Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and Liszt’s Years of Pilgrimage

The title of Murakami’s latest Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage clearly refers to Liszt’s three suites. Tsukuru often plays his favourite record, left  by a lost friend, as it reminds him of a lost time. Not exactly homesickness, but plenty of Temps du Mal.. and much more less obvious references.

Apparently when the book got released Universal Music sold out of hardcopies (CD’s that is). Japan and the rest of the world then had to queue up online for a digital alternative. Maybe the whole Booktunes project (building an online source of book related music and musical novel knowledge) was not such a bad idea at all.

The power of the music made it all possible, Everytime he listend to the music, […] a vivid recollection of them appeared.

With the original Booktunes site is still on the back burner in the kitchen of the lab, I decided to upload Side B of Tsukuru’s treasured vinyl on the Booktunes YouTube channel. You can check Monk & Elvis by clicking their names. Enjoy!

‘First Year: Switzerland’. He sat down on the sofa, closed his eyes and concentrated on the music. […]

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Dutch translation of the new Murakami novel now available at Atlas/Contact, UK/US release is set for mid-august (Amazon UK/US).

Everything is Illuminated – Fingers are Frozen

Listening to the soundtrack to Liev Schreiber’s Everything is Illuminated (again) I am amazed (again) by how well the tunes fit the movie (which I kind of forgot about) and Safran Foer’s book (which definitely needs a rereading soon). Maybe it fits my midnight and early morning bicycle rides through Amsterdam and the Dutch Flatlands even better.

While my fingers freeze my brain gets heated by my apparently hip hat and, spinning on plans to broaden the Booktunes concept, fully enjoys the sounds of Paul Cantelon. Particularly Paul’s original score inspires, and even makes me enjoy the first cold winter weekend and look forward to joining the Elfstedentocht 2013 with my cousin Joeri. As Wim knows, I like Gogol Bordello but think Eugene’s role in the screenplay is good but purple enough. 

Ice skating, early morning cycling, after hours working… reading Safran Foer’s novel..   I am sure you’ll enjoy the tunes this movie brings. Listen to Paul Cantelon’s beautiful original tunes here, check Csókolom & Leningrad through Youtube.

Booktunes Series: Carnivàle – The Original Tunes

Living in Brighton wearing my workwear enjoying all retro things going on there while drinking a honey bear in my favourite pub called The Black Dove, I felt the urge to rewatch that great Carnivàle series. Amazed by all the good tunes I did a whole lotta diggin’ on the world wide web –  now it’s time for sharin’ on the Booktunes blog.

Most of the work had already been done by the sleeping Midway website, a site dedicated to the series so boorishly discontinued by HBO. It is still a great place to find info on all things Carnivàle and I would like to thank them for the incredible job they did! I took their list of tunes, reviewed it, collected the songs, added some, did all the iTunes tagging and uploaded a download for all cats ‘n alligators.

Since most tunes are in the public domain you should be ok sharing this amazing source of inspiration… Personal favourites in the Youtube vid above and the player below. Feel free to untick all organ tunes included for the sake of making this original soundtrack complete.

[audio http://www.2001.net/Booktunes/Blog_Creole_Love_Call.mp3]

Season 2 coming up… Now let’s just hope the goons won’t bump us off!

I’ve got to leave now,

Erik

Booktunes Movies: The Great Gatsby (2013)

A bit sad by the fact that the release of Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby has been put off, I played the trailer to my wife and sis to show them what we will not be getting for Christmas 2012. Trailer still says ‘this christmas’… let’s just hope that the trailer is stubborn and not referring to Chrismas 2013.

We were all blown away by the beautiful  shots, the styling, the great 1920′ views and, to be honest, I got a bit emotional when Jack White’s cover of Love is Blindness kicked in. Well, Maybe it had to do with the intense yoga class we had earlier this morning.

Curious to finding out more about Baz Luhrmann’s musical choice for this movie (remember the Moulin Rouge & Romeo & Juliet Soundtracks), I rewound to the Jay-Z & Kanye West tune at the start of the trailer… not bad but hey, I am sure Jack White is the best forerunner. Plus a good sport.

[audio http://www.2001.net/Booktunes/Blog_No_Church_In_The_Wild.mp3] [audio http://www.2001.net/Booktunes/Blog_Love_Is_Blindness.mp3]

Let’s list the tunes here and listen to the sounds while waiting for the movie. Keep me posted on Great Gatsby Soundtrack news!

Eye Film Institute & Taxi Driver Sound

Today will be the grand opening of Eye Films Institute in Amsterdam. As they start off with a retrospective on one of my favorite directors Martin Scorsese, I really regret missing out. I try and make the best out of it here by finally checking how Taxi Driver would do as a soundtrack to every day life.

It was already amazing to see the Eye Film Museum being built as I drove past it almost every day when living in Amsterdam. When the train rode in to Central Station last weekend I was blown away by the view on this finalised futuristic addition to the recently emerged ‘Skyline of the North’. Visit.

Recently I saw the first part of Scorsese’s Hugo (in parts… is my movie watching getting just as patchy as my reading? Gosh). Great. The Scorsese movie I did manage to watch multiple times, unfragmented, is Taxi Driver. My favorite. The story, the shots, angles, quotes, atmosphere, acting, topics, themes, anything. Ask Wim.

For some time now I have been wondering what it would be like to only listen to the sound of this movie. The sun is out here in Brighton – none of the dreadful English weather I was walking in when this idea popped up, no rain to wash all this scum off the streets – but I do enjoy listening to this movie very much. It is like a slow-paced radio play with your favorite actor and none of that studio stuff. Listen:

If you listen to the score by Bernard Herrmann you go back and forth from one theme to the other. If you listen to the complete sound track ripped form the movie, you’ll find the perfect balance between Bickle’s thoughts, the dialogues, street sounds and music. Only now I realise that Director Scorsese probably knows this, closes his eyes and listens before sending a movie off.

Download here & drop me a comment. Any requests?