the famous Albert Cuyp market.

    Getting a bit thirsty I tried to find a supermarket, but somehow I didn’t manage to find one until I almost gave up looking for it… When I got in the park, it was already almost time to get us something to eat. That is not a very hard task in Oud-Zuid which is filled with little restaurants where you can have dinner for only a few euros. The hardest part is to decide which restaurant to go to.

    At dinner, some dirty Icelandic words were exchanged and I learned a lot about them ;-). Especially what you shouldn’t say too loud in Iceland! ‘Tot straks’ for instance, being just plain Dutch for ‘see you later’, is pronounced much like the Icelandic ‘Tott strax’ and that means you want a blowjob right now. Must feel strange being an Icelander in the Netherlands.

    When we were finished, it was already time to go to Paradiso, the doors would open at seven and we were already late. Outside Paradiso there was a huge line, which was very special apparently because it drew the attention of many Amsterdammers. The funny thing is of course that no one who asks who we are all waiting for actually knows Sigur Rós… One woman even thought they were from Spain, ha!

    Okay, so we went inside, after we had to pay another € 2,50 for a Paradiso membership card. Upstairs we went to get a good view on the stage, plus that there are seats on the balconies! After a beer, the lights went down and Amina came on stage. They have played with Sigur Rós a lot and as would come clear during the performance, will be playing with them for some time in the future.

    Amina is an Icelandic string quartet, playing virtually every instrument with strings, acoustic as well as electric and their sound fits perfectly with Sigur Rós as well as with Efterklang. After playing for about an hour, they left the stage and a curtain closed.

    About fifteen minutes later, the silhouettes of Sigur Rós became visible on the (see-through) curtains and they began playing their first song, which is a new one (‘Introduction’ followed by ‘Glósóli’) from their new album ‘Takk…’ (thank you) to be released in September. No one knew this of course, but it was received very well by the audience (and also by me of course). After this song, the curtains opened and Jónsi began a haunting Ný Batterí intro, followed by the rest of the concert :-).

    The setlist:

    • Introduction
    • Glósóli
    • Ný Batterí
    • Svefn-g-Englar
    • Sæglópur
    • Sé Lest
    • Mílanó
    • Gong
    • Andvari
    • Vaka (Untitled 1)
    • Viðrar Vel til Loftárása
    • Hafssól
    • Popplagið (Untitled 8)

    It truly was a great concert and I cannot really find the words for it, not in Dutch, let alone in English. I guess if you like their music, you really should try to catch a gig.

    On the way back in the train to Eindhoven, I was not quite alone for some other rockband had a concert in Amsterdam too, only they were with a few more people.

    I would like to send back a big ‘Takk fyrir’ to the guys of Sigur Rós and hope to see you next time!

    Update:

    The Dutch magazine OOR has an article about the concert, describing what I couldn’t.

    Update 2:

    Added the setlist and a Torrent file of nice FLACs of the concert is available.

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    Under Byen - Det Er Mig Der Holder Træerne Sammen

    Under Byen is like Efterklang also a Danish group. They play rock music with a sensitive touch.

    I always tend to be inclined towards rockbands with female lead singers, and if they are from Scandinavia they must be great. Under Byen is no exception, except that they are exceptionally different since you won’t find a guitar in the band (well, there is a bass player, but no lead).

    Det Er Mig Der Holder Træerne Sammen is the second album of Under Byen and is, stylewise, a continuation of their first album, Kyst. All lyrics are Danish, which is of course very interesting, but hard to follow. Luckily, there is the website Always on the Run which can give us translations of each and every song Under Byen released. Here, we learn that the albumtitle means ‘It is me who holds the trees together’ and ‘Under Byen’ means ‘Below the city’.

    A download of the title song Det Er Mig Der Holder Træerne Sammen is available for download from their website.

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    Efterklang - Tripper

    Efterklang (Flash only site) uses a very special electronic percussion and base sounds which reminds of Kraftwerk’s drum computers. This combined with the soft voices and acoustic instruments (trumpet, flügelhorn, piano) gives the music this very unique sound

    Efterklang is a Danish group and the name means something like aftersound, or reverberation. On the album Tripper they play together with Amina, who already had done ( ) with Sigur Rós.

    You can download the video clip for Swarming (Quicktime) (WMV) from the groups web shop which gives a very good idea of their music.

    Lees verder
    • Christian
    • muziek

    Introduction to the music section

    This is a special section of my journal where I’ll now and then post links to music artists I like. Posts on music I already posted will be moved here, keeping their original publication date, so you’ll notice that this introduction is not the first post… Well, so be it.

    Lees verder
    • Christian
    • muziek

    Herman van Veen

    It has been a while since I wrote something here. Yesterday I was surprised with a visit to Herman van Veen, a Dutch singer and one of the creators of Alfred Jodocus Kwak. The school where my dad teaches is merged this year with another one and one of the festivities was this special gig of Herman van Veen for every employee with their partner.

    It was a nice evening, Herman is doing his 60th birthday tour this year together with band; Erik van der Wurff, Edith Leerkes and Wieke Garcia and two more who’s name I couldn’t make out. He’s doing old songs and new ones, the new ones being partly political, partly emotional. He is rethinking his life, thinking back about his mother, about his daughter as a baby, but also letting Edith sing a funny song about what she would have done should she’d be a man.

