Tous les matins du monde

Let's dance little strangerShow me secret sinsLove can be like bondageSeduce me once again

Now I [...]]]> Once I couldn’t do anything without music. I studied while listening to music. I turned on the radio first thing in the morning. Last thing I did was turn it off at night. I played tapes and vinyl and later on CDs. I went to music school for about 15 years, playing several instruments.

Now I enjoy listening to the music of silence. I don’t need music around me all the time. But it’s still part of my life. An important part. I have my favourites. Don’t need to keep up with all the latest trends. I know what I like and don’t like.

Your hair is damp from the rain, Hungry eyes that look like lust. The ghosts of lost loves follow you, You feel but you can’t trust. Time disappears inside you, ‘Till there’s nothing left but us. We wave goodbye to everyone, And hope our love’s enough. Just put your hand in mine, Then cast your doubts aside.

Reaction to xiffy

Charles Bukowski – La vita di Borodin

The life of Borodin

the next time you listen to Borodin remember he was just a chemist who wrote music to relax; his house was jammed with people: students, artists, drunkards, bums, and he never knew how to say: no. the next time you listen to Borodin remember [...]]]>

Charles Bukowski – La vita di Borodin

The life of Borodin

the next time you listen to Borodin
remember he was just a chemist
who wrote music to relax;
his house was jammed with people:
students, artists, drunkards, bums,
and he never knew how to say: no.
the next time you listen to Borodin
remember his wife used his compositions
to line the cat boxes with
or to cover jars of sour milk;
she had asthma and insomnia
and fed him soft-boiled eggs
and when he wanted to cover his head
to shut out the sounds of the house
she only allowed him to use the sheet;
besides there was usually somebody
in his bed
(they slept separately when they slept
at all)
and since all the chairs
were usually taken
he often slept on the stairway
wrapped in an old shawl;
she told him when to cut his nails,
not to sing or whistle
or put too much lemon in his tea
or press it with a spoon;
Symphony #2, in B Minor
Prince Igor
On the Steppes of Central Asia
he could sleep only by putting a piece
of dark cloth over his eyes
in 1887 he attended a dance
at the Medical Academy
dressed in a merrymaking national costume;
at last he seemed exceptionally gay
and when he fell to the floor,
they thought he was clowning.
the next time you listen to Borodin,
remember…

Elgar Cello Concerto 1st mov.

Elgar Cello Concerto 2nd mov.

Elgar Cello Concerto 3rd mov.

Du Pré & Elgar Cello Concerto – Part 1

Du Pré & Elgar Cello Concerto – Part 2

Du Pré & Elgar Cello Concerto – Part 3

Elgar Cello Concerto 1st mov.

Elgar Cello Concerto 2nd mov.

Elgar Cello Concerto 3rd mov.

Du Pré & Elgar Cello Concerto – Part 1

Du Pré & Elgar Cello Concerto – Part 2

Du Pré & Elgar Cello Concerto – Part 3

Du Pré & Elgar Cello Concerto – Part 4

Du Pré & Elgar Cello Concerto – Part 5

Du Pré & Elgar Cello Concerto – Part 6

Du Pré & Elgar Cello Concerto – Part 7

Du Pré & Elgar Cello Concerto – Part 8

Originally posted on irmavermaat.vox.com

So you want to write a fugue?

Glenn Gould Chair

Short Film about Glenn Gould – Aria

Short Film about Glenn Gould – 45 Seconds and a Chair

Short Film about Glenn Gould – Solitude

Short Film about Glenn Gould – Forty [...]]]>

So you want to write a fugue?

Glenn Gould Chair

Short Film about Glenn Gould – Aria

Short Film about Glenn Gould – 45 Seconds and a Chair

Short Film about Glenn Gould – Solitude

Short Film about Glenn Gould – Forty nine

Short Film about Glenn Gould – Lake Simcoe

Originally posted on Vox.

Anna Ternheim – To be Gone

To be gone

Leave the body leave the mind Leave the body leave the mind Every promise every place behind

I just happen to feel so alone For today for all days to come

I just wanna be wanna be gone I just wanna be wanna be gone

Leave the quiet leave the night Leave [...]]]>

Anna Ternheim – To be Gone

To be gone

Leave the body leave the mind
Leave the body leave the mind
Every promise every place behind

I just happen to feel so alone
For today for all days to come

I just wanna be wanna be gone
I just wanna be wanna be gone

Leave the quiet leave the night
Leave the quiet leave the night
Broken feelings of dreams out of sight

Pictures in your head at night
For tonight for all nights to come

Erased for good and always gone
Erased for good and always gone

Leave the city leave the cold
Leave the city leave the cold
Young people far too old

Let me cross a very fine line
For today for a lifetime
For today for a lifetime

Leave the body leave the mind
Let me
Leave the body leave the mind
Every promise every place behind

I just happen to feel so alone
For today for all days to come
For today for all days to come

I just wanna be wanna be gone

– Anna Ternheim

Better quality video on her website, e.g. Today is a good day and Girl Laying Down, or this song To be gone

Originally posted on my Vox.

