Fever Ray - Mercy Street

The first song by Fever Ray I remember hearing was "If I had a heart" ~ a song that's certainly worth sitting back and listening to. I've listened to it many times and still get drawn in by it ...

For today, though, I've picked out "Mercy Street" originally by Peter Gabriel. I wouldn't have thought that it is possible to love both the original and the cover but this one has me convinced -

Mercy Street

By Karin Dreijer Andersson

Fever Ray / Karin Dreijer Andersson - Keep The Streets Empty For Me

It is the type of music that sneaks up on me and burrows deeply into my mind to be fully anchored there before I'm even aware of it. Just some song accompanying scenes in a "Bones" episode well prior to the crescendo and yet ... the steady rhythm kept beating in my veins well into the night. It took me a while to identify the song as "Keep the Streets Empty for Me" by "Fever Ray" which is an alias of "Karin Dreijer Andersson". I've since discovered quite a number of other Fever Ray songs with an equally compelling rhythm and melody that, in my mind, speaks of darkness and inevitability ...

Keep The Streets Empty For Me
By Karin Dreijer Andersson

Memory comes when memory's old
I am never the first to know
Following the stream up North
Where do people like us float

Propellerheads / Shirley Bassey - History Repeating

If I had a penchant for betting I'd bet that the name Shirley Bassey brings to mind the theme songs to the James Bond films 'Goldfinger', 'Diamonds Are Forever', and 'Moonraker' in the '60s and '70s and little -if anything- else. No question, great songs brought to life by her unmistakable voice, but to me, the song "History Repeating" written by Propellerheads' Alex Gifford beats those by miles and hands down :-) 

History Repeating

The word is about, there´s something evolving,
whatever may come, the world keeps revolving...
They say the next big thing is here,
that the revolution´s near,
But to me it seems quite clear
that it´s all just a little bit of history repeating.

Kitaro - Matsuri (live)

My parents weren’t big on letting their pre-teen kids watch TV, and bedtimes were adamantly set and to be observed. Of course, any exception such as allowing us to watch ‘adult’ TV on occasion made those TV programs extra special. One of those exceptions was “The Silk Road: The Rise and Fall of Civilizations” which aired way past my then bedtime.

I have to admit that I don’t recall too much of the documentary (I’ll have to search the web – I sure would love to see it again). What I do recall is the amazing soundtrack (composed by Kitaro) and breathtaking pictures of sweeping foreign landscapes beckoning to be explored ...