...I created a YouTube account. At first I didn't quite remember why I created a youtube account. But now I do: so, I created the account in order to re-upload the original trailer of Wolfen. Then, as I started viewing some videos, I saw some missing. That's when I decided to upload this:
Yup, this post is about Rea Garvey as well, the main vocalist of Reamonn (Life Is A Dream, Supergirl, Tonight). I first saw Rea Garvey in an old video on MCM Romania, singing over Jam El Mar and Marc Spoon's (Rest In Peace Marc Spoon) beats. As the song has two different video versions, this was the one I saw:
As I was already familiar with the works of Jam & Spoon (Right In The Night, Angel (La Da Di O-Heyo, Kaleidoscope Skies, Find Me), I knew anything they made was nothing short of a great hit abroad. I say 'abroad', because after the downfall of VIVA TV (Rest In Peace), the only acceptable music source on TV was that of MCM or MCM Romania. This is what once used to be called trance. What we have nowadays on the trance scene is commercial bullfrog crap. Well, as long as it puts an end to the crisis, which I truly, honestly and sincerely doubt... but that's another story.
Let me introduce a new idea to whosoever may view this blog. It's about music. Music is everything. Without music, what would there be in this endless vacuum we refer to as 'world'? It's a universal language. We talk about music, we love music, we feel music. Those who can in no way relate - or pretend to - to the latter may I add, have been living their lives in vain. Music is all about feeling and healing. There is a right kind of music for any situation - happiness, sorrow, freedom, compassion, you name it.
I just happen to like the term 'versus' very much. This may refer to two or more bands or members of a band who decide to record a song together or become engaged in a sort of rivalry which does not necessarily have to mean they are battling in order to make a point in front of the general audience.
Another term which I also happen to like is 'featuring'. When a band or an artist decides to make something like this, there are two possible results. Considering the modern times we live in which sometimes even imply combining two or more artists coming from different musical genre backgrounds, we can conclude: the outcoming song is either a hit or a useless waste of time. The merging of genres must be carefully supervised, in order for it not to become a failure. Even the two most different styles of music we never dared imagine possible may just as well exist combined into a single one. I'll come back to this in a later post. Now on with my story...
A couple of weeks ago, I got hold of some Schiller videos. Schiller, (once a german band, now only Christopher von Deylen, one of the founders of the band is going solo under the name Schiller) experimenting various styles, such as trance, new age and ambient came to a certain point in 2002 when he decided to team up with Peter Heppner, (member of the band Wolfsheim) for the song 'Dream of You'. It was probably the success of the song that determined Schiller to go on working with Heppner for their next hit, which became really famous. This hit was called 'Leben... I Feel You', though most people refer to it as only 'I Feel You'. Among these videos I got my hands on was a video of Schiller's whose viewing for reasons unknown I tended to postpone.
About a half an hour ago, I watched the video. Only once. Then I started just listening to the song, but this time without viewing the video itself. Who is Xavier Naidoo who does the vocals? Back in the days when we had VIVA through cable, my eyes were kind of stuck to the TV set while listening to Xavier's 'Sie Sieht Mich Nicht' (She Doesn't See Me). Now let me imagine a song with both Schiller and Xavier in it. Not impossible, I said to myself. Then I saw the video... I can't quite claim I've never before seen so touching a video, but it moved me in some way. I can feel it. Maybe it will move you too if you get its message... the song is called 'Sehnsucht'(Yearning) ...
Schiller Mit Heppner Und Isgaard - Dream Of You
Schiller Mit Peter Heppner - Leben... I Feel You
Xavier Naidoo - Sie Siecht Mich Nicht
Schiller Mit Isgaard - Ein Schoner Tag
Schiller Mit Xavier Naidoo - Sehnsucht (Video N/A in Romania...)
I always had this thing for foreign languages. My friends aren't surprised to hear me make up a sentence in five languages. In fact, most of them are quite used to this. It's just my way to be. Bubba Sparxxx's quote 'How else can I say it? I don't speak no other languages!' doesn't apply to me at all. Since I was thrown in an English-speaking kindergarten as a kid, I later found keeping my eyes on the TV set was really paying off, not to mention extremely rewarding. Not only did I learn lots of English by watching TV but other languages as well. Take German for example. Pro Sieben was one of my favourite channels back in the 90s. As I kept watching two of my favourite movies in German over and over again since I had them on some old VHS tapes, I started learning more and more about this wonderful and expressive language. As times changed, so did my tastes in what concerns music. The song 'Ohne Dich' ('Without You') by Ramms+ein became one of my favourite tracks through the years. Even though I first fell in love with Mina Harker's Version/Laibach Remix of the song, I came to love the original just as much. Ramms+ein is an impressive industrial metal band from Germany which I have yet to see come to Romania for a concert. Schiller visited our country some years ago and brought Peter Heppner along as well. Next on the list of German bands to visit us --- Ramms+ein?
Ohne Dich:
Ohne Dich (Mina Harker's Version/Laibach Remix):
Ohne Dich (Schiller Mix)(Fan-Made Video):
After previewing the post, I found it's a great idea to play the first two versions at the same time. Just lovely...
It's been almost 13 years since I bought Sparks' album 'Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins' on MC. I was very fond of having it then and I can still remember how sophisticated some lyrics were for me. Back then, there were two major album distributing companies, Vivo and Poker. I guess there was rivalry between these two, but I'm not certain. Original MCs were hard to find, so these two companies started releasing the 'only for sale in Romania' versions. The fact was if an album was issued by these two companies, some differences were to be noticed: the Vivo versions usually contained more tracks, while the Poker ones were recorded in higher quality. I got my Sparks copy from Poker because that was the only company that issued this album I guess. I fell in love with one of their tracks, '(When I Kiss You) I Hear Charlie Parker Playing'. It had very good lyrics, a video that couldn't quite be frowned upon and a very catchy and modern beat. A couple of days ago I rediscovered their album and instantly copied it on my mp3 player. Pure genius, that's what this album is. I mean who else can mix sophisticated lyrics with classic black-and-white video imagery AND put it on a groove that the eurodance world that once was out there would take for granted? That's right. NO ONE... but Sparks.
Saturday: I was sitting on a bench at the train station in Cluj. At least an hour had passed. I was waiting for Her. There, I lived a "living on video" phenomenon. The video in question was Alvarez and Peter Heppner's 'Vielleicht'. Watched a couple of pigeons, crows and sparrows fly around. Shared a kurtos kalacs, a sandwich and an orange with an old homeless lady sitting next to me on that row of benches. I found out she once had a decent life, she had been a respectable woman, but once she took drinking way too seriously this was how things eventually wound up.
