The Journey Itself Is Home

“…the highest concentration of PCBs exist in the people on an island about as isolated and pristine as you can get.

“Broughton Island is west of Greenland, near Baffin Island, thousands of miles away from sources of pollution. The islanders live by hunting and fishing. Broughton Island became written about in popular magazines, and people on neighbouring islands began to talk about Broughton Islanders as the PCB people, as though they had a deadly disease. Marriage to them was discouraged. Worried that Broughton Island was getting bad press, the islanders, in a masterpiece of PR, changed its name to Qikiqtarjuaq - which the press could neither remember nor pronounce.”

From an awesom book I’m reading in my hotel room in Dublin, The Meaning of the 21st Century by James Martin. I highly recommend it!

They say you are what you eat…

I suppose you are also what you watch. On DVD, I mean. If you do a lot of it, that is.

We are now in London. I feel tired. And yet, somewhat tense. I have been watching episode after episode of 24 for the past few days. I wonder how it affects me. The world of Jack Bauer is, after all, a very sick one. Maybe I should watch something positive. And funny! Like the South Park version of 24! Mark Bell showed me a glimpse of it today.

Or something calm, but meaningful. Like On the Golden Pond.

(Only kidding).

Rock-en-Seine was yesterday. It was good. The audience seemed wild! This time it was backline technician Allan Pollard´s AND Damian’s birthday. Damian turned 30! And the crowd sang for them both.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLAN AND DAMIAN!!!

I have always wanted to capture on video the final magical moment backstage before a Björk concert, just before we walk on stage. The intensity is incredibIe. I recently bought a new camera and filmed this on August 23, when Wonderbrass marched on stage, playing Brennið þið vitar.

I’m indepted to Ragga Gestsdóttir for editing the video to a proper size so it could be uploaded. Thanks, Ragga!

I forgot to mention that it was Brynja Guðmundsdóttir’s birthday on August 23. Brynja is a member of Wonder Brass, she plays the tuba. This time the entire audience sang for her, encouraged by Björk. Imagine ten thousand people singing “happy birthday”. It was unbelievable!

And here is a bit of a fun during Oceania at our last concert.

Here is a link to Vökuró on YouTube.

My daughter once remarked that she always feels unusually inspired to play the piano when she has had a “Mozart-kugel”. Well, my hotel in Nimes was frequently visited by Hemmingway, and not only that: I actually stayed in his room! And lo: I have found blogging suspiciously easy these past days…

We gave our second concert in the Arena of Nimes Thursday night. It was great. I think everyone was on form and we were quite exhilarated afterwards. I know that I played a lot better than on Tuesday!

M.I.A was our supporting artist. I listened to her and her group. All of them were fantastic.

We started with a song by Icelandic composer Páll Ísólfsson, Brennið Þið Vitar. It was originally composed for a male choir if I’m not mistaken. This time only Wonder Brass played it while they marched on stage. And the audience screamed…

We also performed Hidden Place, which I don’t remember having played before in public. It went very well. I have added organ embellishment to it, some of which is quite dissonant. But I think it suits the song.

All in all, a successful evening.

I went to FNAC yesterday, where I bought a set of twelve CDs with Canadian pianist Glenn Gould playing Bach. Among them are both recordings Gould made of the Goldberg Variations, i.e. in 1955 and 1981.

Lalo Schifrin, the film composer principally known for composing the “burning fuse” theme of Mission Impossible, once came to Iceland and conducted the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. On the programme was only film music and Schifrin introduced each peace. He was most entertaining and told the audience plenty of things I didn’t know or, at least, hadn’t thought about.

For instance, he mentioned “audio/visual counterpoint”. That’s when the music in the film is in direct contrast to what you see. You may be watching something innocent enough, but the music is very menacing - or vice versa. Schifrin then conducted a piece of music which resembled a nursery rhyme, originally played during a scene when terrorists were planning to bomb a children’s playground.

I was reminded of such stark contrasts while I was listening to the Goldberg variations last night. That’s the music you hear when Hannibal Lecter has slaughtered a couple of policemen in his cage in Silence of the Lambs. Bach’s heavenly music makes the murders seem even more gruesome.

Gould was a genius. If you haven’t seen Bruno Montsaingeon’s film Glenn Gould Hereafter, do so. I highly recommend it.

Björk once gave me Bruno Montsaingeon’s film about the Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter. That’s an amazing documentary which I have watched many times.

Incidentally, Gould’s interpretation of the Prelude and Fugue in C Major from Book Two of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier is in the spacecraft Voyager 1, which is “approaching interstellar space and is the most distant human-made object from Earth”, to quote the Wikipedia. I believe the idea is that if aliens come across the spacecraft and open it, they can hear Gould play Bach and so have a better understanding of what we humans are about.

Here are two photos. The first one is of the Arena, the second one of the Roman temple.

The concert yesterday went OK. The audience, some 8000 people, were making waves as we entered the Arena, which was very funny, but much appreciated!

It was a bit strange being on stage again. I felt slightly disoriented and thought I didn’t play too well. But the Brass was very good and Björk was really powerful.

It was Ragga’s birthday a few days ago, so before we played the encores Björk sang Happy Birthday for her. I didn’t know she was going to do that, but spontaneously accompanied her on the piano. Björk’s singing made the crowd hysterical and the people began screaming “RAGGA, RAGGA, RAGGA…” until she came on stage for a few seconds. It was a great audience.

I have been walking around the center of Nimes today. It is a lovely place. The people are kind and the town itself is charming. There is a Roman temple here that is amazingly well preserved. Unfortunately there is nothing to see inside. I understand the temple has been changed into a movie theatre where you can see a 30 minutes’ documentary on THOSE STUPID ROMANS as Asterix called them - if memory serves me right. I would have preferred to see how the interior of a Roman temple looked back then.