Ich ruf' zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ

Still staying at films... the main aim of this blog was always to show something new and something which takes real effect on us, an effect which can't be described, to know it - you have to live it. That's the most fantastic thing in music, that incomprehensibleness.

One of my favourite films is Solaris directed by Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972, based on the novel Solaris written by the Polish science-fiction writer Stanisław Lem in 1961. I both like the novel and the film, they are both beautiful. They say it's science-fiction, and yes, but just because that sort of environment (another planet, space base). The real topics are human emotions and thoughts. The film is a milestone in film art, and with the book it tells me a lot of things about this world, and a lot of thoughts which - as I mentioned it - can't be described. About the future, the smallness of mankind and the huge aimless which is floating around us and which we cannot understand, just always suffer from it.

The main music theme of this film is BWV 639 Ich ruf' zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ by Johann Sebastian Bach. BWV is a categorization of all the pieces by Bach (BWV: Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis). I have a strange feeling about this music. Sometimes I feel, that a song is both about hope and hopeless. That's irreal, but maybe possible - as I said some time ago, music can contain everything at the same time.

Performance 1 (organ, Aarnoud de Groen):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMnrjQK2Z8Y

Performance 2 (piano, Horowitz):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMlgyCb6vfg

Performance 3 (cello, Maurice Gendron):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApN31QRqgIk

Solaris trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tob56MebI8

Theme from Shaft

The long and exciting quest of Two and a half men has been lastly resolved: when Charlie and Alan are joined by the big guy from the neighbourhood, the pizza guy and Herb, and get drunk a little bit, they sing a song which my father knew that he knew it and had it on cd at home, but which cd... we couldn't figure it out on that lazy, warm, nothing-to-do summer night. But the day before yesterday we saw again that episode and (after some research) it turned out that the song is the main theme of the movie Shaft and is on the following album: Isaac Hayes - Shaft. Isaac Hayes is a big name in soul music, he was the first afro-american Oscar prize winner (for the best original song). I have one album by him, but didn't know this cool song yet. Enjoy!

Shaft live from 1973:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2cHkMwzOiM

Shaft live from 1997:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zM3mfMHGnXI

Watch how the guys perform it in the comedy Two and a half men:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYc92kRokz0

Shaft movie trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiCB2isZcRM

Who is the man, who would risk his neck for his brother man?

- Shaft!

Jimmy Smith - Christmas cookin'

There are some albums which we listen to almost only on one day in a year, for example on Christmas day. Christmas cookin' - a nice black-mood title for a sweet, loose album. I use this word in the following way: the songs are played in the possible maximum loosy way. They just float, keep us calm and hunt for joy - yes, we can feel that this music is a result of some kind of happines and feeling good-mood. This happiness is paired with the silence and deepening of Christmas. Just to mention the most famous ones: Jingle bells, Silent night, Greensleeves. Silent night, like other songs on this album got a serious, celebrational frame, and after the start the songs bravely change to joy in one moment - provided by Jimmy's singing melodies.

Greensleeves is a traditional English song which can be found even in the 16th century literature memories. There's a legend about that it was written by Henry VIII for his lover and future queen consort Anne Boleyn. Boleyn allegedly rejected King Henry's attempts to seduce her and this rejection may be referred to in the song when the writer's love "cast me off discourteously". There is, however, no available evidence that King Henry did in fact compose "Greensleeves", which is probably Elizabethan in origin and based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after his death. You can hear it on the following albums, too: John Coltrane - Africa/brass, Kenny Burrell - Guitar forms.

Baby, it's cold outside is an American pop duet composed by Frank Loesser. In the vocal version the female voice in the song is called "The Mouse" and the male "The Wolf." The lyrics consist of his attempts to convince her to stay with him at the end of a date; her indecisive protests reveal that although she feels obligated to go home, she is tempted to stay, partially because, as the title suggests, "It's cold outside.".

