quando l'anarchia verrà

Quando l'anarchia verrà / tutto il mondo sarà trasformato 

(When anarchy comes / the whole world will be transformed)

e nei governi sarà il ricordo d'infame passato. 

(and governments will be a memory of the infamous past)

L'aborrito confin sparirà / così pure preti e soldati 

(The abhorred border will disappear / as will priests and soldiers)

e nel mondo sol resterà l'ideale in cui siamo animati. 

(and in the world will only be the ideal in which we are all lively)

E allor nel cuor / pensando all'avvenire 

(So then in our hearts / let's think of the future)

cesserà lo strazio ed il soffrire

(the torment and the suffering will cease)

 

lasciami una luce accesa

Posso aiutarti / Manca l’aria qui in città / Sento i tuoi sguardi 

Ma il mio sorriso dove sta? Dove sta? 

La gente dorme, non fa rumore / Ho gli occhi rossi, che presa a male 

Guarda i palazzi coprire il cielo / Faccio promesse che non mantengo 

Conto i miei passi così non penso più / Ho la testa libera 

Come accettarsi non lo sai neanche tu / E questa idea mi soffoca 

Parlo da solo, mi sento un pazzo / Cerco un contatto, voglio un abbraccio 

Per sentirmi vivo restando al centro / Faccio promesse che non mantengo

Sei fermo a metà / Senza una meta / La notte passa / Sento la mia vita appesa 

Guardo di là / Mollo la presa / Dalla finestra / Lasciami una luce accesa 

Lasciami una luce accesa

 

the cord of life

i believe there's a time and a place
to let your mind drift and get out of this place

there's no secret to living, just keep on walking

i believe there's a time when the cord of life should be cut
i'm gonna die in a place that don't know my name



it was just yesterday when i had a talk with a friend about what is it to live. he told me all he wants is to take care of his sisters, until they got married or can managed their lives, then he'd go to a place far away where he doesn't know a single soul and choose to die there. like he wants to have the power to control over how he would end life. like it was his decision. his way. coincidentally today i found this song which sounds exactly like his thoughts, "i believe there's a time when the cord of life should be cut. i'm gonna die in a place that don't know my name." 

death is the topic i write about again and again, being something that no one actually has any idea about. and as someone who is consistently labelled as pessimistic, i am labelled as a very optimistic when it comes to death cause i believe in the afterlife. i always believe there is something greater out there after this one. there has to be. the one that makes all the sufferings and pain in this one make sense.

i ended up falling in love with the song (and the band, which i had listened to some years ago) and played it a little too often, like i always do when i found new songs i enjoy. it pretty much also in a way gives voices to the sound of my head these days.

insides

"Nothing in life will call upon us to be more courageous than facing the fact that it ends. But on the other side of heartbreak is wisdom." - from wish i was here



i guess the bright side of every heartbreak is always that you learn again to appreciate yourself more, and learn to love yourself more than you love anyone else. to learn again to tell yourself that you are good enough. which, for me is always a rather hard task, being brought up as a person with a very low self esteem. it takes effort.

one of the records that i keep going back to for that effort these days is insides by the mighty jon hopkins. i remember one day it was late at night in milan and i was in a car with a date driving and we were talking about music from electronic to classical music and we agreed that the best kind of music is the one that takes you somewhere else. and that good music is more than just listening to sounds but about an experience. then he mentioned about trying to create electronic music that is well structured and not just random samplings making cool sounds.

insides to me is a perfect example of a well structured one, like you need to listen to it as a whole album, track by track, and not merely just one or two songs. this writer from sputnik music pretty much sums it all up in a very beautiful writing. i think it's equally beautiful that you're able to write about such good music in such good writing describing everything exactly like how you perceived it. i'm always fascinated with good choices of words and writing. like the way he describes one song as "toying with a false sense of security", now that is a talent i wish i have.

in my much younger years i used to listen to hardcore music to find refuge from the harsh reality of life that i was living. but these days i identify myself with these kind of intellectually well structured music. it has a strong disturbing even claustrophobic sense that somehow stimulates your self confidence but it also has the melancholic sides of the classical melody that reminds you of the softer part of yourself.

