Category Archives: Music

Cirque du Soleil

Cirque du Soleil

Cirque du Soleil
Image from the show Wintuk

A dream come true.

The “Circus of the Sun“, in all its various shows, consistently merges colorful, artistic vision with wondrous music into an unequaled performance of sheer beauty. Each tells a simple story, but with such imaginative power that it leaves you amazed with wonder and yearning for long forgotten childhood fantasies.
Here’s a small video of this vision, with some scenes from various shows.

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The Timelessness of Space

Outlaw Star Ending

“Stars, Moons & the City”
by Hicaru Tanaka, 1998

Do you know this feeling?

There is something about space, the vastness of the universe and time so long it boggles your mind. Something that makes you forget the here and now, that makes you get lost in a reverie of distant stars and an unknown future. There are some memories I have of this sense of timelessness, not many, just a few, but they are very precious to me.

One is a Belgian comic series called Yoko Tsuno that I read, no, absorbed in a library when I was a kid. It’s about a female electrical engineer of Japanese origin that takes place in familiar but highly technological settings on Earth in the future and even some 2,500,000 light years away in outer space.

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Hands

Aren’t they amazing, our hands?

They can play instruments, draw, sculpt, build, caress and even communicate via sign language. Some of what you can do with hands is so simple and yet so universal at the same time, it’s just beautiful.

Some creative minds came up with really amazing examples of using hands in different, unique ways that you may find inspiring and probably surprising.

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Nick Cave ~ Where the Wild Roses Grow

Kylie Minogue

Kylie Minogue as Elisa Day

A gorgeous video to a bittersweet balad that’s hard to forget.

Where the Wild Roses Grow is sung by Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue. The song is so beautiful, mysterious and moving.. It goes under your skin.

I haven’t listened to it very often, but for some reason it never leaves my head, mainly due to the delicate imagery and softly whispered vocals.

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Avalon

Avalon

Ash in Avalon

Avalon is an otherworldly, surreal sci-fi movie with stunning visuals and a haunting, moving soundtrack, directed by Mamoru Oshii. The movie’s main character is Ash, who was once member of a very successful team but something happened and she continued to work alone. She, like many others, plays war games in an illegal and dangerous virtual reality called Avalon.

The pacing is rather slow and relaxed, and even though there’s also lots of explosions, they seem surreal like everything else in this movie. The atmosphere is slightly depressing, yet very engrossing, in part due to the incredible score by Kenji Kawaii. Even if you happen to not like the movie as a whole, it’s worth watching at least once just for the music.

Here’s a short teaser that gives some quick impressions.
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Sand Fantasy ~ Just imagine…

Sand Fantasy

Just imagine …

Ilana Yahav is a sand animation artist. Using only her fingers, Ilana draws with sand on a glass table. Synchronized to absolutely lovely, soothing music, she weaves an ever changing carpet of dreamlike qualities that is a real joy to experience.

It’s a bit like watching clouds float by on a sunny afternoon in a reverie. Here’s an example of her work…
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The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn

The last? What happened to all the others? When the unicorn in this story realizes that she may indeed be the last of her kind, she tries to find out what happened to the rest and begins a journey to bring them back.

I don’t remember how old I was when I first watched the movie in television, maybe 5 or 6, but I still remember so much from it. Schmendrick the magician, Molly, the Red Bull, the talking skeleton, the wonderful music, and of course the enchanting unicorn. Themes are the tradeoff between immortality and love, illusions and destiny. I think this is one of those rare stories that has real magic in it.

The opening will bring back memories ~
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Ambeon ~ Fate of a Dreamer

Ambeon

Astrid van der Veen

Ambeon is a “mysterious and ambient side project of Arjen Anthony Lucassen featuring Astrid van der Veen, a young and very talented female vocalist.”

Usually I let my music play in the background, but somewhere during the first song of this album I had to stop what I was doing and concentrate on listening… because it was so mesmerizing and beautiful… and sad. The music could be called Melodic Rock with some Progressive and Celtic elements mixed in. As a whole it’s rather gloomy, the lyrics being dark and cryptic. Anyway, here are two samples I found on the official site..

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Unfortunately the album is out of print for now, but there are more samples available.

Zanzarah ~ Title Theme

You take the role of Amy, who is pulled into Zanzarah, a magical world full of elves, goblins, dwarves and fairies. A paradise. But the world is threatening to plunge into chaos, fairies have even started to fight amongst themselves… It falls into your hands to find out what’s wrong there and how to help. You are not alone, though. On your journey you find friendly fairies who can help you fight against Chaos.

This game is soooo cute. Magical, lighthearted, wondrous and whimsical are some words I’d use to describe it. The title theme is one of my all-time favorite songs, perfectly setting the mood for what’s up ahead.

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Here are the lyrics to this song as well as the full soundtrack.
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Divine Divinity ~ Forest Flute

Divinity Forest

Scene from the intro of Divinity

Divine Divinity (don’t mind the name) is a very atmospheric traditional RPG in the style of Ultima VII, with a combat system resembling Diablo. The music of this game is unforgettably beautiful, rich, diverse and always with a slight melancholic undertone, telling tales of long forgotten kingdoms and a distant past.

A Wind of Aleroth is a song that is played in the light, peaceful woods. There’s only one instrument in it: a flute so pure it makes your heart weep. Very deep, very melodic, making you feel tranquil, lonely amongst tall trees. Simply wonderful.

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The entire soundtrack contains no less than 44 tracks ~
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