Read about the song God rest ye merry gentlemen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_rest_you_merry,_gentlemen

Jingle bells:

Prepare for a long night

It was precisely a little bit more than two years ago: I was surfing on the internet when I saw a little nice feature on www.nasa.gov, the NASA Calendar. Interesting things on the sky, anniversaries of old historical events, etc... and, on the 22th of December, I saw the following subtitle: Prepare for a long night. I was totally amazed. Like a child, it perfectly fit in my season- or everyday-rituals, which sometimes are celebrated only in my soul, and doesn't have any physical effect. I think everyone has this sort of of rituals. The longest night... isn't it fantastic? When anything can happen, when man sinks into his deepest thoughts, in that deepest night, which doesn't want to be over.

The thought didn't leave me, and, with my friend we played songs just for fun that time, besides our "real" music activities. We called it Jules & Cakkos project, I won't describe it, why. As you can see on the myspace page, we only made four songs which are gathered on an ep, called Virginia creeper. We can't sing, but sing in Prepare for a long night, and Madár úr. An interesting thing: no one likes the first, but everybody the second one. That's all, this project has been over for a long time. The low "plays" numbers are because we uploaded the songs again not a long time ago. I hope you'll enjoy it. And don't forget about your own rituals in life.

Our myspace page:

www.mayspace.com/julescakkos

You can download the ep here:
http://www.divshare.com/download/8628493-117

Pet Shop Boys - Behaviour

In life, people sometimes have totally unnecessary days when they feel themselves aimless, lonely, or anything else. Today was something like this for me, and maybe this made me to pick off an old favourite from the cd shelf. The forever effective one-word-titled Behaviour is PSB's most "alone" and silent album.

Now there's a milestone in my life and I have so much free time... so much free time suddenly, and I don't really know or feel what to do. "Shall I rewrite, or revise my October Symphony?" "She said we were never feeling bored" "I never knew time pass so slow" These are quotations from the album, and there's one more important, "Dress in white", says an old birthday party invitation card - this is how the album starts with the beautiful song Being boring, which PSB says about: "The song is about growing up - the ideals that you have when you're young and how they turn out." The song didn't really changed over the years, as you can see in the videos (I remember singing it with my friend to strangers on the Sziget festival, but PSB didn't give concert here that year).

After the melancholic but somehow hopeful intro, I hear This must be the place I waited years to leave's lamenting and calmly celebrational melodies, and the lower part of the far sky quite fast turns from grey to faint yellow. Then I reach To face the truth, which is similar to Only the wind - these two songs provides the most intimate parts of the album. But - PSB remains PSB - there are bigger hits on the album, too, like How can you expect to be taken seriously? touched by some rock, and So hard. Ending with the purely honest and - I think - well-known feelings for everyone, Jealousy, which gives a celebrational close to the album.

I have this cd in Further listening version which means double cd, the original album + an extra disc containing longer or other versions of songs and songs which were made around that time, but were previously unreleased. Aimless days... Behaviour. And a reminder: She was never bored because she was never boring.

Being boring:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtjFsFXU9YU

Being boring (live):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akd4yn1r4Dc

So hard:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q5_ggo1ZfQ

Jealousy (live):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW2EejnHcZQ

Pharoah Sanders - Thembi

Popular jazz may not be the topic where you have seen Pharoah Sanders' name, he made music in other "spheres": the spheres of Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, and others.

Thembi is an album with many colours and desires to show things from this world, things which are hidden or things simply from nature - expressing them in its pure reality and sometimes in a wild, almost animalistic way. As we can read on the inner cover:

This album is dedicated to, and named after, Thembi Sanders. Thembi is an abbreviation of Nomathemba, which is an African Xhosa name, meaning hope, faith and love. Thembi is all hope, faith and love to Pharoah Sanders.