‘t Was boven op de berg dat ik begreep En besloot het nooit meer te vergeten ‘t Was boven op de berg dat ik begreep Wat ik al zo lang had moeten weten

Diep onder mij het zachte groene dal Wit boven mij de wolken in het blauw ‘t Was boven op de berg dat ik begreep Wat ik nooit meer vergeten [...]]]>

‘t Was boven op de berg dat ik begreep
En besloot het nooit meer te vergeten
‘t Was boven op de berg dat ik begreep
Wat ik al zo lang had moeten weten

Diep onder mij het zachte groene dal
Wit boven mij de wolken in het blauw
‘t Was boven op de berg dat ik begreep
Wat ik nooit meer vergeten wou

Geen stem, geen vuur vanuit een struik
Gewoon de vage bergen in de mist
‘t Was boven op de berg dat ik begreep
Dat ik dit al langer wist

Altijd, altijd

Geen donderslag bij heldere hemel
Ook niet de bleke sikkel van de maan
‘t Was boven op de berg dat ik begreep
Ik kan ook zonder angst bestaan

Was het de wind die mij vertelde
Je bent nooit alleen op deze aarde
‘t Was boven op de berg dat ik begreep
Wat ik al lang bewaarde

Was het de warmte van de zon
De geur van steen, door mij herkend
‘t Was boven op de berg dat ik begreep
Je bent nooit alleen als je samen met jezelf bent

Altijd, altijd

Bram Vermeulen
precies 1 jaar geleden overleden

What is the total size of music files on your machine?

6.04 GB, which [...]]]> Beckett passed this thing over to me, because I even blogged less than him. Originally the questions were in Dutch ( or perhaps not, this might have been circulating in any other language already ), but I decided to translate them into English.

What is the total size of music files on your machine?

6.04 GB, which is way more than I thought.

Which CD did you buy most recently?

Bembeya by Bembeya Jazz

Bembeya Jazz was the most famous orchestra of Guinea. Aboubacar Demba Camara founded it in 1961 and it became a National Orchestra in 1966. The influence and great vocal ability of Camara made him the favourite of Guineas independence president, Sekou Touré. They blended Guinean mandingo musical traditions with Cuban and Congolese influences. In 1973 Camara was killed in a car crash and the band lost an important focal point. For 3 years they didn’t perform at all.

Sékou -Bembeya- Diabaté, also known as Diamond Fingers, became famous as the lead guitar player of Bembeya Jazz. Bembeya Jazz was Guinea’s best loved orchestra during the optimistic years following independence.

Sékouba -Bambino- Diabaté, born in a griot family, started his singing career in 1972 in the Revolution Band. During one of the numerous singing contests in Conakry, a young Sekouba sang Salif Keita’s song Mandjou, a song dedicated to Sekou Touré, the president whose policy it was to promote African culture. Around 1980, President Touré requested that ‘the boy from Siguiri’, at the time only 16 years old, should replace Bembeya Jazz lead singer Aboubakar Demba Camara. (Source)

Further reading:

BBC – Radio 3 Awards for World Music 2003 – Bembeya Jazz
( Don’t forget to listen to the sample :!: )
BBC – World Review – Bembeya Jazz, The Syliphone Years
Bembeya Jazz – Biography
Frank Bessem’s Musiques d’Afrique: Bembeya Jazz
World Music Central – Bembeya Jazz

Which song did you listen to right before reading this entry?

Hey Pretty – (Drive-By 2001 Mix) ( lyrics )

” …
We never even kissed, or looked into each other’s eyes, our lips just
Trespassed on those inner labyrinths hidden deep within our ears,
Filled them with the private music of wicked words
Hers in many languages, mine in the off-color of my only tongue, until
as our tones shifted and our consonants spun and squealed, rabbled faster, hesitated, raced harder
Syllables soon melting into groans or moans, finding purchase in new words, or old words, or made-up words
…”

Name 4 songs you listen to a lot or 4 songs that mean the world to you.

