Ocelote Rojo eshte Francisco Aravena nga Santiago i Kilit.
Pickime ne kitare dhe pak regjistrime ne terren (field recording) bashkuar me nje psikedeli delikate amerikano-jugore, ambjentaliste nga larmia (fale hapesirave dhe kthjelltesise se qiellit atje - kujtoni Gustavo Santaolalla-n?) dhe tropikale ne te njejten kohe, rezultojne ne nje tingull mistik;
sikur vjen nga nje distance e larget ne forme avulli...
E si perfundim, kuptojme qe s'eshte gje tjeter vecse nje udhetim brenda vetes. Nostalgji!
Kohe e humbur ajo per tu veshur perballe pasqyres se thyer. Deshirat e fshehura per tu dikur e erret ne hije zbehen ndersa shkund floket.
Nuk je ne forme sonte ('Not Now My Love')!
E perseri nxitja qe ndjen brenda ne kraheror te shtyen te dalesh nga apartamenti e te thithesh ajrin e lagesht te nates. Sikur ka dicka me shume atje perjashte ('The City'). Pertej turmes.
Mjegull e holle per tu care nga trupi qe simulon levizje robotike. E megjithate, mbetet vend ne kujtese per nje nostalgji (excavated from the inside out...) per ate materie qe perbente strehimin e fundit; kohen kur kishte dashuri ('Wlvs').
'Jeni gati per nje udhetim te ri?'
Kjo eshte pyetja qe francezi me pseudonimin Fakear i drejton rregullisht gjate seksioneve live publikut kurioz. Ky ngacmim per te nxitur imagjinaten e per te leshuar muskuj e trupit e neuronet e trurit te lire.
Me ne fund!
Koncerte elektro qe meritojne vemendje e pse jo edhe njefare perkujdesje sepse ndodh qe njeh artiste te rinj me te vertete premtues (Morning In Japan eshte album i 2013).
Muzika elektronike ka nevoje per fantazi e mjaft eksperimentim, dihet kjo, dhe Fakear i ka te qarte te mire keto aspekte themelore. Klasicist ne tingujt qe riprodhon, zera geisha-s udhezues, elektro-pop me nje french-touch te analizuar ne thelb tashme, nje boshllek mbi emrin e vete biografine e artistit anonim... te shtyejne ne drejtimin e muzikes; udhetim i ri i garantuar!
Muzika franceze kishte patur shume raste te tjera te mirenjohur ne skenen hip-hop, downtempo, trip-hop dhe elektronike te pavarur, flas ne rangun e Jean-Christophe Le Saoût (Wax Tailor), Telepopmusik etj etj, dhe ndoshta kjo ka sherbyer si burim/frymezim per te riun Fakear (pa permendur ketu remix-et per australianin Flume).
Nga Damasku ('Damas' marre nga albumi Dark Lands, 2013) e deri ne Tokyo (albumi Morning In Japan); muzike per veshet e eksituar nga nje prekje e vecante zanore, alienizime pergjumese (por te pelqyeshme e aq te nevojshme!) ne proces e siper, vizione te komuniteteve te largeta e menyrave tyre te cmendura te argetimit, sigurisht me nje urbanistike ndryshe nga vendi i atij kolltukut te nendheshem ku ndodhesh ulur me nje drink pa ngjyre ne dore...
Vetem angleze mund te ishin keta muzikante qe 'tallen seriozisht' me tastiera analoge, duke intriguar me tinguj te nje vizioni te erret cyber-punk, me homazhe grupeve Devo, Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire, Kraftwerk, Atari Teenage Riot etj etj...
Thurja e ritmeve mekanike nxit per deshperim me shije te tharet retro ('futuriste' ne kuptimin e nje elektro-rock-u vintage: ideale per filma B-movies), mirepo me nje dimension te ri, larg elektronikes konvencionale dhe ndoshta me afer krautrok-ut (Tangerine Dream?).
Inati, rebelimi dhe alienizimi i individit ketu merr forma me te mbyllura, te izoluara nga masa, ku eksperimentimi behet i vetmi faktor udhezues i muzikes se Add N To (X) dhe shfaqjet live e punimet artistike (video ilustruese me permbajte te forte vizive, projektime) plotesojne kuadrin e bandes aspak komerciale.
Dhe ne fakt titulli i albumit shpjegon shume gjera: Mbi telat e nervave tone (1998)!