The album starts with the soft-sounding, pulsating Astral traveling, a piece by Lonnie Liston Smith (he also has an album titled Astral traveling, but now in this blog you can read a review about the album Renaissance). As Sanders's melody comes in, we can feel its ancient meaning, and some kind of piece in it. Its ambient, echoing atmosphere suddenly breaks when the second track opens: Red, black & green. Now it's something which is hard to write about. The completely free, vivid and harassed starting can be felt as the forces of the universe may struggle with each other, or all of the little movements of it become quickly loud. These hoarse brass sounds and huge drums later change: the chaos declines and something evolves out from it. It comes from behind it, under it or just one little melody gets the main role: the world shows some sort of system, piece and harmony. The music becomes a flowing journey amongst all of the emotions in the universe, amongst three colours which maybe describe everything: red, black & green. This song in music has an important meaning for me. As we go on, we mee the lighter Thembi with its cool rhythm and Sanders' fine melody again. But the album still keeps more secrets: Love, a bass solo by Cecil McBee, which is also a notable point on this album. The melody is slightly painful and lamenting, but rather woolgathering - I love when in a jazz song the other musicians get silent and one gets the main role and play a solo: then he uses his instrument in other way and shows its other abilities, makes experiments with it. Cecil McBee makes interesting slides and sometimes he let the bass' strings twang. At the end he changes to bow and the music leads through the last two tracks which make a nice frame on this album, it starts with a similar melody to Astral traveling. As we reach the end, everything becomes really vivid and animalistic, we can hear noises similar to nature's own noises which increase the character of this special atmosphere.

Thembi (live):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgBVWx_1TKs

Astral traveling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmL1da8VhiE

Red, black & green (part):

PRO/CREATION (for Pharoah Sanders)

Music, as language,

looking in to the world

with the spirit of a people

identifies itself more precisely

than label. And is there, always,

coming from every place

Pharoah has been - Africa, Asia,

& our long memory in America.

He, traveler in sound/spirit,

is direction firm, strong, firmly

connected to root. Expression

past any word. Energies of sound,

old as ear of any god known or not,

now redistributed here to move us

with Love, Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer.

Continuities, yes,

the song, memorial and now.

It is from here

Pharoah takes our ear

breaking the silences of our spirit & walls.

Remember slave bells?

And desire? Red, black & Green;

THEMBI, the woman, home.

(by Keorapetse Kgositsile from the original liner notes)

The ECM Season

I should have written this post at least a month ago, but I don't have too much time nowadays. It will change soon.

So the ECM Season... what's this? Just that sort of things which lives in my mind, and I think about it as "something which is coming", "something which is worth to wait". As the weather turns cold and dark, the nights lengthen, people get in a mood when they would like to hear music which is more serious, I mean it stands on a higher and more complex musical quality, or has a contemplative side. Autumn comes and soon passes by to give its way to the long, long and dark winter. Sometimes we feel it wouldn't like to be over, it wants to stay here forever. But autumn, the beautiful season has another kind of special moods, which I told you a few times earlier in this blog. This special feeling takes great effect on you but as autumn goes ahead, the weather gets colder and the colours less colourful, the contemplative side and passing-by mood appears immediately. It's something which we have felt in our minds for a very long time, and maybe got stronger by poems, films, and childhood memories.

So this time has a special kind of music, too. The German label ECM can perfectly fit these desires with its special styled covers and great, fantastic, sometimes strange music. Let me show you a few notable albums.

• John Abercrombie & Ralph Towner - Sargasso Sea
• Art ensemble of Chicago - Full force
• Chick Corea - Return to forever
• Eberhard Weber Colours - Little movements
• Oregon - Oregon
• Colin Walcott, Don Cherry, Nana Vasconcelos - CoDoNa
• Rainer Brüninghaus - Freigeweht
• Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen - Those who were
  

Later you will see reviews of these albums here.
Visit the record's website: http://www.ecmrecords.com/, where you can download their new catalogue, too.

Joshua Redman - Wish

I haven't known him, and it was a nice surprise. On an autumn morning it took a good effect on me. It's a normal jazz album, and I use this word as it doesn't have any extremity, it doesn't want to be "very somelike", etc. Normal, but from a closer view maybe nothing is normal. Jazz pieces, alternating in moods, of course, delightful songs to deeper kind of melodies. Yes, this album has other sides as well. Let's hear the third track, Make sure you're sure or We had a Sister for instance, which are quite interesting with its uncertain beauty, and a meaning which comes from another sphere. Starting with Pat Metheny's guitar part, and the first saxophone sounds set the atmosphere effectively. After it, the beautiful melancholy/mystery takes its place for the cool The deserving many. This kind of quartet works very well on this album: saxophone, guitar, bass and drums. Redman's saxophone playing adapts to the character of the songs very well, perfectly functionally, and the quartet shows different pieces of life, a colourful, delightful mass. The album also presents us with two live songs at the end of it.

