What Luke is doing in France: I'll Never Let Go

It's officially spring in Paris - many cafés have opened or completely removed their exterior windows, affording their patrons a better view for springtime people watching. The high-collared coats are coming off and the femmes are loosening their scarves and showing more skin bit by bit. Rays of sunlight are piercing through grey clouds, and Parisians are laying out and tanning, as they should.

I've stumbled across new, good music, which always makes life sweeter. In the past few weeks I've been to a couple of good concerts, too. The first was a Peter Bjorn & John concert at Nouveau Casino on rue Oberkampf, one of my absolute favorite nighttime haunts. They played material from their new album Living Thing, a fresh new route for the Swedish pop band, which may not please listeners the same way Writer's Block did in 2006. They're still the same Peter Bjorn & John of old, only with sharper, less conventional rhythms that could prove more difficult for the general public. For the band that made whistling cool again (remember Young Folks) and owes much of it's fan base to television ads, this is encouraging. PB&J are not another hollow, pretty-faced pop band. On the contrary, they are musicians of a rare European lineage with a multi-lingual, multi-cultural musical style. I only hope more bands in the main-stream would take such bold actions. Is the world not in the throes of massive reinvention? Can't the arts take part in the same?

Peter Bjorn & John - Lay It Down

Peter Bjorn & John - Just the Past

This past weekend a friend invited at the last minute to a jazz concert in the restless, young 20th arrondissement. Though I greatly enjoy it, jazz always makes me suspicious. Anyways, it was a great show, not at all what I was expecting - so maybe I have the right to be suspicious in the future. The Fly is a fascinating franco-american duo with equally diverse instrumentation. American Sly Johnson beatboxes and sings with power and conviction, while frenchman Eric Truffaz played trumpet. Both implemented heavily a technique called 'phasing' or 'music looping', where music is either recorded live or pre-recorded and played among other musical elements or tracks, allowing just a few musicians to create a larger sound. The trumpet player used what I believe is called an 'elbow', which is essentially a sustain pedal for a wind instrument. The drummer's accompaniment was perfect, and the two frontmen allowed him several moments to show his stuff, moments that proved key in the concert. I can't really review their performance as I toe the line of my qualifications as an amateur 'musicophile', or whatever the term is.

On the art front, the Galerie Polaris made an appearance at the Paris Salon du Dessin Contemporain, an annual art fair for contemporary drawing in the European art capital. We sold a few works. Linked is an article that appeared in La Libération last week. I learned quite a lot and had a great time people-watching from our booth. Artists, collectors, gallery personnel and art enthusiasts came out in force.

Also, I spent a night in London visiting my friend Rania from Kenyon. This was my first time in anglophone territory in more than six months! What a radical experience it was, hearing English spoken everywhere. Here's a picture for proof. More can be found on my Flickr page.