Cesaria Evora will return to Romania on October 16 to perform her third concert in Bucharest, as part of the tour in support of her most recent album, “Rogamar.” The concert is included in the “Pour les connoisseurs” series of events organized by the Aurel Mitran Foundation, the same group that brought the “barefoot diva” to Romania in 2003 and 2004. “Rogamar” is the her tenth album, appearing three years after her Grammy Award winner “Voz d’Amor.”

Chris Rea is going to be here on 1st of November, as part of his farewell tour. It seems he has serious health issues which will keep him off the stage for the next years…too bad !

Both of them should be a delight, my personal favourite is going to be Chris Rea.

Yesterday evening at about 10 PM I called Dana to ask / remind her to write about the Apocalyptica concert which, of course, I did not manage to attend. Surely, she did not pick up the phone or called back….who is the jerk disturbing her that late?

Well, the good thing is that she read my mind and posted the review of the concert, which you can find it here. Thanks, Dana ! :)

“On arriving at the Arenele Romane at 19.34, 4 minutes after the concert was supposed to start, I learned an important lesson: NEVER arrive at a concert on time….“

Well, I could not attent the concert, but luckily a friend was kind enough to write her impressions on it. So here it is, as Carmen saw it:

„Argentina…Buenos Aires..”

Gotan Project gives a trance taste to tango. All dressed  in white, playing violins, piano, cello, guitar and un unfogettable accordion, all „brushed” of the electronic sound of the synthetizor, they served the Bucharest public a lesson of what classic musicians can do when they approach electronic music.

The show also had a visual component: a screen on which were made projections of psyhedelic images of horse races in slow motion, looking as if they were following the rhythm of the song, naked women spinning torches, walks in woods. „Lunatico”, the name of  their last album and of this tour, was given after tango hero Carlos Gardel’s champion racehorse of the 1930′s, very inspired chosen, as this electronic-tango has the power and the wildness of a running horse.

In Sala Palatului many seats remained empty but the crowd that was there obviously knew their music, as it gave a great feed-back to the performers. Everyone, musicians and listeners, enjoyed two hours of rushing blood through the veins.  

I am still wondering how this week I managed to find a couple of hours for myself to try to put some order into stuff that was in my mind and on the hard-drive :) As expected, this proved to have amazing and quite unexpected benefits, as I discovered a lot of things:

- Wyclef Jean is still great and I love it, for example this track – Where Fugees At.

- Apocalyptica sounds also great and it’s a pitty I never managed to get to the concert. But maybe I’ll find someone to write about it ;) Meanwhile, Enter Sandman is heavily played.

- Erin Bode is very relaxing. I still wonder how would Graceland look like.

- Racla was one of the Romanian bands I used to love some years ago and I rediscovered how good they used to sound. Too bad they are not playing anymore. Even though a little commercial, this track – 2 in 1 – gives me a very nice feeling everytime I listen to it.

- Some bands can bring back great memories. For example Tapinarii. This track – Doi Bani – is about just sitting alone on the beach in Vama Veche while Puiul meu …. is really special.

- Once I was staying in a rented apartment in Titulescu and this track – Pearl Jam – Even Flow – was excelent for waking up. Thanks Cris !

- A new business idea has been put down on paper and it looks like it’s going to fly. The entrepreneur feeling gives me amazing energies :)

- Filling up your fridge with Heineken is always a good thing :)

- I need a better connection as upload is taking too much time.

- and a lot more which is going to be crystalized later.

Cheers ! 

Yesterday the great singer Gica Petrescu said goodbye and passed away. I am sure all of the Romanians know his work, great talent and extraordinary influence he had in music.

He sang for dozens of years, performing some 1500 songs in his career. His favourite songs themes were Bucharest, women and drinking, although he was never a heavy drinker.

He passed away at the age of 91, in the same day it was scheduled for him to receive an award from the Nationa Romanian Television.

In his memory, here it is for you to listen to – Gica Petrescu – Uite asa as vrea sa mor. Rest in peace !

After a short vacation to the beaches of our neighbouring country, I came back with a lot of appetite for posting and music in general. Maybe it is because I missed my tracks collection back home, or because in the car we had almost no music because the guy had a cassette player, not a cd-player as I thought initially….

So, after looking through some music blogs as I arrived back online, I saw that a lot of people posted about the recent top that Paste Magazine is publishing – the top 100 songwriters still alive. Here is the direct link to the list.

Some of my comments on it:

- Pink Floyd is much to low, on #80 !!

- Outkast is too low, on #99

- Notable artists not on the list are: Deep Purple, Lauryn Hill / Wyclef Jean / Fugees, Peter Frampton, Alanis Morissette, Katie Melua (maybe), Bjork and many more.

Even though the initiative is to be praised, maybe they should have dedicated more time to this. Leaving such good artists out of the list can make it highly questionable.

Sounds evil, ain’t it? Well, it is not that hard. This song, from AFI’s latest album, is, despite it’s rock sound, quite a nicely put together sound which combines the band’s Alternative sound with some rock and pop influences.

Also, the entire album features a diverse style, fully elaborated, ranging from electronic beats to hard metal influences. In some points, the band might resemble the much more famous Green Day, but still they manage to keep an individuality throughout their works.

Definetely something that is worth listening, specially if you are into rock / alternative sounds. Download is now available, for listening purposes only - A.F.I. – Miss Murder - and then rush to the store and buy the album :)

After some 14 or so hours of work – under a whole lot of pressure, too – I dared to open the winamp and just play the first track which came in the list. After the first 20 seconds or so I openned a can of beer, put the charts apart and lighed up a cigarette…and just enjoyed the sound.

It is a great feeling to discover a new track with a beautiful sound that you can just sit back and enjoy, not thinking about it too much. And when that track just matches your spirit for that moment you just feel like…well…posting about it :) So here it is, Nip / Tuck – A perfect Lie. Enjoy !

Well, the debate begun. Aparantely, the mayor of Brasov would like to organize it without the support of the National Television. More details here.

Apparently Mihai is a really persuasive guy, so here i am finally writing my first post on this blog. If he got me started, i fear this might be the beginning of many posts from me from now on, so i can only hope you bear with me :).

I am absolutely sure that everybody who ends up on this blog one way or another knows things about David Bowie, and has listened to him at least once. Without being a fan, i’ve been listening to many of his songs, but yesterday i particularly fell for one of them. Since i enjoy watching movies just as much as i enjoy music in general, when i discover a movie whose soundtrack is really well chosen, and seems almost vital for the intensity of some scenes, i get really enthusiastic. That’s the case with David Lynch’s “Lost highway”. The movie begins and ends with David Bowie singing ”I’m deranged”, while the images suggest a moving car on a highway. ”I’m Deranged” is a song written by David Bowie and Brian Eno in 1995 for the album Outside. And not only does the song suit the movie perfectly, but it’s also very appropriate as a car-track, as far as i am concerned. Which i’ve experienced last night, as hopefully suggested by this pic i took.

So, that’s about it for the first time. I’m curious about what you think about the track. And, Mihai, i promise next time it will be less about movies and more about the music ;).