Browsing around for more news on the flotilla and such I stumbled upon this music video, posted at Maysaloon with the comment I think this song kind of captures the atmosphere around the world right now. I agree to some extent and for me Keny Arkana is a new discovery (I'm not much into music so you'll forgive me if this is old news to you) and therefore I'm embedding her video 'La Rage' (French lyrics with English subtitles) here specially to make a positive energy break in the stress caused by the Zionist muderous nightmare.
By the way, for those who can't read Spanish the ending message (by Subcomandante Marcos) says:
Struggle is like a circle: you can start at any point but it never ends
According to Ciudad Futura the answer is in this graph, showing where the benefits of the average music record goes to:
For those who can't read Spanish, the translation is:
Compañía discográfica: music company
Procutor: producer
Manager: manager
Estudio de grabación: recording studio
Anterior discográfica: previous music company
Representantes: representatives
Abogados: attorneys
Músico/artista: musician/artist
So draconian anti-piracy laws are hardly justified in the name of the artists' profits. It's really more a matter of vampires'... I mean: corporations' profits. Nothing else.
Hence my fatwa is piracy is good, at least in most cases.
Some of the readers of this blog may have noticed that one of several links in the blogroll has goon suddenly active again after almost a whole year of hibernation. It's Music 000001 of Victor Grauer whose fascinating research on the possibility of an archaeology of music caught my attention since I first stumbled with that blog.
Somewhat confusingly, the blog is written like a book, so one would have to go to the oldest post and read from the beginning to fully grasp what Victor is talking about. Luckily he has now added an index at the top of the blog, which is very helpful.
But what really brought me to write this entry is that his latest post includes links to three of his academic papers that include the essentials, if not most, of his exploration. He has been granted authorization by the publishers to make them freely available to his blog readers and that means, I guess, it would not be ethical to directly link them from here.
But I can link to his post where he provides the links, check it:
I was just watching some documentary on TV, a documentary on Inuits, and suddenly saw... well heard... something that really affected me in a quite unusual way. I'd say it awakened my kundalini - yes, it was quite clearly that - all of sudden.
I had never heard that before: Inuit throat singing. It was fascinating, otherworldly, the singers were like making love. Flippant.
They said that women learn that kind of unique singing style from birdmen whose bodies are covered in tatoos. And that reminded me a lot of the legend of Sedna.
So the film ended and I decided tho research it. First target YouTube, of course. I found quite impressive performers but, sadly, nothing like what I found in that documetary - not so revealing, so to say.
Maybe the closest thing I found could be this performance (low quality image but great music):
Artistic creativity forms the basis of music culture and music industry. Composing, improvising and arranging music are complex creative functions of the human brain, which biological value remains unknown. We hypothesized that practicing music is social communication that needs musical aptitude and even creativity in music. In order to understand the neurobiological basis of music in human evolution and communication we analyzed polymorphisms of the arginine vasopressin receptor 1A (AVPR1A), serotonin transporter (SLC6A4), catecol-O-methyltranferase (COMT), dopamin receptor D2 (DRD2) and tyrosine hydroxylase 1 (TPH1), genes associated with social bonding and cognitive functions in 19 Finnish families (n = 343 members) with professional musicians and/or active amateurs. All family members were tested for musical aptitude using the auditory structuring ability test (Karma Music test; KMT) and Carl Seashores tests for pitch (SP) and for time (ST). Data on creativity in music (composing, improvising and/or arranging music) was surveyed using a web-based questionnaire. Here we show for the first time that creative functions in music have a strong genetic component (h2 = .84; composing h2 = .40; arranging h2 = .46; improvising h2 = .62) in Finnish multigenerational families. We also show that high music test scores are significantly associated with creative functions in music (p<.0001). We discovered an overall haplotype association with AVPR1A gene (markers RS1 and RS3) and KMT (p = 0.0008; corrected p = 0.00002), SP (p = 0.0261; corrected p = 0.0072) and combined music test scores (COMB) (p = 0.0056; corrected p = 0.0006). AVPR1A haplotype AVR+RS1 further suggested a positive association with ST (p = 0.0038; corrected p = 0.00184) and COMB (p = 0.0083; corrected p = 0.0040) using haplotype-based association test HBAT. The results suggest that the neurobiology of music perception and production is likely to be related to the pathways affecting intrinsic attachment behavior.
Not too much too say, as I am admittedly an ass for music. .
Research by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has discovered that newborn human babies can perfectly detect and synchronize the beat in music. This trait, probably related to the origins of music, appears to be uniquely human, as our closest relatives (chimpanzees and bonobos) do not seem able to synchronize their behaviour with rythmic sounds.
It makes you think because we typically consider the most uniquely human traits stuff like logic, speech or even the famous precission peg of our hands or even walking upright on two legs. But this issue of music and rythm would appear to be more "primitive", maybe just because it's so intuitive, rather than merely logic (though in Antiquity music and maths were often studied together). .
The most beautiful voice, the most revolutionary musician... such are some of the phrases you can read today in the Basque press and around the net. And all what can be said is probably too little.
Born in 1934 in Donostia (San Sebastian) he was temporarily exiled in Bordeaux as a kid. Later he had to face the violent reality of his native language and culture being terribly opressed under fascism. After a begining as children psychiatrist, he turned to music in 1964, when (as member of the band Ez Dok Hamairu) published his first record, Lau Herri Kanta. From then on he became a most popular and beloved folk (yet very innovative) musician with many of his songs having been assimlated into popular culture as of today.
Yesterday he died at the age of 74 leaving all Basques (and many foreigners) torn but also knowing that his was a very full life and one that really impacted us like very few people can. I am not really an art-oriented person (at least largely not) but I'm always impressed when some of the size of Laboa (or one of his favorite poets, Brecht) can cause such an emotional and psychological impact around, a very favorable impact certainly.
As I've said above, many of Laboa's songs have become really well known popular Basque songs but maybe the one that is best known of all is Txoria Txori (the bird a bird), also known as Hegoak (the wings) a cry of love of freedom and disdain for opression, but a most sweet cry indeed.
The lyrics translate in English as follows:
If I cut its wings, it would be mine, it would not go away. But, that way, it would not be a bird anymore. And I... I loved the bird.
Another very popular minimalistic song from Laboa is Lili Bat (a flower), of a more purely romantic, maybe philosophical, theme:
It translates:
A flower you take and, petal by petal, you undress. And it also dreams you, and it also undresses you.
And also very popular is Aita-semeak (fathers and sons) that goes on traditional gender roles and nation building:
And we can't forget the super-famous Baga-Biga-Higa (one, two, three), here sang not by Laboa but the Orfeon Donostiarra (Victor of Music 000001 should love this one specially):
As is said in Basque: Mikel gogoan zaitugu (Mikel, we have you in our mind/soul).
__________ All videos from YouTube, not necesarily original videos but certainly original music from Mikel Laboa himself (with the partial exception of Baga-Biga-Higa). Photo from Wikimedia.
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