SOUNDTRACK: TENGGER-“Achime” (SXSW online, 2021).
I never intend to go to SXSW–I find the whole thing a bit much. But I also appreciate it for the way it gives unknown bands a place to showcase themselves. NPR featured a half dozen artists online this year with this note:
This year, the South by Southwest music festival that takes over Austin, Texas every spring happened online. Couch By Couchwest, as I like to call it, was an on-screen festival, with 289 acts performing roughly 15-minute pre-recorded sets across five days in March.
This list was curated by Bob Boilen. He also notes:
I didn’t enjoy hearing loud, brash music while sitting on a couch the way I would in a club filled with people and volume, so I found myself engaging in more reflective music instead.
I’m going in reverse order, which means I start with TENGGER
TENGGER is a traveling musical family based in Seoul. TENGGER makes its hybrid sounds with a mix of harmonium and modular synths. The couple’s child joins this performance of “Achim,” playing a bird caller and doing movements that add an otherworldly dimension to the music.
This song is very simple, and very soothing. It opens with a somewhat harsh but soft note, followed by a simple looping electronic melody. The female vocalist sings some soft soaring notes that float atop the melody.
The bird calls are really quite delightful and add a nice level of whimsy. After this, a bass note is added which gives the song a bit more gravitas. After about 3 and a halt minutes, a drumbeat comes in and the song feels complete. It loops around for another minute and a half and then fades out.
It’s quite lovely.
[READ: July 10, 2021] “Journey Into Night”
David Sedaris writes about travel a lot. He is, after all, a touring author/speaking. But he has also lived in many many places around the world. So he has a lot of experience with air travel. Of course, since he is famous (and apparently well off). He tends to fill in what was (at least in 2007 called Business Elite).
He first mentions the flight from JFK to Paris that leaves at 7PM and arrives at 845 AM. He says there’s a brief parody of evening. Dinner is served, Trays are cleared and then, four hours later it’s time for breakfast–an attempt to trick the body that it has slept the night. Some passengers even prepare for bed–line up at the bathroom with toothbrushes, wearing slippers.
Business Elite is separated from everyone else. The first time he flew it, he didn’t care for the whole boarding first par, but the pampering was pretty nice.
Although on this one flight he was asked to do the airline a favor. A passenger was crying–his mother had died and he was returning home. He was disturbing the neighbors near him and the flight attendant asked if he could sit in the empty set by David.
David, who is usually easily judgmental was horrified by these people. The man’s mother had died. He mentions a first class passenger who threatened to sue an airline because a blind person was travelling with seeing eye dog. The man said hadn’t paid thousands of dollars to sit next to a dog.
David wasn’t sure how to react to the crying man, so he planned to basically ignore him. The man waved off his food, but David was pleased to get his dessert. He even learned that (In Business Elite) he could ask for extra
spend eight thousand dollars on a ticket and, if you want an extra thirteen cents worth of ice cream, all you have to do is ask.
But really the hardest prat was to try to remain somber for this man. I mean, there was a Chris Rock movie on the screen. And once you realize you cant laugh, it’s impossible not to. Like about their Greek grandmother
For children, nothing beats a flatulent old lady. And she wasn’t embarrassed by it.
Their father would ask if something was funny. They’d say no while giggling. He would wallop them on the head with a metal spoon which only made things funnier.
But then as he started to think back to those times–so young and simple–he started to cry too. Just joining the man in solidarity.
