Kate Havnevik (album 1) - Melankton

Kate Havnevik's first album, released in Norway in 2006 is called Melankton and has subsequently received 3 other release dates in the world :

2006 (UK) ; 2007 (USA & Canada); and finally, 2010 (Poland)

I loved every single song on my 12 track version, and my favorites are Kaleidoscope, and New day... but, really, I love it all...with its radio friendly tunes, as well as the more original creations Kate gave form to....

Kate Havnevik (part 0)

I discovered Kate Havnevik as a guest on Schiller's Atemlos Live, the first concert that I listened to, by this German project. As I loved each of her guest songs on his albums and lives, I searched for Kate's own solo material, which seems to be difficult to come by.

Indeed, this delightfully quirky singer and songwriter was born in Oslo, Noway, and her cds don't seem to get international releases - except for her first album Melankton, released in 2006 and which has several editions, all with the same cover and mostly same track listing, give or take a song...

The Harp!

I discover lately that I love more & more the Harp with its unique sounds.

This evening I listened to the Harp Twins/ Camille & Kennerly's brillant cover of Mettalica's One ; it's actually my wife who sent me a link with these Twins interpreting another cover Ice Queen, originally Within Tempration's, and I have to say that I like both versions equally, each for their own unique features.

They have too many videos for me to share, so i'll direct you to their channel  and let you discover for yourselves this duo, in total and complete sync.

They play both electric and acoustic, and cover metal songs but also TV & Movie themes, such as Star Trek, the Hobbit & Lord of the Rings, Star Wars ; or videogames such as Final Fantasy, Mario and many more tunes old and new...

Also very talented, with, thus far a smaller repertoire (at least on youtube) is Amy Turk and my favorite of her pieces is my fav JS Bach : Tocatta & fugue, BWV 565 

How nostalgia can lead to discover old & new songs

So, recently I had thought about a few old songs that I hadn't been able to locate and in their search, have found that one of my favorite songs was sang by a singer I knew, but not associated with this song. It is called ''song to my sister'' by Avihu Medina, and after listening to it as well as many of his other songs, discovered his sister's name is Nava Medina, an actress and singer in her own right.
Whilst Avihu seems to have more oriental songs, Nava favors greek music in her songs...

However, I cannot find her discography, and I can find no website with any of her cds... only clips on youtube (well, the song with the supposed album cover as an image), and downloads, which is very odd because to my knowledge, in Israel she probably would have cds, unless she retired too early and that her albums are only available on cassettes... hum hum! very very odd that I can find almost nothing.

Wintergatan's home made musical instrument that will be your mind!

As the title suggest, I'm presenting Wintergatan's home made musical instrument that my wife shared on my wall just now. He made it with wood, metal and... 2,000 marbles ; it looks and sounds amazing and I applaud his inventiveness !

Enjoy!

Pet Shop Boys (part 0)

Back in the late 80's,  my then-best friend and fellow classmate introduced me to his favorite bands : Pet Shop Boys and Erasure, each composed by 2 members and which are still active to this day. They quickly became 2 of my top-10 bands, and I enjoy most of their songs, their rhythms, and the beauty in writing and singing.

Erasure (part 0)

Back in the late 80's,  my then-best friend and fellow classmate introduced me to his favourite bands : Pet Shop Boys and Erasure, each composed by 2 members and which are still active to this day. They quickly became 2 of my top-10 bands, and I enjoy most of their songs, their rhythms, and the beauty in writing and singing.
I'll now concentrate on Erasure, a synthpop band formed by Vince Clarke the musician and Andy Bell the singer, in 1985.

Yehuda Poliker (album 1) - These eyes of mine

 Yehuda Poliker's first solo album was released in 1985. Yaakov Gilaad whom he met during his Benzene days translated Greek Folk songs into Hebrew, and Poliker composed some of the melodies.