So is this album a normal album? Does a normal album exist? In its unnormal normality, it has its own perfection. A nice piece of music, which can be soothing on an uncertain dark late-autumn afternoon.

Make sure you're sure:

Read more about Joshua Redman:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Redman

Camel - Moonmadness

It's always a pleasure when time passes and I get to a post which I have been waiting for for a long time. Now it's one of the best prog rock bands' best album, I think.

Camel has stood very close to my heart since I knew it. They have an interesting and very special talent - maybe just for me - that they can create friendly melodies. This word has already appeared some times in my blog, because it's important for me. When you hear this sort of melody, you feel it somehow friendly, with a good intention and feel that it plays only for you, you are that who can understand it the best.



Camel is an English progressive rock band, but not as well-known as for instance Genesis, Yes, etc., somehow, I don't know why they had a smaller fan group. Somehow they were other as well. Their music and the band is connected with space, by its covers, and the sounding, they used more electronic instruments. But the result is perfect. Moonmadness, their fourth album from 1976 is very nostalgic to me, both because the types of melodies, and because I used to listen to it a lot in my early university years. From faster, energic songs, like Another night, to the one the most beautiful songs for me, the ballad Spirit of the water this album proves again the value of the genre progressive rock, and gets 6 stars from me in the 5 stars-grade. I can't tell you anything more, it's a must-hear-piece! I share you the nicest song on the album, a Song within a song.

The official website:
http://www.camelproductions.com/

Another night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFZFclE6Ubk

Spirit of the water:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5M1AizuI9s

Song within a song:

Spirit of the water

See the lights out on the water
Come and go, to and fro
In the time it takes to find them
You can live, you can die
And nothing stops the river as it goes by
Nothing stops the river as it goes.

All alone and all together
Every day, come what may
By the time we find each other
We can live, we can die
And nothing stops the river as it flows by
Nothing stops the river as it goes.

Power of three concert review

It seems that nowadays I always get to concerts which may be the last chance for me. Chick Corea will come perhaps a few more times, but McCoy Tyner... I don't think so. Or Kraftwerk... so who knows, in a bad case, this was the last - but my newest unforgettable memory.

After the revival of Return to forever in 2008, their world tour was so succesful and great event for them, they established a trio, at the piano: Chick Corea, at the bass: Stanley Clarke, and at the drums: Lenny White. It's a quite interesting idea, because the trio plays the older jazzrock/fusion songs more softly, but this ability is highly recommended for other songs, for example standards.

The concert was excellent. We could see a real trio. Trio is always an interesting thing and can be fascinating, too, because sometimes they can create everything. Every mood, every sound, every point on the hard-soft line, and none of the trios is the same. They are all different. So Corea, Clarke and White are very accustomed to each other, it was felt very well. They played Rtf songs, Chick Corea songs, and standards as well, so the palette was exciting. I hope that our concert will be soon uploaded to the setlists/photos menu on http://www.ccwtrio.chickcorea.com/ which is the band's website. Here you can find more photos which are very expressive for me and almost talk about the atmosphere of the concerts. The last song is always Spain, one of Corea's most known pieces. There was a part in it when the audience were humming to the melody he played.

Reinventing the trio 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR1VUvDGLZY

Stanley Clarke solo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDzjUQihHGg

Spain:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLi9RfhbhrM

Anna Ternheim - Leaving on a mayday

It's an album from 2008 but today Verve also released it. I think because of this label Anna Ternheim's reputation will grow immediately. She's a Norwegian singer-songwriter, with a nice voice and a cool singer-songwriter style which leads us out to pop/rock: her first album, Somebody outside was released in 2004, on which we can hear the single Shoreline and To be gone which also got a place on an other album Halfway to fivepoints / Separation Road.

Her newest, Leaving on a mayday is a little bit more serious mix of songs than the earlier records. Starting with the harder What have I done, the album gets a strong inception. The arrangement also got more complex, by the strings, newer instrumental solutions and the structured vocals. For example in Terrified the deep and reverbed drums and the nice string melody make an oppisitional atmosphere which often achieve an effective result in any kind of music. The role of strings is emphasized on this album, they can be sane, beautiful and can have a faintly agressive sound.

