May I just preface this little post with my apologies for the lack of posts lately! My dad is in California at the moment with our lap top and the computer I am currently on is too old to upload pictures (strange, I know). Instead, I shall write about something other than my personal style.
Today's topic: Les Concerts a Emporter de La Blogotheque.
La Blogotheque is a French blog about international independent music- my absolute favorite. One of the major features of the blog are their "Concerts a Emporter" or "Take Away Shows" where musicians are released into an assortment of random places (restaurants, streets, elevators, buses, malls, tunnels, cars, you name it) to play acoustic versions of their music and be filmed by an assortment of independent directors (chiefly Vincent Moon).
I found these little pieces of musical magic at the beginning of my freshman year of High School. I had been taking French for a few weeks and my musical interests had just barely broken a lifelong pop addiction with such bands as The Beatles and Queen. I had found Andrew Bird through an NPR interview a couple of months earlier and was perusing his youtube videos when I stumbled upon his Take Away Show. It was simple and eerily foreign to me. He simply walked around the streets of Paris with his violin and guitar, singing, playing, and whistling while the rest of the world continued on-- unaware of the beauty the man that just passed them was creating.
I kind of just thought one of Andrew Bird's friends had filmed these short little videos and went on my way. The videos coninued to haunt my memory however. A few weeks later I returned and went to La Blogotheque's page to find a plethora of similar beauty, some equally calm and beautiful while others exuded the eupohoric joy that only music has the ability to create. Gaspar Claus's "Desert Song" and Beirut's "The Penalty" (the first I had ever heard of my now favorite band) both particularly caught my eye. I was addicted.
These little videos have legitimately changed my life. They introduced me to the majority of the artists who I listen to (all of which have played a unique role in my life in one way or another). Further, it was the first thing that really peaked my interest in French, a language I have since become nearly fluent in and spent four weeks this summer immersing myself in with a host family in Bordeaux.
There is something strangely magical about these videos whose concept is so extremely simple. They take music back to its beginnings, its simple roots, where music is just a compilation of sounds from instruments and people. They allow the viewer to see its actual creation and how it either fits in with it surroundings or stands at odds with them-- battling a world of time and organization with art and beauty.
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