It's labeled ''these eyes of mine'' in English, but the actual translation of the Hebrew title is simply ''My eyes'', referencing a cute, pet-name one can give to one's lover : my eyes, to whom the narrator pleads his lover not to be angry at him as he leaves her, and, heading to another country, another city,  from which he (just) might come back one day on a birds' wings, he asks her not to wait for him for many years...

Yehuda Poliker (part 0)

I’d like to introduce you to my favorite singer of all times: Yehuda Poliker. I believe the first song I heard was ‘’the shadow and me’’ from his 4^th album ‘’less but hurts’’ from 1990. As far as I know, that song was written about a homosexual’s wish to live in a better world where he wouldn’t have to hide in the closet – to cast light on the shadow so to speak. Although not concerning my personal case, I had to lead a double life and thus had my very own shadow. The hope expressed in the bridge ‘’let’s soar high above, you’ll be my wings’’ spoke to me greatly as I, too, wished for freedom – and that’s how my love for Poliker’s music and songs was born and never waned. 

Index (1) - artists

Before I continue with my various entries, I thought to create a list of indexes to ease access to various artists as my blog grows. I'll start with the most obvious : an alphabetical list of artists (singers, bands and composers) that I like and may, or may not, create entries for in the future. The task of covering them all isn't a simple one, since I like many, many artists, and their collective discographies comprise more than 500 albums and probably 5 to 10,000 songs...
Some, however, I'm sure to cover at some point - I'll make their names in bold.

Tori Amos (part 6) - Strange little girls

Album # 6 is a concept and cover album, in which Tori sings 12 songs originally written & sang by men, reinterpreted to a woman’s point of view. As such, one may like the original better over Tori’s, or the other way around… let’s see one by one what I have to say.

Sylver (part 1) - Chances

 Sylver's first album ''Chances'' was released on 7th of May 2001 and had 13 editions. They all share these songs in common :

1. Turn the Tide (4:04)
2. Skin (4:05)
3. Forgiven (4:21)
4. Forever in Love (3:25)
5. In Your Eyes (3:34)
6. Mystery of Tomorrow (4:46)
7. The Smile Has Left Your Eyes (4:10)
8. The Edge of Life (3:27)
9. Angel on My Shoulder (4:03)
10. Secrets (4:24)

Sylver (part 0)

Sylver is a Belgian dance/pop, or more precisely EDM : Electro Dance music, group.

The original band members were Wout Van Dessel (born October 19, 1974), the keyboarding and songwriter, and Silvy De Bie (born January 4, 1981), the vocalist from 2000 to 2014 and who forced the band into a hiatus upon her departure as she decided to focus on her solo career.

I discovered the band while checking items a seller was proposing on ebay, as I tried to save on shipping fees for another item that I wanted. Not knowing the band, I went and listened to a few songs on youtube, and fell for Silvy’s melodious voice which suits greatly the synth rhytmes.

Soundtrack - Intersetllar

Hans Zimmer's composition for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is absoluetely fabulous : it has it's very own personnality and accompanies beautiflluly the imagery in that movie. For my review, here's the direct link

Hans even plays the piano, accompanied by no less than 42 other musicians as you can read on Wiki

Personal tastes

It's early enough in this new blog to discuss my various musical tastes, as they are many likes, and also dislikes.

First, I'll start with the negative : the dislikes comprise

• hiphop, 
• most hard rock and metal because they are either too loud, or too aggressive for me,
• Gangsta rap, and rap in general - except when part of eurodance/ pop/ electro formations where some add rap vocalists, but aren't 100%  rap bands. 
• Operas tend to get on my nerves... 
• Just like Reggae (such as bob marley, to my wife's great sorrow),  
• and other styles that I don't necessarily think about right now...

