Some days ago I bought Talkie Walkie from Air. When I got home I found out DRM on the CD. So I return the cd and took my money back.

One of my favourite jazz players is Thelonious Monk, although I do not have much music from him. Last time I was in a Fnac I was thinking in getting some Monk’s CDs. There were three that catched my eye, but when I turned them around I saw the Sony Label, so I didn’t bought them:

It’s Monk Time - 11,50€
Monk’s Dream - 11,50€
Monk in Tokyo - 18,50€

In the end I took Perfect with me:

Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG, seems to believe that if you rip a CD that you bought, you are stealing music:

Making “a copy” of a purchased song is just “a nice way of saying ’steals just one copy’,” she said.

And she added:

“It’s my personal belief that Sony BMG is half the size now as it was in 2000.”

Poor little Sony…

No final da década de 40, ganha importância, nos meios artísticos, a diminuição entre a audiência e o espectáculo. O público é chamado a participar na performance a que assiste.
Em 1952, David Tudor desempenhava, em Woodstock, New York, a peça 4’ 33’’, de John Cage, sentando-se ao piano e não tocando nenhuma nota durante os quatro minutos e trinta e três segundos que durava o espectáculo.
Os espectadores afirmavam não ter ouvido nada, mas o espectáculo estava recheado de sons:
“People began whispering to one another, and some people began to walk out. They didn’t laugh — they were just irritated when they realized nothing was going to happen, and they haven’t fogotten it 30 years later: they’re still angry.”[1]

[1] Cage, John. Cited by Media Art Net. http://www.mediaartnet.org/works/4-33/ Acedido a 6 de Julho de 2007

Tenhi ‘Folk Aesthetic 1996-2006’ to be released 06.08.2007

I can not wait to get this. I found Tenhi when I was in Turku, Finland. Yes, they are finnish
This neighbor told me about them.
The music is beautiful, as Finland’s landscape
And the CD’s are a must-have

You can listen some musics here.

Here is how it looks:

Hoje, o Governo Russo vai alterar a lei do país para ilegalizar o site AllOfMP3, devido às pressões que tem sofrido.

Ía falar disto, mas faço apenas referência. O vizinho aqui do lado tem mais sobre. E ele até já descobriu uma alternativa: MP3 City, onde eu já encontrei álbuns de Monk e Armstrong dos anos 50/60

Falésia, uma compilação de projectos portugueses, vai ser oferecida no concerto de lançamento, no próximo dia 2 de Junho às 22h na Fábrica de Som, Avenida Rodrigues de Freitas 27, Porto. A entrada são 4€ e vem acompanhada do CD.
A compilação tem um faixa de Merankorii.

Boas notícias! Agora a Íntima Fracção pode ser ouvida no Rádio Clube Português.
É certo que podemos sempre subscrever o podcast, mas a mim acesce-me um gosto enorme ao sintonizar a frequência do aparelho de rádio (Apesar de viver em Coimbra, apanhava a RUC muito mal).
Obrigado, Francisco!

The new work of Merankorii is finally out
You can buy it in CD or cassete (yep, that’s right! :-))for 4€.
Listen here. Buy here.

Any idea on who is the original author of the song?

Uma das minhas vozes favoritas estará em Lisboa no centro Cultural de Belém no próximo Domingo, pelas 21h.

The World of Ute Lemper

12 days to the next album from Merankorii

E depois do Adeus…

Interpretação: Paulo de Carvalho
Música: José Calvário
Letra: José Niza

Quis saber quem sou
O que faço aqui
Quem me abandonou
De quem me esqueci
Perguntei por mim
Quis saber de nós
Mas o mar
Não me traz
Tua voz.

Em silêncio, amor
Em tristeza e fim
Eu te sinto, em flor
Eu te sofro, em mim
Eu te lembro, assim
Partir é morrer
Como amar
É ganhar
E perder

Tu vieste em flor
Eu te desfolhei
Tu te deste em amor
Eu nada te dei
Em teu corpo, amor
Eu adormeci
Morri nele
E ao morrer
Renasci

E depois do amor
E depois de nós
O dizer adeus
O ficarmos sós
Teu lugar a mais
Tua ausência em mim
Tua paz
Que perdi
Minha dor que aprendi
De novo vieste em flor
Te desfolhei…

E depois do amor
E depois de nós
O adeus
O ficarmos sós

O Musicovery é uma forma de ouvir música por mood. A secção de jazz está muito boa. O conceito parece-me engraçado. Não há muita informação no site, pelo que não consegui saber em que condições é que a música lá está.
De qualquer forma, obrigada ao sr Anonymous

… Canto Moço de José Afonso

Somos filhos da madrugada
Pelas praias do mar nos vamos
À procura de quem nos traga
Verde oliva de flor no ramo
Navegamos de vaga em vaga
Não soubemos de dor nem mágoa
Pelas praias do mar nos vamos
À procura de manhã clara

Lá do cimo de uma montanha
Acendemos uma fogueira
Para não se apagar a chama
Que dá vida na noite inteira
Mensageira pomba chamada
Mensageira da madrugada
Quando a noite vier que venha
Lá do cimo de uma montanha

Onde o vento cortou amarras
Largaremos p’la noite fora
Onde há sempre uma boa estrela
Noite e dia ao romper da aurora
Vira a proa minha galera
Que a vitória já não espera
Fresca, brisa, moira encantada
Vira a proa da minha barca.

