Flashback Friday: "I Promised Myself".

Nick Kamen's face became known from one of the many Levi's commercials that did run on television in the 80's. Those sultry ads featuring good looking men with their jeans.

This one was no exception. A handsome man stripping down in a 1950s style public laundromat, in order to stone-wash his blue jeans, while he waits clad only in his boxer shorts. Apparently, this dramatically increased the popularity of this undergarment and this ad was selected for The 100 Greatest TV Ads of all time in 2000.

However, Nick Kamen was more than a pretty face and did enjoy a brief singing carrier in the 80's. I did like his music, but to me he was always just a face from that jeans ad.
Until 1990, that is. In this year he released his his self-penned song "I Promised Myself". I think that compilation and the video that followed had everything that enticed my young romantic mind. The images were so simple, yet the young man standing there with his guitar appeared to be singing directly to me, looking at me with his enigmatic green eyes, telling me "...I will wait for you...". Needles to say I listened to the tape with this song until the tape broke.

Today I have grown out of some of my naivete, but a certain magic of the compilation has not diminished. Even though I by now consider the video to be somewhat aged and the thrill I used to feel is gone, I still relish in its aesthetics, its simplicity and in the timeless appeal of the lyrics and the harmonies.

Flashback Friday: "Marco Polo".

I love classical music. There is nothing more enticing than hearing the works of the great masters, preferably in grand theaters and concert halls. Yet, even listening to the undying harmonies in my own home, when the house is still and the day is approaching dusk, holds an allure at any season.
In the nineties, when I experienced lack of inspiration from the modern music, I went on exploration in the old classics. By sheer coincident, I stumbled upon an absolute gem.

Rondò Veneziano is an Italian chamber orchestra. The performers are renowned for wearing a period attire and playing original instruments in their numerous live shows. The compositions, although created with the elements of classical pieces mostly from the Baroque period, contain incorporation of modern rock-style rhythm sections.

Active for almost three decades, Rondò Veneziano have with a sense of style and taste delivered classical music in a modern manner. Even though nothing can replace the sound of the originals, their fusion of classical and contemporary music is superb.

The "Marco Polo" single below is taken from album of the same name. I remember the feeling of discovery, when I played it for the first time.
Quality never fades.

Flashback Friday: "Thinking About Your Love".

I have always thought that the best music was made in the 80's. Most likely this is not true, but because that is the decade when I was a teenager, my interest in music was very intense. Of course some of this popular sound carried into the next decade and therefore even the early 90's produced some of my favorite compilations.
Quiet early on realized that it was the soul and R&B (and later jazz) music styles that sounded the most appealing to me. Therefore when Kenny Thomas performed his "Thinking About Your Love", it immediately caught my attention. This single from his debut album "Voices" stayed on the UK chart for 13 weeks. I made sure I purchased that album later in the summer, or rather a tape. In fact it was one of the very few tapes that I took with me when I moved to the US in 1992 and therefore the music reminds me of my last year ever spend in Sweden.
"Thinking About Your Love" is actually a cover of a hit from 1985 made originally by Skipworth & Turner. Perhaps it does not contain particularly poignant lyrics, although I truly love the sentiment behind them. And perhaps it can be viewed as just another love song by many. However, I have always enjoyed the easy flow of the harmonies conveyed by an appealing voice. And today I enjoy the flow of memories that it brings back so easily...

Flashback Friday: "Everytime We Touch".

I think everyone my age remembers "Moonlight Shadow", one of the big hits of the 80's, composed and performed by Mike Oldfield. It featured furthermore the unforgettable voice of Maggie Reilly, who performed the vocals of the song in 1983.

Although she is best known for her collaborations with Oldfield between year 1980 and 1984, she was also in the pub-rock group Cado Belle, and made one album with them in 1976.

In 1992, Reilly released her debut solo album Echoes, from which the below compilation entitled "Everytime We Touch" is taken. The sound is very enticing and almost ethereal. Her voice is soothing and full of longing and if I close my eyes, the lyrics and the harmonies can take me anywhere in space and time.
One of my all time favorite compilation to dream myself away to...

Flashback Friday: "If I Were A Carpenter".

I have previously disclosed that I was not much into rock when I was a teenager. With age, I have started to appreciate some of its rough and genuine appeal. Certainly some of the rock ballads seem to have managed to allure even my younger mind.

I was in my mid twenties when a friend introduced me to a solo album made by Robert Plant. To be honest, I can not even remember today how it all came about, but suddenly I was an an owner of a rock tape. I still have it somewhere, in my old tape collection. If it would be possible to examine it, one can see that a particular song was re-played very often. "If I Were A Carpenter" is truly a classic. Originally composed by Tim Hardin, it seems to have been covered and performed by numerous artists.

Although I in no way can claim to know all the covers, from the few I have heard over the years, the below seems to be the best version. By far.

MYST.

Computers, particularly personal computers were not a common feature in a home when I was a teenager. In fact, my first real contact with a computer was with a PC operated by DOS, when I was studying at the university. And even then, I used it as a sort of a typewriter in the schools computer lab to write and print out a project.

It was first when I started to work at DUKE, that I was lucky enough to receive a computer of my very own. It was a small Macintosh Classic, black and white and I loved it. Ever since then I have been a Mac addict and have never used anything else but products from Apple.

In the nineties, Apple marked shares were low and software or computer games for Macs were hard to find. But there were a few.

I never liked action games with shooting, explosions and death. These kind of violent games did nothing for me. I have always enjoyed interactive games, with beautiful interface and puzzle solving steps, solutions to which would unravel an adventure. Such was the Myst. To this day I recall fondly every single second of playing this fantastic game, so very revolutionary in every way. The player find himself (or herself) as a hero on a mysterious island, in a enigmatic setting with beautiful images. Urged to solve an intriguing story, involving a feud between two brothers, while traveling to lost worlds through the pages of "linking" books.

The second game in the series was Riven. The improvement of computers and software technology, which constantly develops, was clearly visible in this sequel. Playing it felt at times as if being lost in a dream, with images and scenes so stunning, they provided an astonishing escape to the world of imagination and fantasy.

I did purchase the first four games in the series, each better and more developed than the last. However, I was also getting older and slowly my interest in the game playing was fading.

I have forgotten all about this enticing pastime activity, until very recently. I was looking for a book and stumbled upon the old guide books to these exhilarating interactive games of my past. Perhaps, as the days are getting shorter again and the autumn season, with its rainy and dark days is closing in, it might offer a perfect opportunity to become reacquainted with some of the old thrilling adventures.

Flashback Friday: "Snow On The Sahara".

The nineties brought, I would say, a void into my musical world. A decade defined by alternative compositions, when "grunge" prevailed and other very progressive and angry styles ruled the music scene. They did nothing for me.
I was suffering.

Therefore, I turned to explorations of music separated from the mainstream styles and I developed a deeper liking for Country, Jazz, New Age and Bossa Nova.

It was during this time that I made my acquaintance with Anggun, a beautiful artist from Indonesia. When I heard the captivating, almost spiritual "Snow On The Sahara" for the first time, it felt indeed as if finding an oasis in the desert.
Unusual in lyrics and harmony and visually stunning, it still sounds so very unique ten years on.