Let it rain leads us back to the world of What have I done with its slightly monotonical and deeper base pattern to reach My heart still beats for you, which is the most silent song on the album, creating its middle point. Later, one of my favourites No, I don't remember is from that mentioned style, but we also meet Summer rain, a slow song based on a chorus, and for example, Losing you which is rather indie pop than singer-songwriter. But no one wants to set up limits for this music, it's interesting to hear these things which sometimes steps on the frontier of a genre.

Anna Ternheim also released an ep in the topic of Sinatra, on which she perform five songs by him in a very, very different way. I'm looking forward to her next projects.

No, I don't remember:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmngmHSHoS4

Black Sunday afternoon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0hd0B5ZvY4

What have I done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8QKKlmwlOs

Anna Ternheim's website:
http://www.annaternheim.com/

Anna on Verve:
http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/artist/music/detail.aspx?pid=12065&aid=7351

Sound Stage Direct

While I was surfing on the Internet in the afternoon yesterday, I found an interesting online store. "Tons of vinyls" - it says, and yes, when you find it, it keeps you there for a long time. Many genres, many well-known albums, from classic lp types to unique, expensive types. The average cost is quite good. Think about it - in the topic of music there aren't too many better things than to put a record on your player. You take it out from the cover, and then from the inner sleeve. You put it on the player... push the button, the vinyl starts to circulate... the needle slowly descends and as it reaches the record and start to run in the lane, the low hissing and the scratchy sounds begin to play. Then... just the music. In its pure originality.

http://www.soundstagedirect.com/

Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes - Renaissance

Let me stay at the previous topic, because now I don't have to wait for a long time to have a real own flat. One night, on the day before yesterday, I was listening to this album, the lights were low in my room, and I got in a loose mood. Music which was produced by afro-americans usually has this sort of effect. In that mood, I continued my imagination in my mind, about that I have a big room, with big windows - with a great view to the city. If these parameters were true and the music were playing in the night, I won't long for anything else at that actual moment.

This album from 1977 can quickly pick you out from the greyness of weekdays and can create an exotic atmosphere around you. You'll feel that you're inside the music. Seven songs, famous pieces by Lonnie (don't get confused, there's an other Lonnie Smith - without Liston, he was a jazz organ player), but the album isn't too long. As I listened to other albums I realized that there are some well-known tracks by him which always repeat on the albums, except few other - shortly, one song can be heared on more albums.

When I saw its cover for the first time, I thank immediately that it must be... something cool, extraordinary, or something "very". The cover shows a whole attitude to life. I talked about the afro-american airiness: this pairs with a deep singing voice which flows ahead with the music. By its exciting arrangement these two make a culturally/musically notable event. His soft, phased and distorted elektrik piano sounds, the clanking bells, the brass section, which don't want to be loud, the rhythmic percussion patterns and a lot more keeps our attention alive very well. There's no more to say... Exotic. Transcendental. Standing high on the hill.

Space lady:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvBv2xxKtb4

A song of love:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFzJPK2sPyo

Starlight and you:

Rainer Brüninghaus - Continuum

It's a real rarity. It's hard to get it. An album by ECM Records, which unfortunately stopped manufacturing it more than 10 years ago. So this is a reportage from the past, also because its really special atmosphere.

Rainer Brüninghaus is a German pianist/keyboardist whose name could be familiar by some ECM albums, for example his other album, Freigeweht, or Eberhard Weber - Silent feet / Little movements / Yellow fields or Jan Garbarek - Visible word / I took up the runes, etc.

Then, in the September of 1983 with trumpeter Markus Stockhausen they created something which became an unknown value of art. His piano melodies and Stockhausen's trumpet voice suit to each other well, and make an airy distant sound. The album was recorded by the trio, but often it's only Rainer and Markus, and Rainer don't play just on piano, he uses other synthetizers, for example pads, too. A real unique piece, and just because of this, it's hard to describe it... you know, there are a few albums which we know and can't describe, because its oddities. Maybe you have to look at the cover: the distant city lights, vivid movements in the night, flowing into rays, meandering ahead in time and space, to reach the unknown future, with its uncertainity and doubtfulness. As I was listening to this album last night in the silence of my room, I imagined a view like the cover which can be seen from my window, from a high skyscraper at night. There's a huge silence around me, I can't hear the distant, low noise from outside, but I can see the slowly moving lights. As I look down in fiction and listen to the music, I also get touched by the past, and the future. The past by its real passed-by fact and faintly depressing nostalgia, and the future by those mentioned things before. One of my dreams is a view like that image. So I don't wait for longer, I send you the second track on the album, Stille, which means silence. In the first half, listening to the contemplative and strange piano sounds, the cover is getting more and more alive in my mind. Later, as the whole trio forms, they can pick us out from time and space, and take us to... the continuum.

