Not many times I write about music, probably I should do it more often. In the end, everything I do here is around and about music, so why not?
I don’t consider myself a music critic, and want to be far from that. Anyhow, I wanted to just share my experience at the Barbican Centre in London this weekend. You may probably know, John Cale played 2 nights with the London Contemporary Orchestra. Cale is one of my favorite musicians. I discovered him back in my youth days when I was a big fan of the Velvet Underground. However, his solo career surprised me and captured me even more. He’s one of the few who continued to evolve, surprise and transform his music over the years. Not an easy thing to do when the majority of the musicians at some point run out of steam in their creativeness and end up in a vicious circle of repeating themselves when they are looking to create something new.
When my wife and I moved to London about 12 years ago, we followed Cale playing around the country. I remember once when we took the train down to Reading. We stopped at a nice pub and managed to get a lovely Mead (which isn’t usual at all) before getting into the concert place. Every time I went to see Cale, he always surprised me in some way.
This time was no different. I went to the Barbican with no real expectation. I said to myself, he’s 76, he may have ran out of steam, as many other ones of his time. However, I was completely wrong and great thing I was! From the first song, I was completely magnetized. Cale dismantled and reassembled the classic songs like never before. Each song was played at different tempo, arrangement and overall song was morphed into something new. Beautiful, not a single miss. The stage was blended with a curious projection of videos on the back of the artists, very well achieved.
I’m not going to mention any of his songs in particular, you can google for the reviews and all the details you want. Just wanted to share what music produces to ourselves when we get close and tuned to the artists. What a night, I went back home with a smile in my face.
Thank you John Cale, Mr. Reed should be very proud of his friend….
Ale
