I came back from Oslo, flying in with Baard; we got our bags, got in a taxi, and went first to my place, where I kissed Aden, and dropped my bags; then Baard dropped me at La Cigale, and went on to where he was staying. I was there to see Feist, meeting Dominique in the lobby right before she went on. Her band is very good, she is memsmerizing, her voice fully in control. There were some surprisingly...well, moments that were barely classifiable as 'alternative'...she is accessible to a larger degree than her credibility would seem to allow; she doesn't throw a spanner in the works to keep her from being too pure or likeable--she seems to just follow where things are interesting to her, and if that happens to vibrate at a populist frequency, so be it. Her show has a lot of variety in it as well--electric and acoustic moments; a song where she plays with vocal loops, alone with her guitar. I have no criticism of this show, really; she's working at a such a high level as to be...perfect?
PARIS 10/9
I spent the day at home working on string arrangements for a French artist named
Cali. More or less I was recording the parts at home with my keyboard, and these have since become scores. More on that later.
I was working on the string things until it was time to heard to Le Baron; I left the house probably around 8. I packed up my
Shiny Box ribbon mics to pass to my bandmates to take back to Norway, in advance of recording the Disciplines album in a couple of months. I went to the show by Metro, calmly reading a book on the way. I met Dom in a restaurant around the corner, and soon my bandmates, our bestest fan Alison, our sound engineer and his g.f., our video crew and our photographer were all waiting outside in the rain, waiting for someone to open the club. Finally Arnaud from the club showed up, and helped us put together the backline--very nice guy. Le Baron is a bit primitive sound wise, but my bandmates excel at adapting to various conditions (especially Claus, who has the hardest job--making the drums sound powerful but maintaining enough control to work with whatever sound system is--or isn't--there).
It took a long time to set up and my guys hadn't eaten to I went to get them some food--not easy in the 8eme. The restaurant around the corner had a variety of explanations why they wouldn't do take away--of course they had no extra bread to make sandwiches--they had to save it for customers to have at the table (optimistic for 10.15 on a Tuesday night) and no paper plates. Except they finally agreed to do sausage and frites.
We finally played around midnight, even tho' the place didn't really get full til about 1. But we had plenty of friends there, including the Yolks, Olivia Baum, Mateo, and many more. Le Baron has seats and tables, so it was a cabaret atmosphere, except for me of course! I swung from every rafter, jumped on every table and chair, and even managed to bang my face with the mic enough to draw blood and leave a cool looking scar.
I think the photos will be great...there's already a cool one on our myspace...
The next day I worked on the Cali arrangements for most of the day, and in the evening found myself back at La Cigale to see Cinematic Orchestra, which turned out to be an incredibly well done jazz concert. They are on an electronik-type label, but the music has a sophistication and non-danceability that works in the jazz idiom. And I had forgotten how much Parisians adore anything with a jazz sensibility. I was also amazed at the audience for this show, which was opened by art rock veterans Tuxedo Moon (to whom my experiments in the 80s with the Stinkbugs were compared) and also featured a DJ playing the sound of jackhammers on two turntables--there were dozens of school age kids there; grey haired oldsters, punk hipster girls...all digging what was in actuality rather demanding music.
I left after about an hour as I had more work to do, I took the Metro back home and worked on Cali's arrangements til I collapsed. In the morning I met LD, the keyboard player for Mateo, who helped me with the notation for the scores. We spent all day at my place going over the parts, plus all the dynamics and nuances. By the next night he was emailing me the scores! I'll get to hear them in action this week.
Friday and Saturday I was in the studio with Mateo, editing and doing a few last minute overdubs...but mostly editing...the studio we worked in on Friday, G-Point, is quite an interesting little epicenter in the 20eme. It's called the "Confluence" and it's a building that houses two studios, an art gallery, a theater...and probably more things, didn't get to look ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifround. The other studio next to ours was being used to mix music from Guinea.
Today I was back a Question de Son...I have to say, this has become such a comfortable place for me to work...I love it there. Everything works! And I have to keep giving kudos to Fred, the house engineer and co-owner. He has been making my life very easy there...so, here are some more kudos: <<>> that's what they look like. Merci!
Also, Alaksa-based artist Crystal Hutchens recently released a DVD about the making of her album, and her motivations and inspirations for the spiritual journey implied in her creative act; in it you can see some footage of me in the studio with her, playing drums, playing bass, and directing the viola-in player...the DVD has its own myspace
here. As far as I know the album isn't released yet but she has made this film available.
Love
KS
Paris
