And the holidays come to an end...

Yes, another moderatley alcohol influenced post. I seem to be producing more of those these days.

Over the past week, my parents have been away in dorset, nearly 300 miles from me, on holiday.
While I appreciate that to you American people, 300 miles is not a lot, if you look on the map, here, it's well over 3/5 of the journey across England. In short, to me, and everyone else in England, it's a looooooong way!

So what have I spent most of my time doing?

Well, sitting about mostly. I've been keeping control of the house, taking the opportunity to work on some old fan fiction of mine, and generally enjoying the peace and quiet. At least for the first few days. I spose for a lad used to seeing his family every day, five days alone at home does begin to affect my mood.

I've also made a musical discovery, in the form of a new artist;

"Era", the brainchild of a certain French guy by the name of Eric Levi, has jumped out at me over the past few days, and the more of his stuff I listen to, the more it takes me.

How to describe it... A cross between techno music, perhaps a cross between electronica, and classical/hymn music. In its time, Era has incorporated everything from techno music to gregorian chant into itself, lending its music a dramatic, modern, but yet, almost religious aspect.

I spose the only way I can really do justice to the music is with some demonstrations. First, we have the video for the first Era tune I came across, "The Mass". Based on Carmina Burana's "O Fortuna", this music starts with an ominous classical/vocal introduction, before a techno beat comes in, transforming the tune into something different. Once that's done, a surprisingly tender and gentle chorus presents itself, something that seems almost out of place in a tune like this...
It's not there long, but it's back a couple of times before the video ends, resulting in a rather dramatic combination of New and Old (don't I sound pretentious :( - just check the video out!)

I suppose, it's only fitting that I present the next in line, "Divano" . This is an extremely touching video, much mellower and softer, much less dramatic, but much warmer. You'll notice, that the chorus for this video, almost matches the chorus for "The Mass". I wonder what's going on there... A very touching video regardless...

And then you have "Ameno". This video is perhaps the most dramatic so far, There's nothing I can really say, the video is very powerful and very dramatic, the techno intro to the music comes almost as a surprise - watch it, is all I can say... [edit - the drums on this one sound a bit like M people :p - the album version is a lot better, much more dramatic :)]

Finally, I want to introduce you to the fourth Era tune song that jumped out at me.
The video, in this one, is not actually related to the song at all. Both come from seperate artists.
Nevertheless, this is an opportunity for you to listen to "Impera", a song that in Era's own fashion, is incredibly dramatic and emotional.

I suppose the thing with dramatic and emotional music is that every person takes away something different from them. Something that someone might not even notice, might bring a tear or two to someone else's eye.

Anyway, I thought it best that I give you all the opportunity to experience this music, perhaps you will decide that you like it. Perhaps not, but at least the opportunity is there.

I spose finally, I'd like to introduce you to the video that brought Era to my attention in the first place. A depiction of various imperial titans, by various artists. The backing track was the thing that jumped out at me, but I figured that if it were placed in context, at least someone might be able to get an idea of why it caught my attention.

Laters all :).

Talk soon :).