Stille:

Verve jazz timeline

In other words, Verve records has launched a new feature on its website, Interactive Verve History. You can review the decades of jazz from 1950's until present time. Each decade is described by some notable albums released by Verve and political/historical happenings as well. Enjoy!

http://history.vervemusicgroup.com/

McCoy Tyner - Remembering John

Remembering John... means Remembering John Coltrane. A very nice idea for an album, especially by the person who had been the pianist in his quartet for many years, and recorded together such songs that changed the jazz history.

Remembering John is very easy, because he left so many treasures for the future, his characteristics was extremely strong. So McCoy just had to choose well from the possibilities - and he did a great work. And, more important, a great work in performing them. The whole album is a trio record, and it's amazing that he can create so dense and highly expressive music by one piano, like other more instruments would play. McCoy Tyner and his piano is just like all the vibrations of the song and all the vibrations of the performer's emotions. Approximately two years ago I had the fortune to hear him in a live performance in Budapest, Művészetek Palotája (Palace of Arts). He's old now, but plays as he would be at the highest point of his energy. I remember as he walked slowly and a little bit uncertainly to the piano, but when he sat down, and started to play, everything changed and became live, vivid and dynamic. That night is an unforgettable event in my life.

As we hear the songs each after each, McCoy shows his light and serious side as well. Light and glad in In walked Bud, but highly complex for example in Pursuance. Beautiful in Good morning heartache, and let's stop here for a few seconds. This is one the best titles I've ever heard, and the best performance. It's so expressive with its emphasized differences, and I dare to say, this is what a jazz ballad should be like (leastwise in a modern way). After it there's one more possibility to give a cool ending for this album, and it's the deeply expressed and serious Wise one.

It could be very difficult to reperform these songs, because in the old times he was a great background for Coltrane's sounds, but now, he has to combine Coltrane's main melodies with his playing, and to create a newer adaptation. A newer adaptation in audiophile sounding. It's a real value, and a perfect honour for Coltrane.

Here's the tracklist on which I wrote the original albums next to a few tracks:

1. India (Impressions)

2. Giant steps (Giant steps)

3. In walked Bud

4. Like someone in love

5. One and four

6. Up 'gainst the wall (Impressions)

7. Good morning heartache

8. Pursuance (A love supreme)

9. Wise one (Crescent)

Wise one (part):

King Crimson - Lizard

Speaking about progressive rock doesn't take any effect on people whom I talk to, perhaps they don't really know this genre or don't understand what I like about it - or what I love. But this is a new world which comes from the past and can revive in our minds in any moment. Maybe it belongs to a special kind of personality, who has similar emotional waves and alternating silent-energic moods, just like this music has.

King Crimson's Lizard from 1970 is perfectly on the middle point of the beautiful/emotional atmosphere and psychedelic experimental line. For example let the starting point of this line be Lady of the dancing water, with its softness and fragility, and let the end point be Indoor games, which is a strange and also joyful mixture of moods. The whole album is a mixture, as well - a mixture of different arrangements with interesting parts (from dissonant elements to crazy solos, like in Happy family). After listening to the shorter songs, we meet the almost must-have extremely long ending song, with the same title, Lizard. Many parts, feelings and changes after each other, to prove its genre more perfectly. These highly long last tracks are very important on prog rock records. So it's a must-hear album. I don't know for which reason, but it's always connected with autumn in my mind.

