We went on holiday to the Swiss Alps earlier this month, in Ausserbinn not far from the border with Italy. I won’t bore you with a description of what we did or saw, but I do want to share the souvenir we took home with us.
While driving around we scanned the radio for nice music and we discovered “Open Broadcast”, a 24/7 non-stop radio station. They are non-commercial and have a very eclectic playlist. My wife, daughter and I have a pretty diverging musical taste, but we agreed on keeping the radio stuck on Open Broadcast Radio nevertheless although admittedly the other stations were that bad.
Anyway, if you’re into less commercial music, maybe have a listen over at https://openbroadcast.ch/ (I also added it to our own web-radio-library at https://futtta.be/r/ ) ? Enjoy!
Back in the sixties Paul McCartney wrote and recorded Blackbird. The song was partly based on a Bach piece and features great guitar-playing really and talks about hope, empowerment and freedom.
Unrelated, Thom Yorke, suffering from post-“OK Computer” depression, wrote “Everything in it’s right place” on piano and recorded it with Radiohead in 1999, the song initiating their breakout of the confines of (alt-)rock. There are a lot of great alternative versions and covers, some of which I already mentioned here before.
Fast-foward to 2025 and Victoria Canal, a Spanish-American singer and pianist, released her own version of Blackbird which on social media she teased as “every blackbird in its right place”. Canals Blackbird is as intimistic as the original albeit a bit more subdued, maybe partly due to chord progression that borrows from EIIRP. Flying with broken wings in Vicky’s case can be taken somewhat literally; she was born without her right forearm and despite that she learnt how to play the piano with both hands. Although I’m no musician let alone a pianist, this disability likely impacts her piano arrangements by which she proves the “In der Beschränkung zeigt sich erst der Meister” to be so very true.
And finally, in 2026, Selah Sue teamed up with Stéphane Galland (a renowned jazz drummer) and his son Elvin (keyboard & production) and in their repertoire they have a version of Blackbird that was based on Canals arrangement. For me that version is the ultimate one; it starts out as intimistic as Canals version and in the vocals you feel some of Selah’s pain, the longing to be free, to fly. But then little by little the band (and I have to mention those backing singers, that bass-player) picks up and the song becomes a jazz-anthem (does that exist) and although I have heard it at least 20 times since I “discovered’ it the first time (yesterday) I get goosebumps every time. I showed it to my wife yesterday and teared up while trying to explain why I’m so overwhelmed. But there was no need to explain, she felt exactly the same and we hugged.
If you want to see/ hear/ experience it, the best version is on VRTmax but you’ll need to create an account (and still you might not be able to access it due to geographic limitations) or you can look at this smartphone recording of this song in a concert;
Angine de Poitrine live on KEXP. French-Canadian Dada-ist instrumental rock-techno-jazz maybe? A bit of Can, Primus, King Crimson and Sun Ra and a whole lot of virtuoso drums and guitar loop-pedal juggling. If I could I’d go straight for the moshpit but it’s just me in my homeoffice so …
Some of the YouTube comments (not a cesspool, for once) are spot on;
Aside from their insane technical skills, the fact that the guitarist can keep the looper in time whilst playing a microtonal guitar on top of odd timesignatures blows my mind. All hail!
No artificial intelligence without original thought could come up with something this bizarre and enthralling.
my wife isn’t going to appreciate a single second of this
Anyway, just look & listen;
Angine de Poitrine - Full Performance (Live on KEXP)
I watched a movie this evening which featured the main actress singing “Both sides now” and is was moving until it became too musical-like for my taste. But now I’m in a Joni rabbit hole again, listening to all great versions of Joni performing that song. One of the earliest live video’s I found was from 1969 and on the other end of the timescale there’s the Grammy one from 2024 with Brandi Carlile, but for me the most touching rendition by far is this orchestral one from 2000;
Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now (Live Tribute concert, 2000)
Het is al veel te lang geleden dat ik de mooiste maand ter wereld vierde met een mooi liedje. Vandaar deze Septemberige “August Moon” live door Jacob Alon:
About #Eurovision; Loved Croatia, Finland and I’m happy my fellow-Belgian #Gustaph did (very) well. But my favorite by far this year was Spains #BlancaPaloma
Flamenco-ish, intense, great voice, beautiful act, uncompromising electro-track that completely avoids the standard 4 to the floor beat that is way to present in Liverpool.
So much to like & discover, I’ve got it on repeat!
Blanca Paloma - Eaea (LIVE) | Spain 🇪🇸 | Grand Final | Eurovision 2023
Someone uploaded an amateur recording of an entire (?) Jeff Buckley solo concert at the Sin-é from July 1993 (one year before Grace was released). A gem!
Long time no Radiohead here, so let’s fix that shall we? Here’s Thom Yorke solo in Zermatt (Switzerland) playing songs from Radiohead, his solo-records and his new band (The Smile). If anything this is a testament to the great songwriter the man is! Also remarkable; he seems so much more at ease on stage now, maybe having accepted the spotlights which sometimes seemed too much for him to cope with. But then again the period of the great hype has passed and the spotlights now are likely very different from the ones he had to cope with in the nineties? Anyway, what a concert, no? I hope Yorke will perform solo in these parts one of these years!
Thom Yorke at Zermatt Unplugged - Full Multicam - April 9, 2022
We went on holiday to the Swiss Alps earlier this month, in Ausserbinn not far from the border with Italy. I won’t bore you with a description of what we did or saw, but I do want to share the souvenir we took home with us.
