Thursday, December 4, 2008

Dutch music in Austin part I: Blof -- Oktober


Dutch music was never my favourite. The language has so many rough sounds that I just couldn't call it romantic.
Though, since I live in the United States I start to appreciate it more, it is one of the few ways through which I can hear my own language.
Blof is a band containing of four men; a singer, a bass, an electic guitar player and a keyboard player. Originally they all come from the same island in the south of The Netherlands, the same island as where I was born. Since my mom is really fascinated by their music, I started to listen to it when I was pretty young.
Blof produced a lot of albums, which are all very different but create the same atmosphere. They have a duet with the American band 'The Counting Crows' called 'Holiday in Spain' and they recorded a cd full of duets with people from every continent called 'Umoja'. Blof is going international but they stay local at the same time by recording songs about the island, the beach and the sea; their home.
Their last album is called Oktober, and released, yes, last October. Since my mom visited me in Austin at that time she gave me the album. Blof is planning on releasing another album in spring '09. 'Oktober' is a slow album with a lot of deep and thoughtfull texts, the perfect background album for serious conversations but also very relaxing. Although the music is repetitive, the lyrics are creative, sometimes even incomprehensible.
My favourite song of the album is called 'Eilanden' ('Islands').
It says:
"Eilanden in oceanen zijn lang niet zo eenzaam als wij,
Eilanden komen weer samen, als de zeebodem breekt en verschuift,
Laat me niet morgen pas lachen, maar vandaag."
" Islands in oceans are not that lonesome,
Islands come together, as soon as the bottom of the sea breaks and moves.
Let's not wait until tomorrow, I want to laugh today."
Since I am leaving in eight days, I apply texts of every song I hear to my stay here. It may sound kinda sentimental, but that is actually how I feel about leaving.
'Eilanden' can be interpreted on both a small and large scale. Different islands in The Netherlands, but also, different islands on Earth, different parts of the world. They will come together.
"Let's not wait until tomorrow, I want to laugh today." Yes, I am going to enjoy my last days to their full extend.
Here you find short a video from Blof performing 'Eilanden'.

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