Mmm … okay, I’ll give you 4 songs I listen to a lot these days. I changed locations at work recently, which means I know have to travel 2 x about 1 hour, instead of 2 x about 5 minutes. As wchulseiee bought himself an iPod, he gave me his old mp3 player:

Each morning and evening I listen to music. Of all the songs I can pick from, I find myself listening most to:

• The B52’s – Love Shack
• 16 Horsepower and Noir Désir – The Partisan
• Georges Brassens – Supplique pour être enterré à  la plage de Sète
• Salif Keita – Madan

To which 3 persons are you passing on this meme, and why?

I’m not going to give you 3 names. Instead, I’ll ask my loyal readers to answer those questions and keep this thing moving, preferably as far away from me as possible

Back in June it was my birthday. My brother and his girlfriend invited me and wchulseiee to a performance of Wofa. (Wofa being the Soussou word for ‘get together’) We had to wait several months but tonight we went to the theatre. Announced as an unforgettable show, magic with rithm, a non stop explosion of [...]]]>

Back in June it was my birthday. My brother and his girlfriend invited me and wchulseiee to a performance of Wofa. (Wofa being the Soussou word for ‘get together’) We had to wait several months but tonight we went to the theatre. Announced as an unforgettable show, magic with rithm, a non stop explosion of drumming, dancing and chanting, our expectations were rather high.

Ten performers on stage. Seven of them male, three female. One hour, break, another hour. Where the first part of the show was focussed on percussion, after the break there was more variety with dancing and singing as well. Although the show wasn’t bad at all, it wasn’t as irresistible as pictured either. On a scale from 1 to 10, I’d say a 7. I’ve seen better performances by less known groups. But then again, I might be spoiled. Lots of people seemed to enjoy the show intensely anyway.

Back home, I searched the net for some more information about Wofa and came accross a forum post by François Kokelaere. It’s in French so I’ll translate roughly in English :

In June 2003 I took the decision to stop working with Wofa and even to stop working in Africa. Why ? That’s a difficult question which would require an elaborate response full with complicated explanations. I will try to give some of the reasons in short.

First for those that didn’t follow from the beginning, let me talk a bit about the history of the group.

In 1988 I was artistic director of l’Ensemble National des Percussions de Guinée when the artist became very arrogant. I decided to found a private group that could compete with that group. Thus Wassa with Morcirée Camara was born. The group became sucessful very fast and the artists of the national ensemble felt threatened by this new group.

In 1995 when I left the Percussions of Guinée, I focussed on the group that, meanwhile separated from Morciré Camara, became Wofa. Several international tours later, the group had become a reference for African spectacles all over the word The artistic concept of Wofa at that time was to create a style that whilst taking into account the reality of the Guinean ballet, would cross boundaries and explore new routes.

In 1998 I asked Fatouabou Camara, on of the greatest percussionists of the entire Soussou region to join Wofa. Through his talent and charism he became the leader very quickly which was hard to accept for some members of the group. He took upon him the administrative tasks, the visa applications and many other tasks. He did all that with enthusiasm and perseverance. Unfortunately the artists of Wofa caused him all sorts of problems and tried to discourage him to continue playing with them. He took it with an angelic patience, proof of his immense experience.

In March 2003, at the end of a tour in the United States, when we found out that two artists (Facinet Bangoura who played the balafon and Mory Fofan, a djembe player), stayed in the United States without passport, without return ticket and without their visa, endangering the future of the group in the United States, both Abou and me were completely fed up with things.

Abou told me he couldn’t continue to work with people that didn’t respect him, that misbehaved in theatres, that didn’t seem to care about the show. He said that whenever he tried to talk to them, they only insulted them. He didn’t see the point in continuing and wanted to quit Wofa and start his own group.

I found myself with my back against the wall. Forced to start another process, knowing that it takes at least two to three years to reform a group, form new artists and a quality show. I really wasn’t looking forward to it. I sensed I had said many artistic things with the Percussions de Guinée and Wofa, what else could I say ? The creation of something new certainly is a challenge and a joy but everything surrounding the creative process had become too much.

I considered leaving the business part to my partners, thinking the real ‘master’ would be the artistic director because without him, the ‘product’ would be nothing. Nothing could be less true. The real ‘master’ is the one with the money. Nobody cares about the artistic side. What they want is ’something African’ and professional. As long as the public is happy, they’re happy. They don’t sell a particular group, they sell an African spectacle, nothing more, nothing less.

An example is that we got very little attention on the national French scenes. When I contacted several of them with whom I had excellent relations in the past, to ask for help in promoting the next creation, nobody responded. Another African show? Why? They accused us of being too traditional. What’s traditional anyway? How can one make something traditional with people that were away from their villages for years and years? The moment an African climbs the stage and plays the djembe, it’s called traditional. Does one blame a classic dancer or musician for being ‘too traditional’? When it’s about our tradition, it’s called preserving the patrimonium, when it’s about the tradition of others, it’s considered to be folklore, ‘World Music’, ‘Traditional’. Behold the arrogance of the dominant Western culture !

