A highly subjective world tour through my ears!
1. EUROPE
This is my home. I can't escape it, like
Jan Hammarlund sang, the responsibility rests on my shoulders. We Europeans are a motley crew and I think that's a good thing. Whenever someone wants to imagine it's all about US against THEM, our differences will remind us of the truth - WE are a fantasy and THEY will always lurk somewhere, under the bed, in the mirror, in our nightmares. So watch out when anyone tries to explain to you how Europeans "are" or what they "should be".
Fennoscandia
My home sweet home, the place where everyone understands me - or not. I was born here and I'm treated like an alien anyway. But that's just character building! No wonder I like music from the borderlands of this region, from the far North (
Norrlåtar) and the East (
Santtu Karhu & Talvisovat), and the South (
Timbuktu). Or music by national minorities (
Hortto Kaalo,
Baskarma,
Wimme).
But I can't help it, the emotionally gripping national romantic composers are difficult to avoid:
Jean Sibelius,
Oskar Merikanto,
Edward Grieg... Then there are the heavily and unabashedly Finnish hard rock of
Viikate,
Kotiteollisuus,
Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus etc. It's a bit hard to label
CMX but all the right ingredients are there - Finnish lyrics, heavy bass, progressive attitude, melancholy mood, intergalactic battles ...
And then there's the beautiful and amazing cross-cultural
Piirpauke.
Sofia Karlsson is also beautiful and amazing, especially when she sings Dan Andersson's melancholy poems in
Svarta ballader. This is my Sweden, this is beautiful and sad and dark. Where has it gone? Why do we make fun of it? Did we lose it when we started to put sugar in our rye bread? Should we blame Alva Myrdal, Lennart Hyland or the 1980's?...
At least
Tiamat and
Vintersorg are/were trying. You don't have to buy national clichés in order to charm me, just be dark and melodic and a bit rough around the edges :)
British Isles
Now I know that many Irish people don't like this term. Since I like Irish folks (especially
Sinéad O'Connor), I apologise.
There's a heavy emphasis on metal and folk rock going on here. The sound of these green-grey western isles consists for me of
My Dying Bride,
Paradise Lost,
Jethro Tull,
Mediaeval Baebes and
Steeleye Span, just to name a few. And some nice Welshmen:
Manic Street Preachers and
Dylan Thomas.
Francophone vs. Germanophile
The French language has always a certain romantic appeal, but I spent 4 of my most sensitive teenage years in Germany and time just doesn't rub off my tainted love for the Teutons. The German sense of humour is rather twisted and often misunderstood, and so is my musical taste. I mean, hello?
Rammstein,
Farin Urlaub,
Die Prinzen,
Max Raabe,
Comedian Harmonists? I must be mad.
After I've discovered the medieval metal scene, the stats get worse.
Subway to Sally,
Tanzwut? Oh, please. Don't mention crazy Austrians like
EAV and
Sturmpercht. It appears all my sense and good taste flies out of the window if someone whispers (or roars, whines or grunts) sweet German vocals in my ears.
Marlene Dietrich is perhaps the only redeeming feature here. I missed
Nina Hagen, though. This mistake will be corrected.
As for les gens Francophones... Listening to French is an intellectual exercise for me, since I have studied it but can't speak it very well. As always, France's strength comes from the immigrants:
MC Solaar,
Les Yeux Noirs. Even
Edith Piaf had immigrant background. But don't take that as an invitation to bully the French. They have, after all, received la crême de la crême for a reason, besides
Serge Gainsbourg (born Ginzberg by Russian Jewish parents),
Maurice Chevalier (Belgian mother),
Tino Rossi (from Corsica),
Paris Combo (world music group),
Josephine Baker,
Renaud (hmm, he seems to be 100% French ;)),
Yves Montand (born in Italy)...
Adriatic Sea
My favourite little corner of the Mediterranean. Slovenia is just an amazing country, it must be, or it wouldn't have produced
Laibach (of course, Laibach is also the result of the craziness/normality that is/was Tito's Jugoslavia...). Another band with strong Adriatic connections is
Ianva. It would take up too much space to explain why, so just check out the history of Fiume/Rijeka and
the Regency of Carnaro...
And then we have the little punk rocker gem of
KUD Idijoti from Croatia.
Black Sea
A mixed bag of treats here, too: There are many bands called
Phoenix, but I only listen to the Romanian prog rock band with that name.
Mezarkabul is the international name for Turkish metal band
Pentagram, whose album
Anatolia is very Turkish and very nice. Moving on towards the Caucasus, I find some lovely Azeris: handsome
Sami Yusuf (lives in the UK) and experienced
Alihan Samedov. This is a very musical corner of the world, well worth exploring. I haven't even mentioned any Ukrainians, Armenians, Georgians or Crimeans yet.
Along the Volga
We already touched Great Mother Russia in the first chapter about Fennoskandia. Borders are historical constructions. Santtu Karhu was born Alexander Medvedev, Norrlåtar also plays klezmer tunes, and Baskarma traces its Tatar roots to the river Volga. From Russia come the rock bands Zemfira (
Zемфира), Spin (
Сплин), Korol i Shut (
Король и Шут), Bi-2 (
Би-2, founded in Belarus)... but also Vladimir Vysostky (
Владимир Высоцкий),
Tchaikovsky,
Alexander Borodin,
Николай Римский-Корсаков,
Modest Mussorgsky... Oh, those Russians.
Next time:
2. ASIA
Promised Land * Taiga & Tundra * Roof of the World * Rising Sun
Comedian Harmonists
