I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: AGNES OBEL-Tiny Desk Concert #599  (February 15, 2017).

Agnes Obel recently played a show near me, but it wasn’t until after I watched this show that I realized I should have gone to see her.

Agnes Obel, a Danish singer and writer of deeply alluring music, brought her work into what you could call its opposite — an office in the daylight. While the setting is a bit contrary to her carefully plotted, vocally dense songs, she mapped out a strategy which included her own reverb and monitor mix in the (successful, I think) hope of giving the Tiny Desk an aesthetic more suitable to these focused and powerful songs.

Obel plays three songs from Citizen of Glass alongside her band, keeping it sonically spare.  “It’s Happening Again” opens with fairly standard-sounding piano chords.  Then Obel’s voice kicks in and it’s unique–not weird, but with a cool almost detached delivery.  Accompanying her is a cellist and keyboardist.  They each sing backing vocals (along with a third backing vocalist).  When they all sing together, it is magical–sometimes creepy, sometimes beautiful.  The song builds to the end with all of the strings growing louder as the cello plays some wild, sliding sounds.  It is quite striking.

For “Golden Green,” the cellist switches to percussion (which is a kind of clacky ball that she throws in the air).  The main melody comes from the mellotron.  Once again when the backing vocalists kick, in everything is magical, especially the way the final note ends with a dramatic rise in pitch from all of the singers.

On “Stone,” the mellotron player switches to (electric) ukulele.  The melody comes from the uke and it is quite quiet until the chord when the cello and keyboard adds some deep bass notes that seem to overwhelm the room–quite dramatic and quite lovely.

[READ: December 1, 2016] Bandette Volume Three

Bandette Volume Three is just as much fun as books one and two.  It opens with Bandette getting shot at as she gives her little dog Pimento an important note for Daniel.  Daniel calls her and she proceeds to tell him about an upcoming heist (while she is still being shot at).  She says that there is a fabulous emerald on display.  An emerald that was once owned by Madame Presto: fabulist, mesmerist, woman of impudent morals.

And later that night (after she easily dispatches the bad guys) she goes to that special event and steals… a film about Madame Presto.

The next night several people (and a dog) are hit with sleeping darts from a new villain–Dart Petite.

Meanwhile Bandette screens her film for her friends and Inspector Belgique.  It’s a weird film, but it is full of clues about the mysterious House of the Green Mask.

That night on the way home, Daniel is also attacked by a dart.  And nobody, nobody takes Daniel away from Bandette.

When she finds out about him, she demands that people make room “I am feeling the need to stomp.”  She gets all of the dogs (and even the cats and pigeons) to help her out.  Actually the pigeons aren’t very much help.  She even returns some of the loot she has stolen from wealthy people all in an attempt to find where Damien has gone.

One of the fun things about the Bandette books is when these characters say the obvious.  Like when a man s knocking on a door and it quickly opens and he taps the lady’s forehead.  Her comment :”Oh, you have knocked on my head…  Ah yes, well, you’re a man, and not all men are good at thinking.”

I also love the way Bandette is just hilariously oblivious to the bad guys.  Like when The Voice (the main villain) confronts Bandette. And while he is monologing, she is looking in her cape for sunglasses.  She finds several and even gives a pair to The Voice.

As Bandette goes to look for Daniel (with the help of her street urchins), she goes in disguise (I love this).  She looks exactly the same but with a witch’s hat or a top hat.  She keeps telling people she is in disguise.

We know for certain that Bandette always wins–she never really even gets into danger.  The exciting thing is finding out how she does it.  But there’s an even more exciting moment in this book.  Bandette takes of her mask (we can’t see her face) to reveal herself to Cassandra, third daughter of the Moon’s Fill Eye a protector of the jade mask.  We see Cassandra’s eyes go wide and she says Oh…I never knew.  WHAT COULD IT BE? (we won’t find out in this book)

During his whole story, Monsieur Monsieur, another thief in town has been hanging around with Margot, the former companion of a bad guy who has embraced the forces of good.  And Bandette has something in store for them as well.

These stories are delightful and funny and also full of suspense, a neat trick, that.  I can’t wait for more.

Evey Bandette book comes with special features.

This one has two Urchin stories  B.D. Belguique in “The Dogs,” which shows that the captain can never get away from his work.  The second is “To Hire a Thief” in which the policewoman Heloise (who has a thing for Belgique) asks Bandette to steal something for her.  What could it be?

Another bonus is a story that Paul Tobin wrote in 2006 (and Coover drew).  It is about a cat burglar. She is not Bandette but is something of an inspiration for her.  There’s not rally a plot necessarily to this story.  It is simply a story about a cat burglar who steals things and people’s hearts.  And the people with their hearts stolen don’t seem to mind all that much.  The story is in black and white (which works wonderfully with the silhouette of the cat burglar.  And I love that the end of the story addresses the reader.

The end of every book also includes a full on story by Tobin (with some drawings by Coover).  This one was fantastic.  It is called “The Music” and is all about Heloise and Bandette.

Heloise is at the commissary eating a secret piece of carrot cake.  She is enjoying inhaling deeply the smoke of Belgique (who is so rude to her, but on whom she is totally crushing).  But Heloise has a job to do–she must put some papers into the evidence room.

After going through all of the security channels, Heloise is about to file her papers when what does she spy, but Bandette sitting on a picnic blanket on the floor of the evidence room. Heloise is dumbfounded–Bandette has a way of doing hat.

Bandette has a file.  Heloise fears that she will have to arrest Bandette when Bandette informs her that this is a file about Belgique and his one unsolved crime! And Bandette knows how to solve it–but she needs Heloise’s help.

Heloise is a terrible thief, but Bandette shows her how–she tells her to just listen to the music. They dance around Bandette’s secret hideout and Heloise learns to be somewhat more fluid (although not much).

There is an item–a sword–that was instrumental to Belgique’s unsolved case, and Bandette intends to steal it back from the person who stole it (the criminal whom Belgique couldn’t catch).  They go to the bad guy’s house (the way he dispatches the dogs is wonderful).

Bandette sneaks through the criminal mastermind’s house (and even breaks into the safe that is above his bed–while Heloise freaks out the whole time.  Finally, Bandette has the combination to disarm the lasers guarding this sword.

What she does next is hilarious and sets a rather genius plan of events into motion.

The end pages include Tobin’s brief biography of Suzanne Valadon.  Valadon was a model for many famous Impressionists (Renoir, and Toulouse-Lautrec are just two of them).  But more importantly, she was an excellent painter herself.  In addition to being s successful painter, she was also full of scandalous behavior.   Having affairs (with Erik Satie among others) and breaking hearts along the way.

Valadon was an inspiration behind this story because Tobin imagined how many paintings she must have gotten from famous Impressionists as gifts.  So he imagined a similar woman (Madame Presto) who would have been similarity bequeathed.  It’s a fascinating story and a great introduction to a fascinating woman.

Volume Four, S’il vous plaît.