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A somewhat fast paced interpretation of Erik Saties’ Gnossienne Nr. 1, to liven up the day. And besides, as Erik Satie once said to a critic, tempo is set by the mood on the interpreter.

A little song for the weekend. While My Heart is Still Beating, from Roxy Music, in a live version at the Bête Noire euro tour 88/89. The sound of uncertain shifting chords and sparse percussion letting Brian Ferry’s voice float as cool as glass.

A live at rehearsal version of Nine Inch Nails track Head Down, from The Slip album. This album was released free of charge in 2008, and you can still download it next to a high quality PDF with artwork and credits here.

Revisiting the subject of my last post, here is an old live recording of the Italian singer Milva together with Astor Piazzolla, interpreting Los Pájaros Perdidos. If the words are magnificent, the music is simply celestial.

“Amo a los pájaros perdidos
que vuelan desde el más allá
a confundirse con un cielo
que nunca más podre recuperar.

Vuelven de nuevo los recuerdos
las horas jóvenes que di
y desde el mar llega un fantasma
hecho de cosas que ame y perdí.

Todo fue un sueño
un sueño que perdimos
como perdimos
los pájaros y el mar.

Un sueño breve y antiguo
como el tiempo
que los espejos
no pueden reflejar.

Después busqué
perderte en tantas otras
y aquella otra
y todas eras vos.

Al fin logré reconocer
cuando un adiós es un adiós
la soledad me devoró y fuimos dos.

Vuelven los pájaros nocturnos
que vuelan ciegos sobre el mar;
la noche entera es un espejo
que me devuelve tu soledad.

Soy sólo un pajaro perdido
que vuelve desde el más allá
a confundirse con un cielo
que nunca más podre recuperar.”

(Astor Piazzolla, in Los pájaros perdidos)

I recently have been listening quite frequently to David Bowie’s “Low” album, released in 1977. It was one of his most influential albums, and was completed in collaboration with Brian Eno, another one of my most liked musicians.

“Warszawa” is one of my favourite pieces in the album. Mostly instrumental, this arrangement is meant to evoke the desolation of Warsaw at the time of Bowie’s visit in 1973. In my opinion, it evokes all desolation, anywhere.

In the last couple weeks, as well as rediscovering Ferlinghetti, I dug deep into musical memory and revisited some favorites of mine. Favorites as this one, from the Portuguese representatives of the Industrial music movement, Bizarra Locomotiva.