Obrigado Miguel por me lembrares que tinha 6 CD’s que nunca tinha passado para o portátil.

She’s walking down the street
Blind to every eye she meets
Do you think you’ll be the guy
To make the queen of the angels sigh?

I’d Like To Walk Around In Your Mind
(Bunyan 1967 © MCPS)

I’d like to walk around in your mind someday
I’d like to walk all over the things you say to me

I’d like to run and jump on your solitude
I’d like to rearrange your attitude to me

You say you just want peace and to never hurt anyone
You see the end before the beginning has ever begun

I would disturb your easy tranquillity
I’d turn away the sad impossibility of your smile

I’d sit there in the sun of the things I like about you
I’d sing my songs and find out just what they mean to you

But most of all I’d like you to be unaware
Then I’d just wander away, trailing palm leaves behind me
So you don’t even know I’ve been there.

This is one of my favorites songs, in the voice of Anne Sofie Von Otter.

words OGDEN NASH (1902-1971)
music KURT WEILL (1900-1950)

tell me is love
still a popular suggestion
or merely an obsolete art
forgive me for asking
this simple question
i’m unfamiliar with her heart
i’m a stranger here myself

why is it wrong
to murmur i adore her
when it’s shamefully obvious i do
does love embarrass her
or does it bore her
i’m only waiting for my cue
i’m a stranger here myself

i dream of a day
of a gay warm day
with her face between my hands

have i missed the path
have i gone astray
i ask and no one understands

love me or leave me
that seems to be the question
i don’t no the tactics to use
but if she should make
a personal suggestion
how could i possibly refuse
when i’m a stranger here myself

please tell me tell a stranger
by curiosity goaded
is there really any danger
that love is now outmoded
i’m interested especially
in knowing why you waste it
true romance is so fleshly
with what have you replaced it
what is your latest foible
is gin rummy more exquisite
is skiing more enjoyable
for heaven’s sake what is it

i can’t believe
that love has lost it’s glamour
that passion is really passé
if gender is just a word in grammar
how can i ever find my way
i’m a stranger here myself

how can she ignore
my available position
why these victorian views
you see here before you
a man with a mission
i must discover
the key to her ignition
and then if she should make
a diplomatic proposition
how could i possibly refuse
i’m a stranger here myself

The importance is on what I want you to feel while listening to the album - The book that turn out to be music

I got my Melencolia Cd, the third album from Merankorii, a few days ago and I decided to make an interview to the author. My experience, as journalist, told me that first, we ask for an interview and then we do it. But I didn’t. So, I just emailed the questions to Marcos Marado and a few minutes later I had the answers.

What is this Melencolia III about?

Melencolia III is the third part of a conceptual work, the first one that is being presented by my personal project Merankorii. It can be considered as a work by itself, or as being part of a bigger picture, and for that the analisys of the two previous parts, “O Monólogo do Mudo” and “Crash”, is needed. I guess the most obvious point on the concept behind it is the reference to Dürer’s work, specially if you
take in consideration that this is “Melencolia III”, or the third stage of melancholia, defined by Agrippa as “melencholia mentalis”.

How is Melencolia being accepted by the public?

Well, this is maybe too soon to answer this - this is the forth day after the album release… But I’m having quite good reactions. Those that were previously acquainted with Merankorii thought, in general, that this is a more coherent album, more listenable - and, in fact, I think that this is an album that you’re going to “feel like listening it” more times than the previous ones. Most of those others that, not knowing Merankorii, gave me some feedback, I think that I can sum up what they said as “positive reactions”, but most of them were just surprised.
After all, like it or not, Merankorii was allways classified as unique.

This album has more “noise” than the previous ones. Is this a change of direction or just an experiment of working with “noise”?

If you see retrospectively, you’ll see that each of Merankorii’s works are quite different musically-wise. It’s all about experimentation, yes, but mainly a reflection of the feelings I’m using the music to transmit.
Maybe an appreciation of “Psyche”, one of “Melencolia III”s tracks, can answer your question than any words I might add on the issue.

What references do you have, do you listen, in this kind of “noise” work?

Well, I consider myself quite ecletic in the kind of music I listen to, and I wouldn’t even consider this a “noise album”, and reducing its musical influences to noise ones would fail on describing what’s made
here. I really don’t know any other musical project in a similar vein as Merankorii, but I’m going to answer to your question anyway. I like the works of Boris, Boyd Rice, Galati, Profan, Sunn O))), among others.