so in the effort of finding the wisdom and the constant will of finding my own ground, i will keep in my mind what a friend told me a couple of days ago while pointing his finger right at my face, "you know how much i look up to you. and you have to always remind yourself that you worth more than you think you do."

beautiful people

it's been a while that things i posted are just travel journals. actually i usually write more about what inspires me, thoughts, books, movies, music. but it just happens that i travelled quite a lot last year and i haven't got the time to document everything properly even until now, which is like eight months later.

and suddenly this one popped up in my facebook timeline, posted by my favorite graphic blog, which i haven't open since agesss (what the heck have i been doing?). it's a video by michał marczak of the music by mark pritchard collaborated with the mighty thom yorke. i'm a sucker for crazy ethereal atmospheric graphic. these days i really wished i have my take on videography and i wish i have the time and the eagerness and the gadgets to start pick up and learn more about it. oh well maybe some time in the near (or farther) future.

quiet is the new loud

i lean back and let my eyes just go. floating now where they want to float. 
they seem to take to the horizon. 
i feel at home here in the middle of nowhere. 
i will never know the names of these places that I travel through. 



if there is any musician who i can listen to no matter how old the songs are, it must be kings of convenience. i just realized on this concert that the album quiet is the new loud is from 2001 and i'm still listening to it even now in 2015. the songs are the kind of songs i'd go for if i'm looking for a quiet mood to work or just to do nothing. imagine how ecstatic i was when i knew there will be a concert of their first album, which i know by heart, here in italy, and it's in a small venue in a small town, rather than in a big auditorium in a big city.

the town, monforte d'alba is three hours away from torino, we had to take two trains and a taxi (because apparently there was no bus on sundays) to get there. it is so small we can finished walking around the city in an hour and luckily encountered erlend øye walking alone around the main piazza without anyone even noticed.

from the concert i think i have a new favorite song of them (parallel lines is always a favorite). the song 'summer on the westhill' was played so beautifully on the concert and erlend explained that he wrote the song on a 27 hours boat ride from ireland to norway. a very long ride but it was cheap, he said. well.. it has been a very long wait but at least now i can say i've crossed another thing from my bucket list.

no and faith

No was her name 
No was the lion that no one could tame 
But Faith was his name 
Faith came around with a smile on his face anyway 
He said, tell, tell me now 
Tell me the worry that knit up your brow 
She said, slow down this train 
Slow down the iron that runs in my veins 

But No kept her name 
No got so quiet, she put out her flame 
But Faith stayed the same 
Faith came around with that smile on his face the next day 
He said, follow me down 
Follow me down with your pick and your plow

 //wolf larsen

you're a code i couldn't crack

i don’t think i’ll ever get to know you / know your mind and know what it's got inside
every time i feel we’re getting closer / something flips and i’m back where i started

i don’t think i’ll ever get to know you / i don’t think that you’re a code i could crack

one day i’ll learn who really knows me / maybe i’m the one who's holding back

one day i’ll get to know you / know what you have got inside
maybe I’ll let you know me / we both just have to find out
i think i’d like to one day get to know you / know your mind and know what it's got inside
and maybe one day I’ll let you know me / who’s to say, we both just have to find out

minor swing

minor swing from calosa on 8tracks Radio.

this kind of jazz genre might refer to a certain period of my life but i'm absolutely not in a nostalgic mood whatsoever. these are just some of tracks that i happened to like and i'm sometimes in the mood of listening to this kind of jazzy tunes.

track listing:
* dave brubeck quartet - take five
* marcus miller - blast!
* bobby mcferrin - don't worry be happy
* stacey kent - they all laughed
* emilie-claire barlow - les yeux ouverts
* chantal chamberland - la mer
* ben l'oncle soul - mon amour
* niki yanofsky - lullaby of birdland
* nitin sawhney - immigrant
* torun eriksen - fever skin
* louis armstrong - when the saints go marching in
* marcus miller feat. corrine bailey rae - free
* charlie parker with miles davis - a night in tunisia
* boi akih - undo atoluwe naiowe
* django reindhart - minor swing
* dave brubeck - blue rondo a la turk

48% abv

48% ABV from calosa on 8tracks Radio.

for the time we spent looking for good places craving for good cocktails and/or liquors.

