Category: music

Pathos

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Pathos:

Ludovico Einaudi announced his 2025 album The Summer Portraits back in early October last year. And as an artist who has released many new-age, modern classical albums, it’s clear that he had read the room with this particular track from the release.

The album was written in summer in Italy, and while The Summer Portraits is generally uplifting, and tries to pull the listener out of the doldrums…

The new project is inspired partially by the musician’s childhood in Torino. “I always considered Torino a place I would never go back to live. It was very grey, very industrial – I felt like I was in a cage,” Einaudi says in a press statement. “It’s a strange place, very poetic in a way. The soul of the people is more hidden. They don’t show things off – you have to find the dynamism inside yourself…”

…Pathos very much acknowledges the starting place of that journey.

And that follows along with the findings of the World Happiness Report, which came out at the end of the last month. People are generally less happy. This snapshot was taken just before November last year (before the US Election), and the US (24) and the UK (23) were already at their lowest ever positions.

This graph shows a very basic “Life Evaluation” perception score for a few nations, where 10 is the best that your life could be, and 0 is the worst. I’ve included the score for Finland and Afghanistan – the top and bottom rated countries in the study.

I’ve also included Ukraine, who are just behind SA, despite having their country invaded by the murderous forces of a despotic, nuclear-capable regime right on their doorstep.

We don’t have the same issue with Botswana.

Yet.

It will be interesting, given the… er… somewhat “extreme” new US government and its wide-reaching policies, what next year’s results will look like.

Assuming we’re still here, of course.

Let’s go to the Hans Zimmer concert

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After the recent success of the Cigarettes After Sex gig, I thought that maybe the upcoming Hans Zimmer concert might be worth popping along to.

I’m not a huge fan, but if the tickets aren’t too much, then…

Ah. Terrifying.

I wonder what’s left on offer?

Maybe not then.

Who in earth is buying tickets at that price?

Bishopscourt residents and digital nomads, I guess.

Contempt

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A reminder to self to look further into the 1963 Jean-Luc Godard film, Le Mépris (literally translated it’s “Contempt”, hence the post title).

Starring Bridget Bardot and Michael Piccoli, the Georges Delarue theme, Camille, from the movie was the music used by Cigarettes After Sex for their entrance onto the stage each night* for their Cape Town performances.

(Mainly) young, excited – dare I say “giddy”? – South African audiences need a bit of a reminder that there should be something of a pause between their pre-show chatting and their during show chatting, and this stunning, deep, orchestral piece bridged that gap perfectly as the house lights came down, Greg Gonzalez stepped onto the stage, and the screamy teenage volume went up.

A quick scan of Delarue’s catalogue shows just how prolific he was. There are some big name movie soundtracks in there: Céline, The Day of the Jackal, Twins (yes, that one) and Boomerang to name but a few of the 351 films he scored.

Jeez.

* I know this because Little Miss 6000 managed to snaffle a last minute free ticket for last night’s show as well

Cigarettes After Sex: gentle, monochrome joy

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I’ll be honest. I wasn’t sure what to expect from last night’s concert at Grand West.

Texas band Cigarettes After Sex were in town (and they are again tonight), and while I love their music, I’m far from their target audience.

Except, do they actually have a target audience? Because it seemed to all intents and purposes that they were just there last night to enjoy playing their music. And maybe that’s it: the age of the audience stretched from 12 to 70, and so while there might be some demographic or other to whom their music appeals more than another (it’s white, mainly female, teenage and 20-somethings, if you want to know), I don’t think that the band really cares at all.

And that’s fine.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a concert that’s had less band interaction with the audience. Literally “This is our first concert in Cape Town. We really appreciate you all coming along”, halfway through the set, and “Thank you, Cape Town. We love each and every one of you”, at the end. And that was it.

But that was also fine.

It left more room for the music – which is what I was there for – and (as I mentioned above), clearly what they were there for, too.

No flashy lights, no colour. Just a lot of spots, white LEDs and all of the CO2 that they could muster. They began playing in a light “tank”, with dry ice walls lit between them and the audience, but those came down early on, leaving light beams picking out the band members in front of a huge screen full of monochromatic images and videos of moonrises, sunsets, grasses, clouds, rain and snow.

This was very simple stuff, done simply.

And then for the big finale – Apocalypse – a couple of MASSIVE glitter balls which filled the place with dancing, shimmering stars for a couple of breathtaking, spine tingling minutes.

Randall and Jacob never moved from their respective stations, while lead singer Greg Gonzalez occasionally marched down to the front or out to the wings of the stage and offered up his guitar to the audience like some sort of subservient soul looking for praise or recognition, as he delivered the final riff of a song.

It might all have seemed rather emotionless, and yet it was weirdly, deeply spiritual at the same time. Outwardly cold, and yet completely captivating. I was entranced, and I could have spent literally hours just listening to their music. And I think that they could have spent hours just playing it for us.

Tejano Blue and Nothing’s Gonna Hurt You Baby were memorable, while Dreaming Of You was surprisingly rocky and upbeat, before Apocalypse brought the house down (as much as something that slow, gentle and profoundly beautiful could break anything other than hearts). And then Opera House as a single track encore was just gorgeous.

So, after all my wondering before the evening began, am I now more sure of what I got?
Yes, I suppose so.

All in all a rather odd, but really incredible performance that will live long in the memory.