There are no portuguese references in the language (titles and lyrics) in this album as the previous ones. Why?

It just happened. As you might have noticed, this album also transmits way more stuff through sounds instead of doing it though words, so the choice between one or another was taken less times. While I cannot even think of a version of “O Adeus” or “À Arte”, from the two previous
albums, in other language than Portuguese - and certainly not in English, I just feel that for the tracks with voice in Melencolia III have the right language. And yes, I know that my knowledge of the English Language is far from perfect, and some words aren’t pronounced as they should. But that’s the way Merankorii is - never worried with technical perfection, the importance is on what I want you to feel while listening to the album. Oh, and “The Wall” would never exist if I didn’t make the trip to Amsterdam, when I spoke only in English for some days. It had to come out the way it did.

Do you have only Portuguese listeners or from other countries?

I have both Portuguese and Foreign listeners. While there’s a little more divulgation here in Portugal, I just think that, in general, people, and specially Portuguese people, aren’t enough open-minded musically to accept something like Merankorii. While being Portuguese would be a nice factor to dig into Merankorii in the previous albums, since this one has no Portuguese wording that factor can’t be applied.
In the end, I just think that Merankorii is just lacking exposure.

How could you release this third album, the first to have a label?

I was looking for a label for even before Crash was out - and I got one soon after its release. Unfortunately that record label went bankrupt, so I went back to search. Since Merankorii has such a hard-to-define sonority, it’s really difficult to get a record label that is willing to accept an almost-unknown musical project that has a musical style so different from the other stuff they release.
The good folks of Nekrogoat Heresy Productions started as a label in the end of the last year, decided to sign some bands with dark sonorities, from noise to black metal. Since the album was ready while we were
discussing details, Melencolia III ended as being their first release, and they’re now working on releasing their second one, an album from Black Metallers “Nebula Soturna”.

Melencolia is the third album of Merankorii. Which is the concept of Merankorii?

Merankorii has no concept by itself: Merankorii is the way I have to exteriorize thoughts and feelings that couldn’t be transmitted otherwise. It’s almost therapeutic. But there is a concept behind Merankorii: a concept that is being explored with the three already released albums and has still to reach its conclusion. Vaguely describing the main line and ignoring the diversions, it talks about a character, “O Mudo” (in
English “The Dumb”), and his path through life - and the four stages of the life of an alchemist.

Why and when was Merankorii created?

That’s a quite curious question. In the beginning of 2004 I had an urge to create a story that I called “O Monólogo do Mudo”. When I realized that it couldn’t be told as a book I decided it would be a movie. I even
took some shots, but soon after, I noticed that what really mattered there was the sound - the image was there just so you could be staring to something. From realizing that to deciding that “O Monólogo do Mudo”
should be a CD was a zilt. But it couldn’t be a “one shot”, so Merankorii appeared as a musical project, under the name O Monólogo do Mudo would be released. Of course that all this changed affected what I wanted to do with O Monólogo do Mudo, so when you’re listening to it, it doesn’t remind you of the audio part of a movie, I think.

Merankorii has a wide presence on web (MySpace, Treemo, etc). How do you use this kind of internet instruments and what is the relation with the spread of this band?

The only way to get exposure if you’re not in a label that does that for you (and hey - I have a label for only a month, and it’s a just-created one, mind you) is to go for it, by yourself, and Internet is an awesome tool for that. If it wasn’t the internet, probably Crash would never see the light of day, so I can say that it’s presence in the Internet makes part of Merankorii. Regarding to it’s spread, don’t fool yourselves -
MySpace and your zillions of friends doesn’t make you sell a CD, even for a dime.
When someone is looking for a band they’ll aim for MySpace, so it’s important to have a presence there, but if you want to expose your music to possible fans, and even give them tools they’ll like to have, think more on services like SellABand or Last.fm. I try to have a consistent presence on the Internet, and that already gave Merankorii some faithful fans.

What kind of music do you listen to?

I told you, I’m quite eclectic on my musical choices At the moment, I’m listening to Oraculum, but I like many things, as you can see here: http://www.last.fm/user/Mind_Booster/ . You can notice some influences on Merankorii from bands such as Cranes, Brave, Empyrium, Neun Welten, Burzum, Dvar, David Mellor, Ashram, Cruachan, Marilyn Manson, Skrol, Sun O))), Tenhi and many, many others…

Which is the next step?

A new album, for sure, and maybe a video-clip. Future is uncertain, and for now I just hope that this album has the acceptance needed to be way more easier to release the next one. Remember that Nekrogoat Heresy Productions is a just-born label, and needs return from the investments they make to have more money to put on the table for another release. If you want to help Merankorii, please consider buying the CD, not only for you but even as gifts to your friends…