Now this is a good possibility to share you one of my newest thoughts about fall (there's a lot). Walking and watching the colourful fallen leaves on the pavement, I got that fine mood which we get when we see the changes of the seasons and get fascinated by it. I wondered why does this fascination get me... because I've seen these colours, lights and natural elements twenty-one times in my life. Or why does this fascination get all the people, perhaps they have these visual properties of autumn in their collective mind, but the surprise never disappears. This is an ever-changing and renewing thing. The nature and the universe is above us, every happening there can take a huge effect on us - by moods, feelings, new creative thoughts. Live the autumn, not just watch it passing by.

Cirkus live in 1971:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTNMZXkwxvU

Lizard (intro):

Kraftwerk releases Der Katalog

On the 5th of October, the german electronic high-tech band Kraftwerk released their new, longly waited product, Der Katalog / The catalogue which has been a lot mentioned and almost a mystery to the fans.

This is a new release of their 8 earlier albums (Autobahn, Radio-activity, Trans Europe Express, The man machine, Computer world, Electric cafe, The mix, and Tour de France Soundtracks) which are available separately and also in a unique box set (for approx. 120 USA dollars). They also released a sample cd which contains 8 tracks, each one from each album and a bonus track, which is a concert version of The model - but as watching eBay, this cd seems to be very rare.

Kling Klang Digital Remaster 2009.

Watch the trailer of Der Katalog on http://www.kraftwerk.com/ in the info menu.

Pet Shop Boys - Yes

"a fantastic, wide-ranging pop record"

The ever-changing, developing but always remaining-the-same Pet Shop Boys' new record is Yes - another great title amongst their one-word titled albums. They have been always creative to describe an album with one word, and now, hearing it (and as well being an old fan of them) I got interested immediately.

I have acquainted it only now notwithstanding it was released on the 23th of March. It flew to me straightly from Shanghai, and as a European, it was pleasant to see some splinter of the far-east culture: see the nice stamps on the picture below.

As this new effective cover shows eleven colours, the album contains eleven songs, and the whole album is a flow of the hit-category tracks. Starting with the also well titled Love etc. which has also became a single and got a video, the album gets a cool inception. As we go on, and hear the catchy melodies, the two English guys show their familiar palatial, dense arrangements and sometimes clearer, emotional parts, for ex. in Vulnerable or The way it used to be. Did you see me coming has also became a single. But my special favourite is Building a wall, it has a some kind of dynamic pulling ahead. I love the concert version: as the wall collapses, it's very effective, I wish they came to Hungary again. This year they are having the Pandemonium Tour, reaching Russia, Germany, UK, USA, Argentina and so on. As now they have so many songs, to organize a concert in a given time is getting harder and harder, so they often plays songs together, let it be older or the newest, great feelings mix. See more videos in the related section.

They also released an exclusive eleven pieces lp-packet, with each song on one lp by its one colour of eleven, so you can put them in the right form to get the pipe from the cover on your floor.

Here you can listen to the whole album:
http://music.aol.co.uk/music-news/pet-shop-boys-first-listen-of/article/20090317123709990001

Love etc.:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYR_L0AZNQw

(You need more...

than a Gerhard Richter hanging on your wall)

Did you see me coming

Pandemonium/Can you forgive her?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0CzHjWlzOQ

Love etc./Building a wall/Go west:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQX4jrdu5ng

Marvin Gaye - What's going on

A familiar figure standing in the rain, with a face touched by some kind of faint gladness and hope. Who is that? First, they didn't want to release the album, someone also considered it as "the worst record I ever heard". Now it's history.

Marvin Gaye's What's going on became a real hit, and this is the starting melody of this album. With the background conversations and dense vocals it's very vivid, full of emotions, and louder than the concert version. In that video, this song and the next, What's happening brother are played together in one track, connecting them very well with a contemplative part, by a monotonic drum pattern and an interesting piano solo. On the album, many songs are connected, there aren't any pauses between them, so it's a longer, painful lament about the actual world (1971) and the possible future. Fully emotional and well arranged. Save the children is a good example for the hopeless future: the declarative short words, and after that the longly singing powerless repeats can fascinate the listener easily. The genre "soul" is a good word for it, because it can really reach our soul while listening to it... listening to feelings about love, hope, passing by - a flow of music, which gets to the peak with the last song, Inner city blues (make me wanna holler) by a more serious atmosphere, and a little bit monotonic mood. For the end, there's a great reprise of What's going on, in a more silent, celebrational way to create a frame for the album.

