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Random moment #12 – only this moment

Random moment is our playlist series which was started during the 2020 pandemic. We cannot travel and postings on our trips here have slowed to a crawl. So we thought sharing music is another way to communicate with friends and fans.

Nowadays, sharing a playlist with the world is effortless and generating a playlist can even be automated by Spotify’s algorithm. I (Chris) is old enough to have made and shared mixed cassette tapes and remember the sweet labor in selecting and sequencing analog music. Why do it now ? Part of the fun is to re-listen to your favorites and savor that melody, beat or performance – the magic that entertained or entranced you. As music is likely associated with a period, a place or certain events and people in one’s life, it is also a trip down memory lane for many people.

With a music streaming service, almost the entire universe of popular and classical music is available. It allows the boundless discovery of new groups, new music created by people you like, covers for an old song, or even old music you did not like before but like now. I(Chris) is particularly interested in discovering new or faint musical mood connections between the music, old and new. Playlists are the products of us amusing ourselves in this musical sandbox.

Depending on the music, the number of songs in a playlist is limited to about four on average, totaling around 10-20 minutes. In our listening experiences, there is enough time for the listener to form an impression of the overall musical mood. And the bite-size playtime is about right for a short break from chores/work.

This is the 12th playlist. The earlier playlists can be found by searching for the tag “music” on this site.

random moment #12 – only this moment

https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/0dBSC1QHlSb8loNBOn8tTu

#spotify #playlist #nowplaying #royksopp #electronic #neworder #depechemode #randommoment

Life, Life – Ryuichi Sakamoto & David Sylvian

Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian, both my very favorite artists, collaborated again on this video – the music, poem and time-lapse photographed images of New York City. Meditative and beautiful.

How did I miss this by almost three years? It was released in 2017 when Sakamoto’s “async” came out. And I just discovered this video. See bottom of page for more music.

Don’t forget you can enter full screen. More immersive on headphone. Hope you enjoy it as much as I (Chris) do.

music by Ryuichi Sakamoto
voice by David Sylvian
poem from Andrei Tarkovsky’s father,
the famous Russian poet Arseny Tarkovsky.
video by Cameron Michael

The text of the poem:

And this I dreamt, and this I dream

And this I dreamt, and this I dream,
And some time this I will dream again,
And all will be repeated, all be re-embodied,
You will dream everything I have seen in dream.

To one side from ourselves, to one side from the world
Wave follows wave to break on the shore,
On each wave is a star, a person, a bird,
Dreams, reality, death – on wave after wave.

No need for a date: I was, I am, and I will be,
Life is a wonder of wonders, and to wonder
I dedicate myself, on my knees, like an orphan,
Alone – among mirrors – fenced in by reflections:
Cities and seas, iridescent, intensified.
A mother in tears takes a child on her lap.

. . .

Apparently, the press release for the album states that async was a soundtrack for an imaginary Andrei Tarkovsky film (who made Solaris), and there is a track named Solari.

“async” was released in 2017, his 16th solo album but the first after 8 years and a battle with throat cancer. Mindful of his mortality, in the track “fullmoon”, Sakamoto included the author Paul Bowles reciting “Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well, …” which came from Bowles’s book – “The Sheltering Sky” that was also made into a movie. Sakamoto wrote the soundtrack and won a Golden Globe award for Best Original Score. See our earlier post (here) about this book which Chris read during the Morocco trip.

Some of you may remember their collaboration from 37(!) years ago – “Forbidden Colours” for the 1983 movie Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence also known as Furyo. It won a BAFTA award for Best Film Music.

As a bonus, here is another collaboration by the two – “World Citizen” from 2003.

A slightly different version of “World Citizen – I won’t be disappointed” was included in the soundtrack for the 2006 movie “Babel” by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

A version of “World Citizen” remixed by Taylor Deupree appeared in Sakamoto’s 2006 album “Bricolages”.

They have more collaborations – I will let you discover them.