a good beat & 4 am sunrise

Hmmm... I am dangerously in kind of an electro mood... and I guess positively heading towards summer light with a good beat. Beat Connection.

a good (night) song from KAMP!

hold on to the world you've been dreaming of (...)

tango in Arkadia

The good feeling of Tuesday just kept on continuing yesterday. In the afternoon I could see and pictured the joy of people embracing the passion of tango in the best bookstore in town: Arkadia. What a day!



Meet the neo tango masters : Tanghetto.

neglected spaces

Yesterday was an amazing Tuesday. I have this weird attitude towards that day. It's such a soulless day. Even newspapers are somehow less interesting. Tuesdays have no passion in them. But yesterday was far from that. By a very fortunate stroke of luck I was able to watch live concert streaming from Sydney Opera House where Imogen Heap presented her songs from the upcoming album she's been working on since March last year. The Heapsongs! She gave an outstanding performance and took me into the spiral of sounds she created. I forgot what a great storyteller she is! The story that stayed vivdly within me was the one of abandoned places that inspired her to write the Heapsong number 3 - Neglected Spaces. The video was illustrated live by Sara Maycock (who is responsible also for Tom Williams and The Boat album's cover).




If you stand up for me, I'll stand up for you.
(...) If you'll take care of me, I'll take care of you.If you be good to me, then I'll be good to you.

Oh... I'm a story in mourning, and you're the author
So pour out your masterpiece.

Entropy increasing, how long before I'm dust?

Can we discuss?

the music of combat

Watching the documentary (Dimanche à Bamako) about Amadou & Mariam last Sunday, one artist came to my mind: Tiken Jah Fakoly. In the documentary Mariam stressed the importance of music in Africa saying that musicians have much more power of delivering messages to people than anyone else. Musicians are being listened to there. Their music is a weapon of waking up the awareness. This one from Tiken Jah Fakoly is absolutely the one to be shared. Take action against female genital mutilation and find out more here.

Bamako on my music map

Weekend intensively packed with both work (that actually didn't feel like work) and relaxation. A week without a weekend? Or perhaps a weekend that is still vividly echoing during the last minutes of Monday. Either way, it brought not only meetings with those I haven't seen in a while, but also marked distinctively new places on my music map. Bamako (sadly struck recently by these unfortunate events) brought to me music of a good  message and vibes. Please meet Amadou & Mariam and enjoy this fantastic animation.



The video was directed by Aurélia Vernhes, Clement Bolla and Laurent Gillot. For more credits see the details here.

musical blender | musical "balagan"

Sunday morning vibes are delivered by Kabbalah with their musical "balagan". "Balagan" in Hebrew means "mess". In Polish it means the same (written almost in the same way: bałagan). And it's a real mess: "Polish Châabi meets Russian Violin plugged into analogue synths (low-fi, please) short-circuited by Cameroonian Ndolé and some weird Berliner back from New York." Can it get even more complicated? :) It actually can: "What you get is Slam Rock, Yid Hop, a Golem on Kongo Square and maybe some Bikutsi Punk." (as it is stated on their website). It was nice to see their musical tornado with no boundaries yesterday.



Video by Fred Falques.

Bassy's bossa nova in Basaa

Cameroon has a special place on my music map. You can find Richard Bona there. And now Blick Bassy and his bossa novas sung in Basaa language.

stealing sheep and shutting eyes

... to your bed. Better for your head. Stealing Sheep seems to be sending me a message. Much appreciated. Good. Night.




Meet the creator of the video Rivkah Gevinson.

blueprints and plans

I've been sketching the whole evening plans for ideas that were cocooned in my head for quite a while. They look much more vivid when written on the paper. I like this blueprint. To London I also went with a plan. Or more a list. It was a list of concerts I wanted to see. The one that stayed in my mind, as I happened to mention already, was Clock Opera's show in Rough Trade East store located in Brick Lane in the East End. On my way there I was wondering about the identity of certain parts and streets of London. I was probably brought into such thinking thanks to Zadie Smith's book I was reading during my stay there and also upon seeing photographs of Don McCullin. Therefore I was tuned into a detective mode of sensing distinctive features of certain London places.

"East End  (...) was full of filthy people. Now, apparently, it was sort of place where perfectly normal people lived. A blonde in a long powder-blue overcoat holding a portable computer and a pot plant, an Asian boy dressed in a cheap, shiny suit that reflected light like beaten metal - it was impossible to imagine these  people populating the East London of his earlier memory." And his earlier memory would be from around 40 years ago. I myself found Brick Lane a perfect place to be and it was the only place I went twice during my short stay in London.

So anyway, the concert was great and I don't even have to mention that it felt like heaven being in Rough Trade Store that has also a small cafeteria inside (sic!). After the concert I talked briefly with Guy Connelly (vocals, guitars) and Andy West (THE bass). Andy mentioned that the wildest and warmest audience the band has met so far was in Island and also Sweden. Promising. So Finland: are you ready for Clock Opera to come? :) I am. And I will make it happen.

Meet the director of the Man Made video Ben Reed and listen to Opera Clock's remix of Metronomy's  The Bay. Brilliant.

postcard from 1952

To extend the moments of my London trip I went to see The Deep Blue Sea based on a Terence Rattigan's play. It worked out quite well and actually gave a new perspective (of London in the 1950s). Explotions in the Sky's video also extends the moments (in their case of some random pictures from the 1950s) and additionally creates very cinematic sonic world around my ears. No wonder their sounds blend easily into the visual.



Meet the directors of the video Annie Grunn and Peter Simonite and see the behind-scenes of the project.

“When you're between any sort of devil and the deep blue sea,
the deep blue sea sometimes looks very inviting.”  Terence Rattingan

my heart has many heartbeats

When coming back to old tunes, you soothe yourself. I come back to such when it's hard to find appropriate words or when solutions are way too abstract and beyond logical thinking. Empathy is today's key word.



Lifeline, before and after in an instant of great white gravity
(...) won't you lend a hand to pull me through?
Who? What? When?All in one stir of a teaspoon
I'm shaken and gasping for air