Manafonistas

Reading the new thriller by R.J. Ellory, „Mockingbird Songs“, means being transported to a decade long gone. West Texas. 1972. Life can go wrong many ways, and when trying to fix things, simple and sincere, the outcome may be some decent miles away from the nice little wish list of your mind. So: how handling premonition & desaster? R.J. Ellory has written a brilliant thriller with two eccentric guitar playing dudes who breathed in deeply their Hank Williams tunes. The rural hinterland has set the scene, too, for another guitar man, Michael Rother, whose artistic salad days all had happened in the Seventies. What he did with „Harmonia“, is well documented on a vinyl box set, including a telling photo collection – and a man called Brian Eno spending some weeks with that bunch in Lower Saxony. Magic stuff. Days ago, I found a small book in my mail box, a philosophical, sensual exploration of human emotions and the limits (options) of language to broaden the horizon. Easy reading, deep thinking. And really much more witty and illuminating than you first might think considering the old-fashioned topic. At the end of the day, when the night comes tumbling down (wind rattling, rain hitting hard, sudden fog phenomena), put on the new album „This Is Not A Miracle“ from Food (ECM Records). Electro Jazz of the vital kind, with Iain Bellamy, Thomas Stronen and regular guest Christian Fennesz: full of drama, shifting textures and colours. What do you call this music: a breathing thing, space-jazz, or dance music for the head? Whatever, its twilight beauties will reward.