31/12/2015

The real Jeff Buckley - in audio


 Jeff Buckley talking about music as a highlight in life, and Africa ruling Africa, about the potential failure of aid... About Mandela taking power in South Africa being the real revolution! About being a real nomad and lacking the sense of belonging...

"All people belong to the world". "People must belong to the Earth".

Amazing rarity!
Thank you to this wonderful site that I really read with conviction and love:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/09/11/jeff-buckley-interview/


Musicians are my heroes! (and painters too...).



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Jeff Buckley on Music and Life: A Rare Interview with One of Creative History’s Most Tragic Heroes

“Be awake enough to see where you are at any given time and how that is beautiful and has poetry inside.”

In 1995, while working for an Italian radio station, journalist Luisa Cotardo conducted what would become the most candid, soulful, and profound conversation with legendary musician Jeff Buckley. His only studio album, the now-iconic Grace — which includes Buckley’s extraordinary cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” the song for which he remains best-loved — had been released a few months earlier and Buckley had just performed in the town of Correggio in Northern Italy as part of his European tour. Less than two years later, at the age of thirty, he would drown by accident while swimming in Tennessee’s Wolf River during a tour, becoming one of creative history’s most tragic heroes — doubly so because Buckley’s critical acclaim only crescendoed after his death. Rolling Stone eventually proclaimed him one of the 100 greatest singers of all time.
Cotardo has kindly shared with me her recording of this rare and remarkably rich interview, in which Buckley discusses with great openness and grace his philosophy on music and life. Transcribed highlights below.
On why he chose not to include lyrics in the album booklet, a deliberate effort to honor music as a deeply personal experience interpreted and inhabited differently by each listener:
So that instead of people being compelled to read through the blueprint of the songs — instead of them looking at the dance steps ahead of time, they would just go through the dance. So that they would let the songs happen to them. Later on, they will find out what the meaning is, but for now — I mean, you know, we’re just meeting for the first time and it’s better… It’s better to grab your own reality from it right now instead of like, you know, read.
On what he seeks to communicate with his music, echoing composer Aaron Copland’s conviction about the interplay of emotion and intellect in great music:
[What I want to communicate] doesn’t have a language with which I can communicate it. The things that I want to communicate are simply self-evident, emotional things. And the gifts of those things are that they bring both intellectual and emotional gifts — understanding. But I don’t really have a major message that I want to bring to the world through my music. The music can tell people everything they need to know about being human beings. It’s not my information, it’s not mine. I didn’t make it. I just discovered it.
On the problem with Western charity efforts like LiveAid:
I would like for the starvation and oppression to end in Africa. I like for money from concerned people to go there, you know, to go to Africa, to aid. But … the real solution will come from Africa ruling Africa and not Britain ruling Africa, not America ruling Africa — it’s the only real key. If Africa rules Africa, that’s the only way that pattern of oppression from the outside can be stopped — not money, not only money. Money is a tool and it can be, I don’t know, I really don’t… It’s great that Mandela came out and took office in Africa. I think that’s the real revolution.
On place and what constitutes home and belonging for a global nomad like himself:
I don’t know what belonging means… I can only use my brain and intellectualize. I really wouldn’t able to tell you from the heart what belonging means… My memories of that place are my link to the place — memories of your experience in a place is your link… All people belong to the world. There is no exclusivity in that… The soil from America can differ from the soil in Malaysia, but its soil, it’s still the same. And the color of people’s skin can differ from place to place but it’s still skin. And, in that regard, there is no difference. People must belong to the earth and a traveller must belong to world somehow and the world must belong to her or him somehow. But, you know, then there’s the social level — that’s just the archetypal level, people usually live in the social level.
Echoing what Jackson Pollock’s father so poetically told his son in 1928, Buckley parlays this into his humble yet wonderfully wise advice on being in the world:
I have no advice for anybody except to, you know, be awake enough to see where you are at any given time and how that is beautiful and has poetry inside, even in places you hate.
On one’s journey of self-actualization and the organic letting go of dreams that no longer fit that journey:
It’s part of maturity, to project upon your life goals and project upon your life realized dreams and a result that you want. It’s part of becoming whole … just like a childish game. It’s honest — it’s an honest game, because … you want your life to hold hope and possibility.
It’s just that, when you get to the real meat of life, is that life has its own rhythm and you cannot impose your own structure upon it — you have to listen to what it tells you, and you have to listen to what your path tells you. It’s not earth that you move with a tractor — life is not like that. Life is more like earth that you learn about and plant seeds in… It’s something you have to have a relationship with in order to experience — you can’t mold it — you can’t control it…
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30/12/2015

WAHA BALKANS - ACTION IN 6 LOCATIONS



Serbia has become a key country for refugees aiming to seek asylum in Western Europe. 1.000.000 refugees travelled from Greece to Western Europe in 2015, coming mainly from the Middle East and Asia. About 4.360 refugees arrived in Serbia on average per day.

From mid-September, WAHA International has treated over 14.000 patients transiting through Serbia, especially in cities at the Hungarian border, and in the capital, Belgrade. Thanks to the common good will and efforts, WAHA International and the charity Pomozi.ba, based in Sarajevo, organised action to provide medical services in six crucial locations, along the borders.

Film by Nicolas Blusson.

Thanks to WAHA Balkans' team.



WAHA BALKANS - ACTION IN 6 LOCATIONS







Radiohead's Gift





Radiohead - Spectre






Published on 25 Dec 2015
Radiohead's Soundtrack for the movie "Spectre"

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Last year we were asked to write a tune for Bond movie Spectre. Yes we were ...........

.. As the year closes we thought you might like to hear it. Merry Christmas. May the force be with you ...

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John Akomfrah’s hit film to get UK premiere in January - in Bristol


For once, the month of January, which has been a bit tricky for me the past seven years, and last year for all fellow French citizens, is full of promises and prospects.

I'll be in Bristol so to start, for, among other things, this fantastic event. See below and see you there. 

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John Akomfrah’s Venice Biennale hit film to get UK premiere in January


Vertigo Sea will debut at the Arnolfini in Bristol before touring to Margate and Manchester

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The Art Newspaper : http://theartnewspaper.com/news/news/john-akomfrah-s-venice-biennale-hit-film-to-get-uk-premiere-in-january/
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John Akomfrah’s Venice Biennale hit film to get UK premiere in January
John Akomfrah © Smoking Dogs Films. Courtesy Lisson Gallery


John Akomfrah’s acclaimed film, Vertigo Sea (2015), which was unveiled at the Venice Biennale this year, is due to be premiered in the UK in January. The three-screen installation ponders man’s relationship with the ocean through, among other things, the whaling industry, the history of slavery and the refugee crisis. It is due to go on show at the Arnolfini in Bristol on 16 January 2016 (until 10 April) before touring to Turner Contemporary in Margate and the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester as part of the Arts Council England strategic touring programme. More venues are expected to be confirmed.

Vertigo Sea fuses archival footage of the whaling industry with shots of ocean life—taken with the BBC natural history unit—off the coast of the Isle of Skye, the Faroe Islands and northern Norway. It also includes shots of African migrants crossing the ocean in journeys fraught with danger, echoing the current crisis. 

The Arnolfini exhibition coincides with Akomfrah’s first show with Lisson Gallery, which will present new and recent work by the Ghanaian-born London-based artist (22 January-5 March 2016). 

Next year also marks the 30th anniversary of Handsworth Songs, a film by the Black Audio Film Collective (of which Akomfrah is a member) that examined the 1985 riots in Birmingham and London

A spokeswoman for Lisson says there are plans to show the seminal film, which drew crowds when it was shown at Tate Modern in the wake of the 2011 London riots. A venue and date have not been confirmed yet. 

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29/12/2015

René Char...




Commune présence



Tu es pressé d'écrire,
Comme si tu étais en retard sur la vie.
S'il en est ainsi fais cortège à tes sources.
Hâte-toi.
Hâte-toi de transmettre
Ta part de merveilleux de rébellion de bienfaisance.
Effectivement tu es en retard sur la vie,
La vie inexprimable,
La seule en fin de compte à laquelle tu acceptes de t'unir,
Celle qui t'est refusée chaque jour par les êtres et par les choses,
Dont tu obtiens péniblement de-ci de-là quelques fragments décharnés
Au bout de combats sans merci.
Hors d'elle, tout n'est qu'agonie soumise, fin grossière.
Si tu rencontres la mort durant ton labeur,
Reçois-là comme la nuque en sueur trouve bon le mouchoir aride,
En t'inclinant.
Si tu veux rire,
Offre ta soumission,
Jamais tes armes. 
Tu as été créé pour des moments peu communs.
Modifie-toi, disparais sans regret
Au gré de la rigueur suave.
Quartier suivant quartier la liquidation du monde se poursuit
Sans interruption,
Sans égarement.