track listing:
* little dragon - place to belong
* parov stelar - chambermaid swing
* tuxedo - do it
* deluxe - mister chicken
* tamala - him (dj mitsu beats remix)
* josé james - promise in love
* brigitte - ma benz
* foals - late night

being stupid part iii

actually this song is way too jolly for my state of being these days. but then the songs which i would say are my kind of songs are all pretty much unsingable. last time i listen to this song were couple of months ago. on the evenings me and two of my friends used to grab some gelato and sit at the belvedere (the place on the top of the hill where we can see the city and other Umbrian towns from above) at Perugia, singing all kind of love songs from the top of our lungs. the good old times.
 

ps. pardon my stupid french pronounciation.

being stupid, part ii

and so the stupidity continues.. recorded this with just one take cause i was just too lazy to redo it. i guess being a perfectionist is no longer my trait. lots of part sound out of tempo and on the second verse i totally sound like i'm having a toothache. and if there's a part which sounds disconnected that's cause i cut the bridge part. so, this is more or less how stupid my sunday sounds like..
 

ps. it's supposed to be "and no rear view could picture what we leave behind", instead of "and the rear
view". oh well..

the ability to live the present

what good is great past if you don't have the ability to live the present..
  

the ability to live the present from calosa on 8tracks Radio.

"please could you stay a while to share my grief
for it's such a lovely day to have to always feel this way
and the time that i will suffer less 
is when i never have to wake"

track listing:
* portishead - wandering star
* bonobo feat. grey reverend - first fires
* chet faker - i'm into you
* taylor mcferrin - nobody's there
* chet faker - no diggity
* emancipator - lionheart
* morcheeba - trigger hippie
* yuna - lullabies (adventure club remix)

smooth criminal

smooth criminal from calosa on 8tracks Radio.

i'm a very easily distracted person. so mostly i created playlist to help me concentrate in my work, specially in my office frenetic ambience, phone keeps ringing, guests coming in and out, colleagues asking and discussing projects, and not to mention all the jokes thrown during working hours. these past few days i don't remember exactly what triggered it but i'm kind of being nostalgic and picking up some songs i used to listen to when i was much younger.

track listing:
* lostprophets - shinobi vs dragon ninja
* alien ant farm - smooth criminal
* system of a down - aerials
* p.o.d - sleeping awake
* nonpoint - your signs
* creed - higher
* 311 - when i'm gone
* lostprophets - last train home
* eminem - cleaning out my closet
* incubus - nice to know you

there are two points i want to stress out. first, at some point i think all this "indie" label thing today kinda sickens me, i mean, they all sound the same and it gets boring. on the other side, the radio is still the shit you can't listen to. so it's kinda refreshing getting back to the late 90s and early 2000s. second point, i was somewhere with my friend, a guy, when suddenly one of these songs was played and i asked him whether he had gone through a phase in his younger age when he listened to these kind of songs, i was surprised when he said no. well he's gay anyway. but my point is, probably base on the songs only, people can tell i was quite a troubled teenager back then. today every now and then i would say that these kind of songs are a bit too loud. but then a person today was built from what he's gone through on the past and although this kind of songs doesn't exactly define who i am today, it always is a context that has built me and always be something i can relate to.

being stupid

Almost two years i had a guitar in my room but all this time it served me only as a decoration cause i didn't (and still don't) know how to play guitar. About a month ago i decided to pick it up and do stupid things like streaming some keys. And it's been a long time since I spent my sunday morning with my watercolor, so one day i decided to embarrass myself by recording a song. It's out of tune, missing lots of key, awful strumming, every embarrassing things you name it. But whatever, doing stupid things is necessary every once in a while and besides being productive always feels good.
 

ps. it's a corny pop song with the corniest lyric, oh well..

distance and memories

distance and memories from calosa on 8tracks Radio.

if you get scared of the space between now and those days..


track listing:
* Hey Ocean! - Islands
* The Lumineers - Slow It Down
* BOY - July
* The Trees and The Wild - Berlin
* Jon Brion - String that Ties To You
* The Jakes - Take Me Home
* Bon Iver - I Can't Make You Love Me / Nick of Time
* Torun Eriksen - Glittercard
* Paper Kites - Bloom
* Jamie Cullum - But For Now
* Adhitia Sofyan - Adelaide Sky
* Matt Kearney - Where We're Gonna Go From Here
* Oscar and The Wolf - Orange Sky
* Radiohead - High and Dry
* Mumford and Sons - Awake My Soul

ps. cover by Jess Gough

barcelona effect

barcelona effect from calosa on 8tracks Radio.

