THE
TRANSFORMATION
PLACE
TITLE
BY TITLE
I FEEL FAT
With lush strings, a touch of country and an Irish folk feel set in the Far West, Laughing Seabird tackles here a sensation shared by many women feeling the pressure of media images. A sensation shared by us all in that “filling ourselves up” to fill an emotional or spiritual void points to a more general feeling of discontent – of there being too much of everything! Too much consumerism and too many sollicitations for us to conform to the zeitgeist. Following the crowd, being the right fit for society’s corset ultimately doesn’t satisfy us and ends up choking us. It’s up to us not to be taken in and to work towards what makes us feel good and what’s best for us!
Vivre (No Way Back)
Soft, gentle vocals, an uplifting guitar with Hispanic overtones, steady drums and reassuring strings; all that’s needed to relate that “Vivre” is a one-way street because… once started there is no way back! No need to make a big fuss about it, but a commitment. From small steps great roads are made so go, go, go, you don’t have to do anything, you don’t need to do anything; May you nurture who you are, instigate this simple and sublime chance: To be passionate about life and, very simply, feel the joy it brings. We will never be invincible but within ourselves we can become indivisible, unified.
Direction Oubliée (Let Go)
A Celtic folk song with soaring bridges and solos to remind us that we all have our share of learned helplessness especially when we haven’t been guided with open-mindedness and tolerance, protected, reassured or lead down the right path. This results in us being frozen, frustrated, fascinated, formatted, fatigued, detached and detained, no longer knowing where we’re going or maybe even going too much where we’re told to go…it’s meaningless and we’re directionless: Direction Oubliée. So it’s time to let go, let loose, that’s the best thing to do, embrace the here and now, no need to overdo it or to feel guilty about not being this, or not succeeding in that, succeeding in what? There will be better times, flowers will open, smiles will light up your face once more and what you thought was a dead-end will turn out to be a door.
The Transformation Place
Here we’re flying high…with a little trip back to the 1970s and a dose of psychedelia to help us open the doors of our perceptions but there’s no question of our falling asleep on the job: whatever the cost, because nothing comes from nothing, let’s not let go of our goals since small underground transformations are sure to lead to big ones. If we take a step back, the world is not what it seems, after all, we are only the sum of our perceptions…Open up, delve, refine, don’t trust first impressions: there are so many levels to visit, so many inner journeys to make !
My Shell
Haunting bagpipes, a sitar-like guitar and majestic drums encourage the grateful, laughing seabird, whose friend is a seashell, to take flight. Hold it up to your ear and you will hear the sea, lay your head on my shoulder and you’ll have faith in yourself once more. For a child to stand on his own two feet, he or she needs support and tenderness first. Sometimes the emotion of a smile, a hello… a small word of friendship or love, reconnects us with something powerful. It is mysterious, it’s emotion. It’s motion, come back to where we were frozen, fatigued… Finding motion again, movement, spreading our wings, going towards lightness, an openness, an exchange, and recognising gratitude. Oh this is strange.
IN SPITE OF
Finger-picking reminiscent of McCartney’s Blackbird illustrates here that there are people we lose…people who perhaps needed to leave for us to be able to grant them total forgiveness. Anger is a tenacious thing and yet sometimes definitive separation comes along to wipe the slate clean and all the misunderstandings and miscommunications melt away on a low gas. And, in spite of everything, a reduction remains at the bottom of the pan: a nectar of sweet regret and love.
Le Somptueux Règne des Absents
Here we’re more pop than folk, here we’re not feeling sorry for ourselves even if, yes, there are people we lose…and an inescapable lack sometimes sets in. But who doesn’t have their suite of absentees? How to keep in contact with them? By perpetuating their memory or by talking to them out loud as if they were able to hear us? We sometimes imagine them somewhere on the other side…the magnificent reign of The Absent. It is one of our remedies, it reassures us.
L’Appel du Monde
With an arpeggio as guide, an omnipresent udu drum and a bass sketching out sceneries, go and see how vast the world is, go and see for yourself… the elsewhere, the other, the otherwise. Leave our habits and what we think we know behind, conjure away the systems that infiltrate us, allow ourselves to be cleansed and cured by our journey, by answering the Call of the World.
Sailor Song (de Rickie Lee Jones)
Carried by an aquatic guitar and a backwash of strings, happily caught in the nets of destiny and put to sea: accepting a brand new start instead of running away. Sometimes we no longer have a choice, we take a new tack rather than keel over…and the unexpected happens: a profound transformation that is life changing, intrinsic honesty and an awareness of what really matters in the long-term.
Karmen KéroZen
The rock tune of the album! Ah Karmen, she of many looks and many faces. And a woman who started over. She snapped one day did Karmen: She couldn’t take her rubbish inner-city life, the dreariness, the concrete, the pollution any longer; she felt herself being buried alive, withered before her time. So she shut up shop, hit the road and eventually found where she belongs: a simple life of hospitality…from behind her famous beach bar. She’s a Queen is our Karmen !
Scarborough Fair
This traditional English ballad dating back to The Middle Ages and popularised by Simon and Garfunkel bestows upon the listener the rôle of messenger between two former lovers. For the flame of love to be rekindled, impossible tasks have to be carried out. Since the desired love cannot exist, what remains is lack and longing. Life isn’t conducive to loving, there are always reasons not to…Yes love always requires proof but let’s not ask the impossible all the same and favour instead the initial upsurge of faith !
LES FILLES SAGES
Practically everywhere on this planet, being born a woman means starting life already having to prove oneself…and this conditions us. It’s a way of affirming one’s identity, and, in fact, a nice chance too. With levity and malice, this song is a small profession of faith, articulating the vow of not being “good” (a “good” girl) because heaven is here and now.
I OFFER YOU A DEDICATION
CUSTOM AUDIO
To receive news (concerts, clips, festivals, albums, etc.), join our list of private contacts. And to celebrate, I’m giving you a personalized audio dedication. Fill out the form below, I’ll get back to you within a few days to ask you what you want (by myself or by a character I dub like Meredith Grey, Alex or Mandy from the Totally Spies, etc.)
