Delerium - Mythologie

Delerium – Blue Fires

Weekly Song,

Welcome to the dream. The dream takes place inside her mind while she floats inside ours, carried by blue fires and ephemeral sounds. Take her hand, dance, that’s why the rhythm is there. Fly, sway, let the music take you away.

Harmonies and echoes ease the melody’s flow into our imagination, where it shines and soothes. If there would be such a thing as a contemporary musical definition of dreamy, then I think this song should be among the prime examples. There’s nothing that screams “fantastic production values” louder than a solid Delerium song. Love at first listen.

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Season's Greetings

Season’s Greetings

Announcements

A lot of people are celebrating Christmas these days. Even more are just enjoying an extended weekend. And even more people are happy to be alive. Even more are… simply alive.

I wish you beautiful days, regardless of what you’re celebrating or doing :). Have lovely times with the family, friends, have fun, play games, do nothing, sleep, take a walk on the wild side :D. I think the only thing that really matters is that you love. Love what you do, love what you have around you, love who you are. And if things are difficult (as sometimes they can be) and the feeling of love isn’t easy to come by, well then I have some for you, in the form of thankfulness:

Thank you for being here! Thank you for shining the light of your consciousness upon these words. Every single person shines a different light, but all these different, unique colors are still part of the rainbow of love :).

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Christmas as Avatar of Consumerism

Christmas as Avatar of Consumerism

Analysis, Economy,

Cultural war is tricky business. As a living entity, culture needs mechanisms of protection from external threats. But intellectual defensive systems can become an obstacle for evolution especially when a culture has fallen in love with itself to the point where criticism is no longer seen as a mechanism for progress. For all its merits, Western culture is affected by a plague of intellectual rigidity.

There is no need to generalize. There are many Westerners who are quite open to change and new ideas, perhaps more-so than any other major culture on Earth. This is only sufficient if these people can trigger an evolutionary step forwards by reaching a critical mass enough to spread a wave of change throughout society.

What does all this have to do with Christmas? It’s quite simple really. Changing the way we interpret Christmas is probably a litmus test for cultural evolution. Why do we need to reinterpret this cultural event? Because it is the avatar of a way of doing business that may have made sense in the 20th century, but will only lead to worsening the quality of life on this planet for future generations of human beings.

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Subheim - Foray

Subheim – Foray

Weekly Song

Upon hitting “play”, a haunting depth opens. Despite its understated rhythm, the melody is, somehow, incredibly convincing. An almost ritualistic chant in the first half of the song acts as both compositional boundary and atmospheric enhancer. Are the choirs gloomy or ecstatic? This one is indeed a foray, a foray into an abyss where the imagination can wander and find wonders, or terrors. It’s all a matter of free will.

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Big Data Is People

Big Data Is People!

Recommendations, Society, ,

This has been a very good read. The subject of Big Data is treated quite exhaustively. What is currently a popular buzz-word is carefully disassembled and explained in proper-sized bits. There is some historical information about the field of statistics in there too, both interesting and, at times, amusing.

Big Data is here to stay, that much is certain. But while the rewards this paradigm can offer are great, we should also be aware of the risks to our privacy and the threat it carries regarding how it can and will affect our society.

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Conjure One

Conjure One – Sleep

Weekly Song,

Singer Marie-Claire D’Ubaldo provides the dreamy landscape a song worthy of the title “Sleep” would need. But then again, this melody isn’t about sleeping at all. It’s about fire, it’s about movement, it’s about meanings hidden in plain sight, which her voice tempts the listener to find among the song’s witty lyrics. Accompanying us is the surreal yet body-moving music of Conjure One, brainchild of Rhys Fulber of Delerium fame. This is a beautifully written song in all ways a song can be so.

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Super-Sized Agriculture

Super-Sized Agriculture

Economy, Recommendations, , , ,

On the topic of “we are what we eat”, here’s a fascinating photographic essay.

Regardless of what you think about “in balance with nature”, the images are quite staggering. This is one of those situations when a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. Industrialized agriculture has definitely reached some impressive heights (or lows, depending on who you ask).

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Savages - Adore Life

Savages – Adore

Weekly Song

A amazing song with words so powerful they pierce through the music and reach deep within our soul. Every touch of the guitar comes at just the right moment. It’s one of those rare songs when the singing is in perfect symbiosis with the music.

The video lifts the melody to unfathomable heights. It is audio-visual poetry at its best. My recommended journey is to first listen to the song while reading the lyrics. Only then, armed with a hint of opinion and words of knowledge, should you delve into the depths of a work of art in body language.

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Lars Vilks' Amazing Reply To Vandalism

Lars Vilks’ Amazing Answer to Vandalism

Inspirational,

Controversial artist Lars Vilks worked for decades to maintain and champion a work of art. Then, somebody burned half of it to the ground. Regardless of the controversy surrounding the artist, his reply is the stuff of genius.

“I have my motto ‘everything is an advantage’. You always have to find something optimistic and art that’s subjected to violence always benefits from it, you have to comfort yourself with that.

“It gets interesting when things are happening. When you attack artworks it gets interesting. A work of art that nobody cares about disappears. This is tough action and a rather brutal form of art critique.”

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Alex Smoke - Incommunicado

Alex Smoke – 6am

Weekly Song

Here’s some flowing, groovy electronica to put some spring into any late evening, work assignment or workout. Alex Smoke wastes no time during these 6 minutes of solid musical craftsmanship. The simple acoustic guitar that shows up and intertwines with the rhythm really adds to the melody. What more can be said? Nothing more needs to be said. Just sit back and enjoy the vibration.

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