It became increasingly difficult to obtain visas as well, especially after September 11th. The American government took pleasure in making us go through all the paperwork only to decline the application at the very last moment, without explanation. If e.g. the name of a person resembled vaguely the name of a wanted person, no visa. It is no good being Muslim in times of paranoia.

Governments would e.g. also require the group already did a tour. The Americans wanted that the group already toured Europe and the Europeans wanted the group to have travelled to the States. The tour organisator didn’t have any guarantee any more about the arrival of the group and even if it arrived, would it be complete? Organisators started to prefer to work with groups that were already based in that country, even when the quality was less or the artists were non-Africans.

On the other hand, how not to understand the attitude of governments when artists are ready to stay in a country they’re touring, no matter what? The real question is, why do they want to stay in the United States (less in Europe as it’s more complicated and risky) It’s possible to live in the United States without papers.

The question is why artists who make good money (they succeed in providing for tens or even hundreds of family members, neighbours, friend, acquaintances), who build houses, who climb the social ladder in a way unimaginable, why they prefer to live without papers, in miserable circumstances, without understanding the language, in a country that doesn’t welcome them?

I prefer not to answer that question but leave it up to you to formulate the answer.

So far the history of Wofa. After sixteen years of collaboration with Guinee and Africa, after having given and received a lot, after a voyage that has definitely changed my life, I move to other things. In this business one has to give over 100% or one should change.

Conclusion, Fatouabou has founded his own group, called Fatouabou Percussions and my several Dutch and American partners are going to work with him directly. He and he alone will be responsible for the success or failure of his group. I’m confident he is capable of making it into a success. The future will tell …

I have a friend that stayed in Belgium illegally. He worked very hard so he could send money back home every month. Then one day he got caught and was sent back. When he arrived in his village, explaining he was sent back with nothing more than the clothes he was wearing, nobody would believe him. They accused him of not wanting to share with them. They suspected him to be rich and egoistic. The whole village decided to ignore him. Nobody talked to him, nobody greeted him. Nobody would serve him in the local shops. Life was absolutely impossible for him over there. As soon as he could, he left the country, for Italy that time …

I don’t know many people that are so courageous as he is and I have a lot of respect for him. I lost contact with him and that makes me very sad I will try one more time to contact him via the last known adress …

Karel Michielsin from de Standaard (newspaper) had an [...]]]> I know where I want to be next year in January: at the Festival au Désert in the desert in Mali, Africa. I saw Tuareg groups at Sfinks ( see this previous entry ) and it would be really interesting to see them perform in their own environment.

Karel Michielsin from de Standaard (newspaper) had an interview with members of Tarbiat ( images from the festival in the Malian desert in 2003 ) and they weren’t happy in Antwerp. They stayed in a small hotel in Antwerp where they drank tea all day long, feeling no desire whatsoever to visit the city. They missed their family, their animals, their food and the desert.

The nine of them (four women, five men ) stayed most of the time in the same room, drinking tea and talking. They enjoy being together, just like home. They would have prefered to stay at the festival site in a tent, preparing their own food. The city looked grey to them and they didn’t like traffic. They drank milk most of the time, because they didn’t like the food. They weren’t served rice which they usually eat every day and they didn’t like the meat they got either.

They don’t want kaviar and expensive hotels. They want to feel at home. Next time they will have demands to be put in their contract. The concept of a contract was unfamiliar to them as well by the way. They consider it to be a strange habit. When they come to an agreement, they normally shake hands and trust the other party will do everything possible to make them feel comfortable. Not by putting them in a fancy hotel but by providing an environment where they can feel at ease.

Perhaps I could contact Patrick to see if this year a group from Belgium will go to the festival. I could try and convince wchulseiee to join me. I really would like him to visit Africa, even if it’s only once in his life. Perhaps any of you, my dear readers, would be interested?

Some images from last year :

( click on image for full size )

( click on image for full size )

( click on image for full size )

( click on image for full size )

Further reading :

Tamashek ( images from last year )
Afribeat ( reviews and history of the festival )
From Boston to Timbuktu

Won’t talk much but [...]]]> Sfinks was great. Just like I expected. We were lucky with the weather. Although it rained on saturday, most of the time it was dry. Not too hot either. Great weather for dancing. And that is exactly what I did. Of course, on monday every muscle in my body ached.

Won’t talk much but give you an impression by means of some images. Some were taken by me, some by Arno Mieras. Old fashioned wchulseiee took pictures as well but those films need to be developed. Bet he will show some of his once that is done.