Si tek filmi Blow-Up (Antonioni, 1966) krijohen realitete paralele, ku imagjinata ia kalon realitetit te merzitshem (afrimi me drogat e renda ketu eshte i menjehershem!) dhe sensi i se bukures absolute ekziston vetem ne mendjen tende...
Gjurma e mesiperme 'King Wasp' eshte ajo me e kapshmja per veshin e shumices (nje remake i 'I'm King Bee' nga legjenda blues Slim Harpo); edhe pse ketu blues-it i ka mbetur vetem nervi kryesor dhe pikerisht ky i nenshtrohet operacioneve (kirurgjikale) te notave artificiale te tre te cmendurve!
Ne fakt ka ca vite qe artiste te shumte cementojne rryma popullore (fandango, chica peruviane, cumbia, kante ish-sovjetike, valse gjermanike, balada nordike) ne nje menyre gati ironike, ngjitese ku filtrojne ritme afro-latine, zakonisht amerikano-jugore, me atmosfera ekzotike e me muzike surf psikedelik, elektro-swing, dub oriental, elektronike vintage (varet nga tradita e nga tendencat aktuale te nenkultutave te qytetit) etj etj...
Emrat nuk mbarojne, por nje nga producentet me te njohur ne kete sfere eshte gjermani Uwe Schmidt (ai i projektit Atom TM; aktiv qe nga vitet '90) fale te cilit njohim sot: Chicha Libre, Senor Coconut, Igor Vdovin, Messer Für Frau Müller (si psh: albumi Cafè Sputnik - Electronic Exotica From Russia, 2005)...
Termi qe vjen ne mendje eshte 'Retrofuturizem' - thirrje per rivizitim te tingujve te bukur, te kaluar tashme, por me nje kod te ri sot, perfshires dhe ne trasformim e siper (merrni Nicolas Jaar dhe romanticitetin qe mbart nga Kili!).
Rivizitimi per te cilin flas nuk ka kufij; nga shijet personale te formimit adoleshencial (ritme familjare, latino, ballkanike... qe degjoje ne magnetofonin e shtepise ose te detyruar nga prinder qejfli! - nuk kishin te gjithe kufje atehere!), muzika klasike romantike (austriake e gjermane), minimalizmi (Erik Satie, Richard Wagner...), regjistrime nga filma bardhe e zi kult (kinematografia italiane, franceze e sidomos ruse), kolona zanore te festave ne lulishte (stacione radio te huaja ne long-wave), muzika ne sfond kur gatuhej per ndonje mik te dashur, cudia ne vitet '90 perpara kanale te reja ne TV...
Retrofuturista ne kuptimin qe albume e koleksione muzikore qe kane mbeshtetjen e etiketave te pavarura sot (Eastblok Music - Real Sounds of Eastern Europe), por qe ne tingull duken komplet dicka tjeter; sikur jane shirite filmash per tu hedhur ne hapesiren pa gravitet, ritme te kercyeshme hipnotike, riff-e kitaresh te sternjohura, por me ekzekutim te huaj per veshin, shtresa elektronike (synth, moog, software dixhitale te panumert) qe mbeshtjellin, me dashje zhubra-zhubra, bazen primare te kenges, zera te miksuar, cut-and-paste si te ishte qendisje nga nje i/e dehur...
'Retro' sepse nuk eshte ai alt-pop i rafinuar, donwtempo, trip-hop, d'n'b apo IDM (intelligent dance music), por (kjo fije e shtrenjte) qendron besueshmerisht me shume memorie nga e kaluara (pa date!), por me levizje te trupit nga e ardhmja. Dhe me syte e qeshur si te ishte realizim i perplote personal! Muzikalisht, e kuptojne vetem ata tridhjetevjecare qe kane pertypur (ne menyre te mjaftueshme) materie te mirefillte...
"What you hear feels like a dislocated dream ride through the pungent soundscape of night-time Sofia."
Kottarashky (Nikola Gruev) is a 21st century digital master musician with his hands sunk deep in the past; vintage Balkan field recordings, classic jazz and blues, psychedelic sounds, club beats and extraordinary, archetypal Gypsy voices, guttural shouts and lyrical laments are all molded and thrown into new shapes.
The songs of his debut album Opa Hey! (2009) sound like tales told by a people who have all the time in the world: time to contemplate, enjoy, engage and dream; to take pleasure in unexpected twists and turns; to be inspired by the details and vividness of marginal existence.