Tori Amos - (part 5 ) To Venus and Back

Album #5 ''to venus & back'' (cd1 - ''orbiting'')

out of 11 songs, I dislike only 2, the same 2 as throughout the past year of getting more familiar with Tori's music : Suede (I find her voice too rough, I prefer her sweeter one on other songs), & Datura (too weired for me, still)

Tori Amos - (part 4) - From the choirgirl hotel

Album # 4 ''from the choirgirl hotel'' I loved 11 songs out of 12 (92%), disliking only ''she's your cocaïne'', due to the vocals and arrangements in the last minute & half... if it hadn't been for that, I might have given it an 8 just like ''iieee'' ; ''playboy mommy'' & ''pandora's aquarium''.

Tori Amos - (part 3) - Boys for pele

Album # 3, ''Boys for Pele'' which my wife thought I’d hate… Well, I liked.... ***roll drums*** 13 out of 18 songs, a score neither of us imagined.

Here, I prefer to display the back cover.

Tori Amos - (part 2) - Under the Pink

Album # 2 ''Under the pink''.

A) I loved all 12 songs on it, tho I liked less ''the waitress'' (rated 8) ; ''past the mission'' & ''Cornflake girl'' (rated 7), ALL the other ones I really liked and scored them... 10/10 !

total score of ''under the pink'' 100% of the songs are loved, total score 112/120 = 93.3% 

Tori Amos - (part 1) - Little Earthquakes

The first song I heard was Crucify, and… I just wasn’t ready for this acquired taste! Indeed, her voice blended with a piano didn’t appeal to me, back in the 1990’s. I never tried to listen to her again until I married a Toriphile… 

My wife’s an Ears with feet, a Tori Amos fan, who was shocked to hear my dislike. Knowing that I liked some 1980’s music, she came up with the idea to introduce me to ‘’Y kant Tori read’’, which I liked and helped push me to try the rest of her career. For the past 15 or so months, I started listening to the cd’s in chronological order and learned to love Crucify, the very song which had made me wince, and expand from 1 song to several, and very gradually liking 2 songs per album to liking a majority.

Tori Amos - (part 0)

The only musical entry I had on my media garden belonged to Tori Amos, which I had posted on her birthday last month. With this brand new music garden, I shall split it into its components as I decided to discuss the various editions per album.

About the blog/ à propos du blog

About this blog

Hello, I am Lucien, and I have ideas to share. Welcome to my music garden. Here’s where I shall sprout my posts and share in the conversation with you, dear readers.

This blog is about music : bands and various singers and composers meet as their discographies are detailed. Each album will receive its own post. 

I like to be thorough with my reviews; when applicable, I like to include the detailed differences in editions, quality, bonus material, etc.

In the past, I used to share my reviews on social media (yahoo etc) but due to their impermanence and difficult access to my reviews, I relocated here.I had planned to include my music reviews into my first media garden blog, but came to the conclusion that I had to use different twigs for more clarity.

I hope to reach a wider audience and engage my readers in dialogue. Please feel free to comment, leave questions, etc. (please remember to be respectful and courteous).

Enjoy the media harvest!

PS I don’t systematically translate my French posts, so you can use the gadget to get a google translation.

À propos de ce blog

Bonjour, je suis Lucien et j’ai des idées à partager. Bienvenue dans mon ‘’jardin des musiques’’. Ici, je posterais mes germes et partagerais avec vous, chers lecteurs.

Ce blog concerne donc la musique : les divers groupes, chanteurs/-euses et compositeurs/-trices s'y cotoieront au grès des discographies détaillées. Chaque album aura son propre post.

J’aime être approfondir mes critiques alors parfois j’inclurai les détails des différentes éditions, leur qualité, les bonus, etc.

Dans le passé, je partageais mes critiques sur des sites sociaux tel que yahoo, mais comme ils sont éphémères, j’ai préféré créer ce blog, qui permettra également une meilleure lisibilité.  

J’espère atteindre une audience plus large, et engager mes lecteurs dans un dialogue. N’hésitez pas à commenter et laisser des questions (toujours avec courtoisie et respect).

Savourez les récoltes musicales de mon jardin !

PS je ne traduis pas tous mes posts ; vous pouvez utiliser le traducteur google inclus en cas de besoin.