There are some milestones in music. Nobody would have expected it, or wonder about it, they had just come, and continued writing the music history. What's going on also wrote a paragraph in that big, "never-wants-to-be-finished" book.

(from Save the children):

There'll come a time, when the world won't be singin'.
Flowers won't grow, bells won't be ringin'.

Inner city blues:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeWF0LC3R2o

Save the children (from ~3:00):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLSBB8EpyVg

What's going on / What's happening brother

Genesis - Wind & wuthering

For a long time I have believed that Genesis was only good when Peter Gabriel was the band leader and singer. They were so unique and full of energy, and listening to records which were made later, I didn't find them interesting at all. But it seems to be that there are expectations, for example Wind & wuthering from 1977.

It's less forceful but more melancholic than the earlier albums, maybe (amongst several reasons) because Phil Collins' softer voice. Peter Gabriel's was very energic, he sometimes shouted, creating a strong atmosphere. I miss it.
Fortunately they have again those very cool kind of melodies. The best example for this is the second track, my favourite, the tipical progressive-structured One for the vine. Starting with the nice melody and soft singing, we can foretell that something very good's coming. And yes, the feelings get stronger, and everything gets silent, until 4:44 where the fast part of the song starts. One of the best melodies I've ever heard is the very energic part at 5:31. Later, in Wot gorilla, we meet another version of this melody again. Beside this harder feeling, there are also soft things on the album. For example the nice light song, Your own special way, or the ambient-feeling 'Unquiet slumbers for the sleepers... It's good to hear again the advantages of progressive rock, the always-changing moods and many types of musical parts, flowing into each other.

So the album is varicoloured. Like its cover, there's an uncertain but somehow beautiful mood in it.

One for the vine (part):


One for the vine live:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2M3fpA0Fjw

Your own special way live:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdLigj_XJTE

Anniversary of John Coltrane's birth with Naima

Today, it's an important day because of two things: usually it's the day of the autumnal equinox (but now in 2009 it's the 22th), and it's 83 years ago the same day when the jazz-giant saxophonist, John Coltrane was born. He was stepping ahead on one way, but he got very far on it. I often wonder what would be if he didn't die at age 40 - did he get more far? And can somebody get more far?

Let's remember him with a beautiful ballad written for his wife, Naima, by the classic Coltrane quartet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ywkpVJ624

Few days at the weekend house... Kuupuu - Unilintu

"Where's the frontier between music and noise?" is an always coming-back question in my mind, and this album, Unilintu from 2007 by the Finnish Kuupuu is a good topic about it. It's something very new, very brave, and very experimental, which result is a meandering noise-mass with some sometimes-appearing music. And we can talk about rhythm, too, a special kind of rhythm, a rhythm made of sounds and vocal elements. From using natural sounds to distorted instruments, the whole atmosphere is unique. Kuupuu's strange and often dissonant vocals / childish singings are beautiful, and scary - at the same time.

I was in the weekend house the last two days, and in the night yesterday it was a perfect choice to upload myself spiritually. Because this album needs solitude and silence - and silence is an important word on the album, too, because the songs sometimes just crawl out from the silence. Listening to it the following thoughts came to my mind: Is this what we achieved in music? How can somebody make such extreme music? And, as the best song on the album, Myrskylaulu got to its end, I walked out to the terrace, then down in the garden, to look up and watch the early-autumn night sky, with the uncertain chill of it. Later, when Lohtulaulu started, with its mentioned scary dissonant voices, I need to go back inside the house, because the atmosphere was getting to be unpleasant. These voices seem to be coming from eternity, or beyond death, or maybe from the long, long past. Maybe it's a Finnish folk song or nursery rhyme, I don't know, but that's the best, when I don't know much about it, it's more exciting and unique. There's many more notable moments on the album, for example the song Mustaruhtinaan laulu which sound is very similar to some nose-trumpeters' sound, maybe it's that.

Chilly autumn nights in solitude? Try it.

Visit her on Myspace: www.myspace.com/kuupuu

Visit her official website: http://www.lurtta.com/

Lohtulaulu: