s o f t s p e a k e r s

Balkan Story

admin — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:11:40 +0000

A short Balkan story : Outside our place in downtown Belgrade there is the only homeless man in the whole town. His name is Vlada and he sits alone in the sweltering heat. He was a pilot a long time ago. Then one day he came home to find his wife in bed with another. He asked the lover to leave and then stabbed his wife to death. He was sent to prison for 18 years while his 20 month old son was raised by grandparents. Now the son sometimes walks past his Father on the corner, tosses him 2000 dinars and shouts as he walks off “buy a stronger drink to die faster, old man!”. Vlada likes to drink kerosene - “It must be the pilot in me”.

Celeste

admin — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:07:23 +0000

I am going to give you today one the pieces I have had with me the most over the last decade- a piece that literally means the world to me. It is Le Banquet Celeste by Messiaen :

Hildegard and Gareth

admin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:24:49 +0000

Some time ago I used to teach little 5 yr old German girls how to play micro-tonal recorder in Koblenz. Part of this tribulation involved travelling a couple of hours down the row- man-tick Rhein through the little town of Bingen which always reminded me of a certain Hildegard, who apart from inventing a beautiful alternative alphabet came up with some fine vocal music. Little did she know how she would sound on in one of Gareth Lubbe´s dreams in the mountains of Slovenia 900 years later :

Hotel Sacker

admin — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:49:05 +0000

Hotel Sacker in Salzburg is a place that can make or break a man. Depending on which end you find yourself I recommend their very own Blue Moon.

Freed for a Moment

admin — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 12:37:18 +0000

From my archive of missed opportunities :
A lonely chapel over Salzburg
escaping the operas and falcons.
The confession lights are green and red
but they both flash crimson
as I, a walking sin
stroll in.
I sing overtones
caressing virginal tourist ear drums
and turning the crimson blue
then outside dive through my camera lens
into a trinity of eyes
fly through them into the valley
powered by Tesla´s secret
and my ability to fall
now
through my mind´s I
(my drowning thinks)
we´re freed for a moment.

Miss Helen and a Blood bath

admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 14:07:15 +0000

This is a beautiful site about one of my favourite artists of all time, Miss Helen, who devoted most of her life into transforming her inner world into her house and garden in rural South Africa.
Since my week with German folk music on the road I have been working on “zwiefachers” - the dances that switch between 2 and 3 beats leaving you clueless as to where you are.
The lyrics are often brutal ( how about: “the mama cuts the father to pieces”?) gently jilting over a seemingly innocent form. It fits in with the blood bath I caught this morning on tape:

Why kill with a knife
when you can kill with a rose?

Too Marvellous

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:50:15 +0000

Something pulls me to Armenia
My blood flows to Armenia
Through a humble Austrian drain
Mixed with the Salt of their mines
This thick red river of time
And this mystery of mine.

Step in inside the sunset
If she doesn´t tell you everything
It´s because it´s too marvellous for words. Salzburg 23.07

Saharan Dream

admin — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:33:30 +0000

I ride to the lake to escape the Opera
Sit and rest my inner ear bruises with a pride of overgrown swans
Watching the diffusion of the mirror´s liquid sky
Contemplating a third life in my own.
I stand and break the image with an overtone
Then walk in a spiral to the mini-golf course
For a cold beer amongst living shipwrecks
And a dreamy caravan song of the Saharan Tuaregs. Salzburg 22.07.08

Snow Borne

admin — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 08:48:57 +0000

I bike in the sun through the Schloss Park of Salzburg. After my Chi gung I drink two double espressos quickly, pray to an unutterable god, and hurry to the Opera. I give you today a track from Nine Horses: Snow Borne Sorrow. This was the one I loved to play most with David and Steve during the tour last year. “We´ll inhabit the sunset…” :

Opera and Akira

admin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 10:31:50 +0000

There is a lot of movement in the music we rehearse here each day and by that I mean a lot of changing intervals, abstract sounds, and absolutely no space in which to rest. All that is fair enough and on the Opera stage one can get away with blue murder but to accompany the rest of my day and stop me from slipping into the deep abyss of zealous atonality I listen to Akria Rabelais´s gloriously titled Spellewauerynsherde, released on Samadhi Sound :