The music on Opa Hey! is completely constructed from samples. Quite
impressive as the result sounds like a fine mixture of balkan music,
gypsy jazz and club beats.
Kottarashky is an architect by vocation, which perhaps explains the palpable sense of place in his music. Summer trips to small villages and the marginal regions of Bulgaria were key source of inspiration for the album, and his music samples a broad palette of sources and influences - enigmatic field recordings by artists unknown alongside Boris Kovac, Les Yeux Noir, Fanfare Ciocarlia, Jony Iliev and compelling Hungarian singer Mitsou.
The resulting digital pick-and-mix hits you like a panoramic puzzle of sounds collected and put together from a night’s walk through the streets of Sofia.
It is an ethno-music born of a city lacking cultural identity that is torn between contemporary European globalism, Balkan provincialism and a living if largely forgotten folk tradition. It’s a music inspired by that environment but also in reaction to it, a journey down roads less travelled, through the Bulgarian backwoods and back via the laptop to the 21st century.
How do the works of art and other exhibition pieces spend their nights? When the editors of the magazine Zeit Leben suggested thi topic, I got excited. Shortly thereafter I photographed inside museums at night using only available light from dim windows or emergency lights... [Michael Schnabel]
“There's a part of me that thinks perhaps we go on existing in a place even after we've left it.”
“Yet she likes complications. She wishes she could turn and say: I like people who unbalance me.”
“I guess this is what marriage is, or was, or could be. You drop the mask. You allow the fatigue in. You lean across and kiss the years because they're the things that matter.”
“There are moments we return to, now and always. Family is like water - it has a memory of what it once filled, always trying to get back to the original stream.”
“No shame in saying that I felt a loneliness drifting through me. Funny how it was, everyone perched in their own little world with the deep need to talk, each person with their own tale, beginning in some strange middle point, then trying so hard to tell it all, to have it all make sense, logical and final.”
“Words are good for saying what things are, but sometimes they don't function for what things aren't.”
Celso Piña, it is said, almost single-handedly created the burgeoning cumbia
scene in Monterrey with his first album in 1980...
Over time, the cumbia lineup supersized, sometimes rivaling salsa
bands in its musical girth, incorporating everything from horn sections
to keyboards. Live, Piña keeps it simple, playing accordion and singing,
while his backing band, Ronda Bogota, consists of his brothers Rube on
the guacharaca and Lalo on the caja and congas, and Enrique playing the
guitar or bass.
As salsa took the rest of Mexico by storm in the Sixties and
Seventies, cumbia Colombiana found fertile ground in Monterrey. Just two
hours from the Texas border, about seven hours from Austin, the city is
one of the wealthiest in Mexico, known for its industry and
hard-working populace, who keep close ties with the states.
Here the social classes are sharply divided, the rich,
SUV-driving residents living in heavily policed and gated communities,
while the city's working class residents, the maids, carpenters,
live in ever-expanding shantytowns that hug the scenic mountains
surrounding the city of almost seven million inhabitants.
It was in these tough, working class colonias that cumbia Colombiana took root as a way for the residents to forget their struggle and strife.
With his album Barrio Bravo, Piña calls homage "to all the rough neighborhoods in the world."
The sound of Café Svetlana (2009), the album from the Macedonian dj who lives in Austria, recognises the multi-ethnicity and culture of the Balkans.
But instead of flying the nationalistic flag, this is music to be savoured with a glass of sljivo, palinka, raki or tsuika, an open mind and respect for the musicians.
Every style comes into its own here: Greek rembetiko, Turkish and Macedonian belly-dancing, Serbian and Rumanian folk dances, Roma songs, Albanian-Epirotic clarinet sounds, thunderous brass and the mournful yet cliché-free lament of the fiddle. All with a touch of fresh beats and grooves, basslines and finely chiselled loops from the master of the mixing deck.
That's the sound: Nu Pop music from the Balkans to take you from the bar to the dancefloor and all the way (to the sofa) back home!!!
...
"Meet me in the dust cloud... Meet me in the white light."
Hiatus: Shura and I both share an affection for music that mixes melancholic harmonies with moody basslines, and we’re both rigorous self-editors, constantly going back and trimming stuff down to its bare essentials.
I love the way Shura uses her voice like an instrument; layering and looping it in exactly the way I would if I was sampling her off a record.
For the most part she’ll come to me with vocals and a guitar line, and I’ll build the track up around that; occasionally she’s taken an old tune of mine and added lyrics...
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