Tuesday Tunes

My family is huge, and it’s all my parent’s fault. I grew up the youngest child of four brothers. But my parents had a penchant for adopting many more people all the time. My mother would frequently pick up tourists hitching from the side of the road, and after talking to them for a time, would invite them home for a nice home cooked meal. To date, the closest she’s come to an axe murderer is probably a tourist’s body spray. My father, working for the local school, would always volunteer our home for hosting students from overseas. They called it ‘billeting’, as they are from the before time, in the long long ago. So my already sizeable family has gained several more members over the years, from mad Welshmen to Winconsin women. I first heard today’s entries on a mix CD belonging to Lukas, my Austrian brother-from-another-mother.

Blanket Apology: Please forgive my lack of umlauts, slashes, graves, cedillas, macrons or any various missing diacritics. Currently, they elude me.

The Song(s)
Songs: I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From / (and the Royksopp Remix)
Artists: Kings of Convenience / (and Royksopp)
Albums: Quiet is the New Loud/Versus - 2001 - Astralwerks
Methods of discovery: Mix CD imported from Austria / Years later searching for the song

Theory: I knew the Remix first, so that’s where I’ll start. The beginning is a series of simple chord hits, quickening into a sharp pitch shift and then calming again. If nothing else, it forces you to listen to what’s coming next. Next is the rythym and bass, strong and stable. Next is the strong musical hook that links both versions of the song: the arpeggiated chords I9-vi2-iii7-IV, followed each time by a repeating, then descending high melody played on guitar. The song continues through two verses until fading out after a piano piece, in the original it’s a cello piece and some harmonised repetition of the title. The original is closer to the folk I’m into today, and I only found it years later googling the lyrics in an effort to find the remix. Theoretically it’s largely the same, except for the occasional V in the later verse.

Harmonically there is a moment missing from the remix that made me fall in love with the original version. On the line ‘You were at my door’ in the second verse, there lies the only line of harmony in the verses. The relationship between the notes held here is simple and beautiful, just like the song. When the line ends, the vocalists are singing a ‘happy’ Major Third interval. But the interval colours the chord it’s sitting over, and the notes are the 5th and Major 7th of the IV chord sitting below. That Major 7th introduces a discordant note into the line, which to me, tells the listener that not all is comfortable or ‘happy’ about this person showing up.

Research: Both groups are from Norway, but from almost opposite ends; Royksopp is from Tromso and Kings is from Bergen. Quiet is the New Loud became the name for both a movement of songwriters and a book about the album and band. The focus is on softer soundscapes and gliding melodies, like low clouds lazily spilling over the tops of high hills. They are Norwegian successors to Simon and Garfunkel. Royksopp, which is the name of a type of puffball mushroom, is another duo outing. Both bands were involved in the Bergen Wave, which was a turn of the century emergence of newer artists in the Norwegian music scene.

Personal thoughts: There are few songs in the world where I’ll like both the original and the remix/cover. The only other example that comes to mind immediately is Hurt by Nine Inch Nails/Johnny Cash. Heading into winter, I find the Original the type of music that I could snuggle into a blanket with, and read a good book, a video of a real fireplace crackling in HD on the TV. The Remix is something I needed to get some housework done: busy, but calming. I think that the Original is beautiful, and the remix is a testament to how to add a new coat of paint to a song without compromising the message.

Give it a go: If you like folk or electronica or folk/electronica

Give it a miss: If you’re looking for something to get you active

[links]
Spotify: Tuesday Tunes, Kings of Convenience, Royksopp
Wikipedia: Kings of Convenience, Royksopp, Bergen Wave, Diacritic
Other: Kings Website, Royksopp Website, Quiet is the New Loud: Book