    I won’t try to translate some lines into English, since he can do it very much better than I.

    Maar mocht ‘t nodig zijn, ik haal je uit de diepste
    de diepste kraters van m’n hart, m’n lijf, m’n liefde.
    Dat je me één keer vasthoudt heb ik liever
    dan heel de wereld bij mekaar.

    Lees verder
    • Christian
    • muziek

    Sigur Rós in Paradiso!

    A nice surprise yesterday when I came on the Sigur Rós website. They come to the Netherlands on their 2005 tour! 13 July is the day, Paradiso Amsterdam the place. I’ll be there, who’ll be joining me?

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    Newest acquisitions

    Today I picked up Dancer in the Dark (starring Björk) and Ágætis Byrjun (by Sigur Rós) at the Free Record Shop, which I ordered two weeks ago. Both took a bit longer than was to be expected.

    Since I was in the city anyway, I decided to hop by the local Apple Centre to take a good look at the Mac mini. On my way back I went to Van Leest and bought Homogenic by Björk.

    In case you’re wondering what he’s doing with all this Icelandic stuff lately… Indeed, I’m intrigued by this little country in the northwestern corner of Europe and its people, language, culture… I would really like to go there some day and see for myself, maybe even do an internship? Esther must have infected me with the Iceland virus ;-)

    Meanwhile in Eindhoven, the weather is nice, it’s not too hot, yet warm enough to sit on a terrace in the sun. Knowing Dutch weather however, this isn’t going to last long and the weather will change in a few days.

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    Godspeed you! Black emperor

    And then, just when you think that there can be nothing like Sigur Rós, you bump into Godspeed you! Black emperor… Strange, very strange. The music is a little bit different, the texts are different, but the sound as a whole is the same.

    Funny…

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    Sigur Rós

    I already mentioned Sigur Rós (Victory rose) in my iPod shuffle entry, but I think they deserve an entry of their own.

    Two weeks ago, I heard the first sounds from this Icelandic group. It was the album Ágætis Byrjun, which is Icelandic for “an alright beginning”. Their music is really beautiful, much softer than for instance Björk. At first it made me think about The Gathering. But now it reminds me most of a giant evolution of the psychedelic music of Pink Floyd.

    Their debute album, called Von (Hope) begins with a very intriguing introduction of two tracks Intro and Dögun (Dawn), followed by the beautiful Hún Jörð (Mother Earth). It is a pagan version of the “Our Father”.

    Móðir vor sem ert á jörðu
    heilagt veri nafn þitt
    komi ríki þitt

    Our mother, who areth in earth
    Hallowed be thy name
    Thy kingdom come.

    Nice, nothing more to add…

    This really must be the most strange debute I have ever heard; but it sounds great, almost like it is a record that you can use to test and adjust your stereo equipment to get the most out of their music. Every possible sound is contained in this one, low noises, high shrieks and everything in between.

    Since their texts are all either in Icelandic or in their own pseudo-language Vonlenska (Hopelandic), I decided to do some language study on the first. The first step with every foreign text I get, is trying to read some text without any help of dictionaries or other documents. This might seem very hard, but since it is mainly a North-German language, it looks very much like Dutch and even more like Frisian. However, there are many gaps to fill still, so a dictionary is fairly obligatory. Luckily, there are translations available.

    One of my housemates has seen Sigur Rós perform live and she said they’re even better then. So when they are around, I’ll try to catch a gig.

    There is so much more to tell about the sound, but as always, it is better to hear it for yourself. So, my tip for this week: Sigur Rós.

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    • Christian
    • muziek

    The Gathering in Mezz

    Went to see The Gathering in Mezz yesterday.

    An “audiovisual show” was announced, well, the audio part was excellent. Too bad the visual part didn’t really stand out. A VJ would show clips made by Dutch video-artists, mixing with the music. But they didn’t match at all, except of course the video clip of Souvenirs itself.

    I noticed too that at least one part wasn’t by a Dutch video-artist as it came directly from the ending sequence of Koyaanisqatsi by Godfrey Reggio and music by Philip Glass: The launch of a Saturn V and crash of another vessel (don’t know if it was manned or unmanned, don’t even know its name). Ok, so the video part was nice, but a bit disappointing.

    Well, back to the musicians and their music, where we were all there for after all. Anneke is now five and a half months pregnant and that was very visible. I wonder if her baby will once become such a good singer, too :-)

    02-08-2004: Dear Gatherers, I am 3 months pregnant! As happy as I was, that’s how sick I was as well. I took the pregnancy-nausea to a whole new level. :-) Now all is well again and I look forward to carrying both, the baby as well as the upcoming tours and the rest of the year to a blazing end. Many greetings, Anneke

    I really liked the long “jamming” part on Black Light District (starting from 7:46 on the album running for about two minutes), basically it was just 5 minutes playing exactly the same accord, but after a while I started to hear some melody in it. Very strange and for everyone a diffent one probably. The crowd loved it and Anneke and René, who play the guitar, too. The whole performance of it was perfect, totally different from an album recording, just like how a live show should be.

    Maybe they should do the same special thing with every song they play.

    Next month, 25th of November, Vive la Fête will be performing in Mezz. I’ll have to see if I’m going.

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