Festival season

No Borders Music Festival in Italy has one of the best settings possible. 

First you climb up to the two lakes

Then you are completely mesmerised by Ludovico Einaudi's music.

 

And then the storm comes :-) 

Watching the Olympics

Although we were only about 10 km (as the crow flies) away from Cortina, we watched the Olympics on TV. 

And this is a great opportunity to watch sports I never watch otherwise. 

And admire their Olympics uniforms. My absolute favourite team was Mongolia:

But I also loved Lithuania!

And yes, we've seen the opening :-)

Screenshots stolen from the Internet.

No. 

Just no.

Music!

Call my musical taste eclectic or whatever you want. Because ...

I love Mika. 

And I love Nick Cave.

Indeed.

Music time

As much as I enjoyed watching the Olympics, I missed my daily dose of 'Les Paroles'. Now that they are back, it's time to post another songs-I-m-currently-listening-more-often-than-others post. Here we go:

Gaëtan Roussel & Adeline Lovo - Crois-moi!

Joseph Kamel, Julien Doré - Beau

Eddy de Pretto - Kid

Joseph Kamel - Celui qui part

Vianney, ‪Zazie - Comment on fait

 

There are also a lot of French classics on my list. 

But they deserve a separate post :-)

Yann, again.

There are some songs/compositions that hit just the right notes.

This is one of them:

Yann Tiersen, Kerdrall

And yes, I saw him live. 

Perfection.

Except his new hairstyle which I just cannot approve. 

Sorry, Yann.

A quote

I recently learned a quote by Kurt Cobain:

"They laugh at me because I'm different; 

I laugh at them because they're all the same."

Music, again

Let's finish the year with some music that currently comes up on my playlist more often than everything else:

Zaho de Sagazan - La symphonie des éclairs

Laurent Voulzy - Jeanne

 

Jean Schulteis - Confidence pour confidence

 

Keen'V - Outété

And the guy with the strangest haircut:

Aime Simone - Shining Light

 

Hm, I just realised that all the music is French.

Well, I could add some new Mika, Vianney, or M83, perhaps Brassens, Delpech or Sardou.

Oh, wait ...

Happy 2024!

Blessed

Not often does one have the privilege of listening to a composer performing his own music. But I finally got to see Ludovico Einaudi live.

And listening to Nuvole Bianche made me cry. 

- Because it was so beautiful and emotional, almost ethereal. 

- Because never in a million years would I be able to play it like he did. 

This is a recording from another concert, but it was just as beautiful.

:-)

I might be the biggest fan of the french show N'oubliez pas les paroles in Slovenia. 

So I've seen some wonderful and funny - but also a lot of rather interesting and strange lyrics. 

But this one probably wins :-)

 Oh, and if you can't recognise the song from the lyrics, it's Ah, si j’étais riche :-D

Italy

And we went to see Mika playing at NoBordersMusicFestival in Italy.

Unfortunately, after ending up in an ambulance, we had to spend the rest of the concert in the shade, so the recordings are not that good...

But the scenery is fantastic!

 

To the fellow Sufferlandrians

I need to brag to all the fellow Sufferlandrians.

I've completed the Nine Hammers challenge. 

At 100%.

At a 17% higher NP than the last time I did it, about a year ago.

Me happy.

And for those of you who don't like to suffer on your bike, maybe this song will motivate you to join us: Gabriel Bruce - Come All Sufferers ... Or not.

 

PS. Oh, and the Systm has a lovely bug in it, as I am pretty sure I did not ride at a maximum speed of 431.9 km/h ;-)

Updates

Just a brief update to my two recent posts.

- adding one more song to my playlist: Laibach's The Wistleblowers

- and adding another wonderful win by Roglič, this time in Catalonia. Brilliant!

Music time!

The music I'm currently listening to:

Måneskin - The Loneliest (I've gone commercial)

Gayle - abcdefu (really commercial)

Syts - Redemption (more piano music)

Claudio Capeo - Si j'avais su (beautiful, but almost too sad to listen to)

Paul Kalkbrenner - Feed your head (because I'm back on my bike suffering 😉 and need something to keep my cadence high)

Music 2

And maybe it's time for a music update, what I've been listening to recently:

Piers Faccini - Diamond in the Mine

Gabriel Bruce - All that I have

Gioli & Assia - Eurydice

Yann Tiersen - The Long Road 

Kid Francescoli - Moon

Indochine - Karma Girls

Worakls - Porto

A lot of emotions and feelings in just about every single one of these songs.

Music 1

The music that's playing in shops is usually not quite my cuppa tea. But there were some notable exceptions, as this for example is how I learned about Madrugada or Jardier.

But just the other day I went to my local Decathlon and there it was: Rammstein's Zeit album. 

Now I'm not a huge fan of Rammstein but it's definitely a very different shopping experience when there is loud Rammstein echoing around the aisles :-)

Music

A few days ago I was reminded by a very good friend of mine of Cohen's Anthem. 

It brought back memories...

Yes, this is a T-shirt I painted with the album cover.

But then I accidentally heard Gabriel Bruce's El Musgo. 

And I am happy.

Random question

Does listening to Les lacs du Connemara make me want to go more to France or to Ireland? 

Hmmmmm ...

Time for more music

I just realised I haven't posted my current music preferences for quite a while. So here they are:

Woodkid - I love you

Gioli & Assia - Acoustic Moon Faces

Frero Delavega - Le chant des sirenes

M83 - Versailles theme

Loic Nottet - Mr/Mme

Worakls - Adagio for square

:-D

You know the feeling when you find a comment to a YouTube video that you can totally relate to?

My (currently) favourite one:

To Born Slippy - Underworld: "As a 46 year old man that loves all forms of techno it occurred to me that in 20 to 30 years this is what your gonna hear coming out of retirement homes and assisted living facilities"

Yes, please.

Time for more music?

Yes, time for more music.

Currently listening to:
Yann Tiersen - Pern
Yann Tiersen - Penn ar Lann
Gorillaz - On Melancholy Hill (acoustic!)
VNV Nation - All Our Sins (with Samsara video!)
VNV Nation - Collide
VNV Nation - Weltfunk 
Phosphorescent - Song for Zula
The National - I Need My Girl
Mika - Last Party

Yann Tiersen makes me feel, Damon Albarn makes me happy, VNV gives me power, Phosphorescent is pure poetry, The National make me melancholic and Mika... is just Mika :-)