Pet Shop Boys (part 1B) - Disco

The PSB's Disco isn't considered a studio album per se, because it's rather a collection of remixes from their first album, Please.

Disco was released on 17 November 1986 - 8 months after Please. All it's tracks were recorded in 1985-86 and are remixes of songs which appeared in Please (4 from the album, 2 from b-sides). 

They are all extended and offer a glimpse to the more techno-y sounds that the band will release later on (especially Relentless, which is a bonus CD on one of Very's edition, more on that in due time).

Pet Shop Boys (album 1) - Please

The Pet Shop Boys's first album was recorded in 1984-85 and released on 24th of March 1986. It includes their first 4 hits:

• West end girls 
• Opportunities (let's make lots of money) 
• Love comes quickly 
• Suburbia

Pink Floyd (album 14) - The division bell

It has been said that the Pink Floyd's 14th album was pale in comparison to their albums from the late 1960's to early 1980's. I've read reviews that were very harsh against this album, because 2 members of the band had left it and that the remaining was a bit boring, or badly written or that the music was less melodious or too long, etc etc etc 

Ok, maybe i'm not a professional critic, I never pretended to be one. Maybe it's a lesser album than the ones considered Floyd's masterpieces - i'll  grant this possibility on the technical level.

However, I discovered this band with this album as i entered my 20's. My mother was a fan, but I wasn't open-minded, musically speaking, to listen to their 1960-70 period, which is one that I didn't tend to like at all. 

Yehuda Poliker (album 3) - Ashes & dust

Yehuda Poliker's third solo album, Afar VeAvak, or, Ashes and Dust, was released in 1988, and deals once more with the heavy topic of WW2 and being second generation to Holocaust survivors. Poliker continues here his collaborative work with Yaakov Gilaad.

Yehuda Poliker (album 2) - Day dreamer

I don't yet own Yehuda Poliker's second solo album. It was released in 1986 and is one of the rarest to find, and its price hasn't been affordable when I did find it... I'll probably have to search for it more actively to complete my collection before it disappears.

Hélène Grimaud (album 23) - Brahms: Piano Concertos

Another project I want to find on cd, I reserved on the media library's website, is Hélène Grimaud's Brahms Piano Concertos, released on dual cd edition (EAN 028947910589), released in 2013 on Deutch Grammophon, just like her 8 previous albums. 

She presents this project in this interview also available on the label's website, where you can listen to the entire album on streaming.

I counldn't find a better picture for the backcover, and all amazon websites only offer this one, with the sticker over the track listing 

Hélène Grimaud (album 22) - Water

I just discovered a very interesting trailer for the pianist Hélène Grimaud's album Water, for which she selected pieces with water as a guideline and philosophical exploration, as she explains In this trailer.

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.