This kind of genre is usually not my kind of thing. Not that I'm not into it, it's just not something I would prefer at first place to listen to on daily basis. But. It was that one night in Barcelona, they were playing this kind of music. And especially the very first song on the playlist it stuck in my head and until this day every time I listen to it, I would go back immediately to that very night in Barcelona.

track listing:
* Asaf Avidan - One Day (Wankelmut remix)
* Flight Facilities feat. Giselle - Crave You
* Florence and the Machine - You Got the Love (the XX remix)
* Niki and the Dove - Mother's Protect (Goldroom remix)
* Chvrches - the Mother We Share
* Télépopmusik - Breathe
* Flight Facilities feat. Christine Hoberg - Clair de Lune
* MGMT - Electric Feel
* Flight Facilities feat. Jess - Foreign Language

ps. this time the cover image is mine. taken in, well, Barcelona.

stop for a while

Eddie Vedder - You've Got To Hide Your Love Away 

This might be just an uninteresting photo for everyone but me. It was after I decided not to climb up to the rooftop of the cathedral and I still got a little time left to explore the streets around the piazza when suddenly I heard Eddie Vedder's song sung by this street musician. So I stopped and sit on a bench nearby. For a while. At that moment lots of thoughts came to my mind, some too personal to be written here publicly, while another was that I think this particular moment refreshed me about the idea of how traveling should be. It's not about how many things you see, how many places you drop by, but how you really could perceive the places itself, how you let the city and the environment speak to you. The smell, the people, the streets, the street performers. How it could gives you new thoughts that you could carry on with. So I stayed there. A little longer than I should. Then after he sang one Radiohead's song, I got up and continued my exploration.

quarter past wonderful

quarter past wonderful from calosa on 8tracks Radio.

These days somehow I was accused for being too gloomy and negative specially due to songs I listen to. So this mix is to show the other side of me that I can be cheerful and listen to happy kiddy kiddy songs too!

track listing:
* The Velvet Underground - After Hour
* Never Shout Never - Happy
* Pomplamoose - Twice As Nice
* Karen O and The Kids - All is Love
* Amos Lee - Flower
* Relish - It's You I'm Thinking Of

* Brooke Fraser - Something in The Water

* Boy - Little Numbers
* Oren Lavie - Quarter Past Wonderful

ps. cover image by chih chen.

of anger and guilt

They say being panic doesn't solve problems, but I say being panic does make you work faster.

Actually been putting up the playlist to speak more of the emotional excess moments (hence the title), but never really finished, so I'm putting up songs that I'm currently listening to when I have to gather concentration to work my job fast. I guess I'm back to the cycle again, only this time is much worse, working crazy hours for office job, catching up my personal datelines to get things done on time.

of anger and guilt from calosa on 8tracks Radio.

track listing:
* Jolly Mukherjee & The Madras Cinematic Orchestra - Escape - Kirwani
* UNKLE - Reign
* Sigur Rós - Hjartað Hamast (bamm bamm bamm)
* The Cinematics - She Talks to the Trees
* Yuna - Come As You Are
* Massive Attack - Teardrop
* Radiohead - Weird Fishes / Arpeggi
* Bonobo - All In Forms
* As Tall As Lions - Ghost of York
* Imagine Dragons - Radioactive
* Purity Ring - Obedear
* Incubus - Megalomaniac
* Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Karen O - Immigrant Song
* Björk - Human Behavior

Sigur Rós I feel is a bit out of track but it always has the best intro. Come As You Are, I was going to put up the original Nirvana's but I happen to like her version better. Incubus, was putting up Black Heart Inertia, because Brandon Boyd is just irresistible on the video, haha, but with earphones on, Megalomaniac works much better blocking noises around to get the concentration needed. Björk, have been listening to Human Behavior and Alarm Clock a lil bit too much lately, but Human Behavior got the darker sense.

ps. cover image by Nicolette Polek.