A few words about ‘Toil & Trouble’, new album to be released June 25, 2023…
The album begins and ends with two tracks whose lyrics were written by an author who died more than 400 years ago. His name was William Shakespeare and he gained some artistic recognition over time, although his true existence as the author of some of our essential masterpieces of Western culture is still questioned today (really interesting question, by the way).
But whoever he really was, I always stand surprised by the contemporaneity of his words and themes, which mix politics and individual dilemma. A timeless tragedy, in fact.
These two pieces are ‘Toil & Trouble’, extract from ‘Macbeth’ and ‘World’s a Stage’, from the comedy ‘As You Like It’.
I live and work in Paris, France. What is happening in this country today – as well as in many other decrepitated Western democracies – looks like the three witches singing ‘Toil & Trouble‘ had begun to boil their potion that invokes the dark forces. While in ‘World’s a Stage‘ it is recalled that, anyway, whatever history we are witnessing, at a certain stage (the 7th, according to Bill), after having been a soldier then a justice, we slowly detach from all passions and fury. “That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”
‘Tomorrows Never Sing (long)‘ expresses the cold historical observation of our impotence despite our will – and our real successes, too! – while ‘The Conqueror Worm‘, – desperate Edgar Poe! – brings us back once again to our final condition: in the end, the worm triumphs… My dear mystic Emily, as always, stands firmly a little above all of this (‘Not Conclusion‘).
While working on the album, I heard on the radio a motet sung for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth of England. I didn’t know the composer, Orlando Gibbons, but I found this music really handsome and I thought that NO-BODY could sing very well in four voices too. I came across this lovely piece by Gibbons about this Silver Swan singing its very first pure note just before it dies. It may sound like an exercise in style, and yes, it is. But it is also, giving the nature of the NO-BODY project, much more than that.
Some time before, I heard this guy from the IPCC in the news, who told us that earth was really dying (dying!), and we had three years left for crying.
It reminded me of something… Oh yes: ‘Five Years‘ by David Bowie !
How will look the world in three years ? How will we look in three years ?
Let’s stay in touch until then.