Odjak

A better title for this song would be “A memory of Istanbul” or “An Impression of Istanbul” or “Resonate with Istanbul” or even “Hotel Armada” would do.
You know what I mean…

Follow your heart with no fear and no reservation. Follow your heart because that’s the only true path to follow.

Follow your heart. Such a cliché! I have heard this so many times, read about it in so many self-help books. Follow your heart. Follow your bliss. Be a light onto yourself…

Yet, this cliché is so dear to my existence. So much so that it’s not a cliché anymore, it’s a song. A song that I can play and play; it will always be different, it will always be new. Here is the latest and the newest version.

Dedicated to my dear friend Pierre Chartrand.

This song was composed and performed today in Normandy to celebrate the amazing Solstice Sunset.

I am throwing away objects and giving away the furniture. New empty spaces are invading already emptied spaces. There is lightness in my heart. In an hour, I will go see my friend JF to get the keys to his apartment. It’s raining outside. I start playing the guitar and record what I play. I play for 10 minutes. It just flows and a tune emerges. I decide to post the entire 10 minutes – unedited and raw.

I call it “Getting The Keys”.

This is not a song just an improvisation. Living is a daily practice.

I practice headphones.

First the song:

And now it’s meaning:

From Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French *pincher, pincer
transitive verb
1 a : to squeeze between the finger and thumb or between the jaws of an instrument
b : to prune the tip of (a plant or shoot) usually to induce branching
c : to squeeze or compress painfully
d : to cause physical or mental pain to e (1) : to cause to appear thin, haggard, or shrunken (2) : to cause to shrivel or wither

2 a : to subject to strict economy or want : STRAITEN
b : to restrain or limit narrowly : CONSTRICT

3 a : STEAL
b : ARREST

4 : to sail too close to the wind

intransitive verb
1 : COMPRESS, SQUEEZE
2 : to be miserly or closefisted
3 : to press painfully
4 : NARROW, TAPER - pinch pennies : to practice strict economy

Fifty-Three is the name of a restaurant in Singapore – on 53 Armenian Street.
Here is another restaurant in Toronto called Olivia’s at Fifty-Three.
Rumi Birdsong: Fifty-Three Short Poems can be purchased from Amazon.
I had not heard of The Fifty-Three Stations of Tōkaidō (東海道五十三次 ,Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi) until today.

The song Fifty-Three has its solid origin in the year 1953. It’s about being 53 or older.

I have so much respect for shoemakers.

Shoemaking is a traditional handicraft profession. Shoemakers produce shoes, boots, sandals, clogs, moccasins… Each pair of shoe is different from the one before. Shoes are made for walking and yet can reveal esthetic qualities.

I compare songs to shoes and composers to shoemakers. How does it feel to wear this song?

Before I Leave has a dose of pathos in it.

Why this music? Why now? There is no explanation or justification. It happens. Simple, in draft form but somewhat alive. I will keep this posted for a while and see what happens to it. Enjoy !

The new Deleyaman album Fourth, part one is coming out. You will hear more about them from me and from many others. Here is a foretaste:
Enjoy !

I woke up early. Workers are hammering downstairs. Walls come up and walls come down. There is silence now. Noise is there to make you hear the silence.

A few months ago, I heard someone define music as “intentional interruption of silence”. He was a drummer.

Music is playing with sounds and silences. Photography is playing with light and lack of light. Thinking is playing with thoughts and absence of thoughts. Living is being alive and not being alive.

It’s not that these are opposites; they are the same thing. They exist only together – as one. The only one.