I'm not an expert on music. Sometimes it baffles me when someone says that I have a good taste in music. I know it's a compliment, and I'm flattered, but still, I can't quite understand the formula of good and bad when it comes to music. All I know that I like and dislike. Yes, I used to be that teenager and 20 something who thinks that what people think of the list of musicians I like, matters. I used to google what Rolling Stone or Pitchfork wrote about them. But now, not so much. It's more about how the songs make me feel. And lyrics is important to me.
When I listened
Nature Boy (yes, a cover version of that famous song by Nat King Cole) by
Aurora for the first time, I fell in love with her voice instantly. And then, the obsession began. And then I found out that she can sing, she can write, and oh she can dance. And when she performs, she kinda reminds me of my quirky queen, Bjork. In short, I find her magical.
And her songs calm my nerves lately. Especially
Runaway and
Murder Song (accoustic version).
I painted this
Winter Bird yesterday. And during the process I realized that it also brought me the same piece of serenity, surprisingly.
Speaking of music, if you're interested in traditional music in Indonesia, or interested in culture, you should check
Aural Archipelago. I know this project from a friend, and although I'm not a traditional music aficionado, I find it interesting and as a person who can't just leave Jakarta whenever I want to, I enjoy that sense of traveling vicariously through the project owner, Palmer Keen's writings and recordings. What I like most is that he doesn't just write about some music from some particular areas in Indonesia and how they sound, but he also tells about the people and the culture, that enriches his posts. The website doesn't have Indonesian version for each post, hopefully soon (fingers crossed), and hopefully the current situation doesn't make the website less enjoyable and can inspire more people to do similar projects, or at least, triggers interesting conversation about music and culture.
Cheers!
 |
| image courtesy: aural archipelago |
0 comments:
Post a Comment