Essaime la poussière
Nul ne décèlera votre union.


René Char

                                  Le Marteau sans maître, 1934




28/12/2015

Massive Attack in 10 Covers



Beautiful sound!

Via The Vinyl Factory: http://www.thevinylfactory.com/vinyl-factory-releases/cover-versions-the-10-best-massive-attack-sleeves/


COVER VERSIONS: THE 10 BEST MASSIVE ATTACK SLEEVES

24/12/2015

Group Show: A Decade of Lazarides - London, February - March 2016




Exhibition
Group Show: A Decade of Lazarides

Lazarides Rathbone
Friday 12th of February 2016 to Thursday 24th of March 2016
Featuring 3D, Aiko, Antony MicallefBanksyBast, Blu, Charlie IsoeChloe Early, Cleon Peterson, Conor HarringtonDavid ChloeDoug Foster, Eric il Cane, FaileFrank Laws, Gary Taxali, Herbert Baglione, Ian FrancisInvader, Joe Rush, Jonathan YeoJRKarim ZeriahenKatrin Fridriks, Kelsey Brookes, Know Hope / Addam YLucas PriceLucy McLauchlan, Marcus Jansen, Mark JenkinsMiaz BrothersMode 2, Nina Pandolfo, Oliver JeffersPaul InsectPete Hawkins, Polly Morgan, Ravi Zupa, Ron EnglishSage VaughnSickboyStanley Donwood, TEACH, Todd James / REASVhilsXenzZevs
In February 2016, Lazarides will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a group exhibition from the gallery's most celebrated and pioneering artists. For the landmark exhibition, the gallery has invited back those artists who have helped shape the gallery's legacy to take over their flagship space in the heart of London's Fitzrovia.
We will be announcing full details of this special exhibition and the extended programme of events soon.


Exhibition dates

The exhibition runs from 12th February 2016 to 24th March 2016

Opening hours

Gallery: Tuesday by appointment, Wednesday–Saturday 11am–7pm. Admission is free
Office: Monday–Friday 10am–6pm
Contact details

Closest tube stations

Tottenham Court Road (5min walk); Goodge Street (7min walk); Oxford Street (10min walk)
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Link: http://www.lazinc.com/exhibitions/1316,group-a-decade-of-lazarides 


Le Journal Afrique du 23 décembre 2015





Le journal Afrique de TV5 d'hier soir : nouvelle rébellion au Burundi, réaction des autorités après les violences de lundi à Djibouti et portrait de l'Algérien Hocine Ait-Ahmed, fondateur du FFS, décédé à Lausanne :

http://information.tv5monde.com/les-jt/afrique

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Mon plateau sur le Burundi :

Burundi /// La rébellion s'organise /// Le lieutenant-colonel Edouard Nshimirimana, ancien officier de l'armée burundaise a proclamé mercredi 23 décembre la naissance officielle d'une rébellion, les Forces républicaines du Burundi, regroupant selon lui les principaux groupes armés opérant dans le pays. Leur objectif : chasser du pouvoir le président Pierre Nkurunziza. Qui est Edouard Nshimirimana, éléments de réponse...

https://www.facebook.com/JTAfrique/videos/998003806928201/?theater







20/12/2015

East and West - North and South



2016 will be a new year of travel, I'm sure. Look forward to new roads.

Lesbos, Bristol again, Dublin, then Sicily again and Lampedusa.
Maybe Istanbul again, maybe Lebanon.
Then I hope, Kinshasa and the Congo.

Always looking for this link between West and East, North and South.
And a sense of belonging.
This sense has a sound. Here it it.





Massive Attack - Butterfly Caught (Live - Athens 2003)

Weightless falls honeysuckle
Strangers (strange this) 
Lights from pages
Paper thin thing 

Protected by the naked eye 
Pearly sunrise 

Nearly worn 
Kneeling like a supplicant 
Darkened skin 
Afraid to see
Radiate 
Open lips 
Keep smiling for me 
Darkened skin 
Afraid to see
Radiate 
Open lips 
Keep smiling for me 

Weightless cool honeysuckle
Fair skin freckles
Uncut teeth
Tranquill eyes
Bite my lips
Bite my lips 
Shhh
Under your feet

19/12/2015

Adam Curtis about "body facism"




Massive Attack V Adam Curtis - 
'Just Like Honey', live at Kraftzentrale, Duisburg, Germany
 31.08.2013






Massive Attack cover The Jesus & Mary Chain; an excerpt from a unique audiovisual performance for the Ruhrtriennale at the Kraftzentrale, part of the Landschaftspark Nord in Duisburg.


18/12/2015

Incredibly powerful text from Scottish musical heros, Young Fathers




 Published today in the British press by Young Fathers:


"Elvis wasn’t the king of rock’n’roll. Kanye played Glastonbury. You can’t keep us in the uuuuurban stations, bestial hip-hop, token crazy militant black people cupboard, under the stairs, poor-doors entrance. We have keys to the front door. We are black and white.
The story is: the drum, the rhythm, from Africa to New Orleans; rape to create white value; proximity, black to white; sounds bleeding through clapboard walls; Rock’n’roll born from pain.
Bo Diddley is rock’n’roll.
Those fences erected are puny. To keep the blacks and the whites separate. We are black and white and we pull them down. They are dust.
Commerce demands packaging. We package ourselves. And some people get it. Paul Weller gets it. He knew some in his audience would have a hard time accepting it, but the man knows where his music comes from, he knows Stevie Marriott checked for soul and R&B, he knows the Beatles checked for Motown. He knows modern music and he ain’t afraid to show it.
Here, have some of this, it tastes modern.
It’s a culture collision but open your mind and it works. Young Fathers are supporting Paul Weller – predict that.
In the midst of this UK tour, while Britain First are trying to spawn all over the internet, while politicians and press fight to expectorate the most poisonous, anti-immigrant ignorance, we give you Old Rock’n’Roll, a journey across centuries, bringing it back to Africa, to Malawi, bringing the faces and sounds of humans, migrating, because they are captured or scared or hungry, as they always have done. And we’re saying, it’s alright. In the heart of the Congo, it’s alright.
In the heart of Essex, it’s alright. Don’t be afraid. This country can afford it. If we can afford bombs we can afford blankets and a welcome.
Old Rock’n’Roll. Not what you’ve been told.”
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A text to introduce this new video:


Young Fathers - Old Rock N Roll



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Taken from the YOUNG FATHERS album 'White Men Are Black Men Too' released 6 April 2015 on Big Dada.

Follow YOUNG FATHERS on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youngfathers
Twitter: https://twitter.com/youngfathers
Instagram: http://instagram.com/young_fathers
Spotify: http://smarturl.it/youngfatherspotify

http://bigdada.com
http://young-fathers.com/

Thank you to Alex Chilembwe, Marumbo Sichinga, Lake of Stars, 'chipoka boys' Antony & Bakali and the people of Chipoka Village, Mangochi, Malawi. 

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LYRICS:

For fuck's sake

We living life like a bubble wrapped ape
She came to mind when I treble that bass
I’m tired of playing the good black
I said I’m tired of playing the good black
I’m tired of having to hold back
I’m tired of wearing this hallmark for some evils that happened way back
I’m tired of blaming the white man
His indiscretion don’t betray him
A black man can play him
Some white men are black men too
Niggah to them
A gentleman to you

Some white men are black men too

Niggah, Ohwae Owhae
Awake

Watch your body
Wash itself
Baptise baby
I bath in blood
Dare be told
I seldom do surrender
God forsaking no good do-good-er It’s all out
Out in the open
Looking for the wild one
Boy I’m fragile
Choke on bones while choking stone
You knock me or your miss me
Or you miss me

Niggah, Ohwae Owhae
Awake

Old rock n roll
Not what you’ve been sold
Congo square is open for business
I was there as god is my witness
There you fucking go
(So there you fucking go)
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