When Michi Renoir started out last night at Cat's Art MusikCircus, it was with space sounds that filled the place with a quite unearthly feeling but then through it came beautiful piano melodies. And so it went that he kept pushing out into all manner of trippy sounds but all the while holding it together with melodies he would devise as he went.
There really is no telling what Michi Renoir will do from one week to the next and this is a large part of what makes his music so compelling. Janeel, his squeeze, said he plays according to his moods and I took a dim view of that as I see moods as things for Facebook or high-school girls. Actually what I hear from Michi is quite a cheerful mood every time I've heard him play but that doesn't at all dictate what he will play.
Last week he was hammering it, culminating in a wild surprise with his remix of "I Love Rats!" If that's a mood, it's a great one!
There really is no telling what Michi Renoir will do from one week to the next and this is a large part of what makes his music so compelling. Janeel, his squeeze, said he plays according to his moods and I took a dim view of that as I see moods as things for Facebook or high-school girls. Actually what I hear from Michi is quite a cheerful mood every time I've heard him play but that doesn't at all dictate what he will play.
Last week he was hammering it, culminating in a wild surprise with his remix of "I Love Rats!" If that's a mood, it's a great one!
Last night wasn't at all an "I Love Rats" performance as it was lovely in a very different way and more than one person commented that it was relaxing. Ordinarily, music that is intended to be relaxing has the opposite effect on me as it's boring and I get more and more tense waiting for something to happen. A lot of New Age music is that way and it seems to me if you mix a lot of cats in a basement apartment with New Age music then you will probably get a serial killer every time.
What Michi was playing last night was relaxing in that still you need to think but it's in a vibe that's very pleasant and flows into beautiful places. I don't want to turn my mind off and it resists that anyway but I don't want to be solving differential equations all the time. What Michi was playing last night flowed as if going down a gentle stream in the woods on a Spring day, surrounded by birds and little animals. It was very much a transcendental experience and it was highly reminiscent of the feeling of Tangerine Dream in krautrock in which the music is calming but not soporific.
But then he would surprise us and throw out a hard 4/4 disco beat to ramp it up for a little while so maybe that was when our canoe was going through some rapids. It was an evening of playing diverse sounds off each other for a wonderful effect and it's all improvisation. He has a very impressive talent for it and jamming with him sometime would be very cool.
And of course Cat and I danced
Maybe this is dancing or maybe it's gymnastics but either way it's beautiful to do it. We went out after the show to get yet more dances as Cat is constantly building the mix of dances from which people can choose when they come to the Circus.
And, yes, I might have done better with my outfit but, what the hell, I got it for free and I know Cat will get a smile out of that.
Here's a close-up of my beautiful self as what else will make your morning complete! (laughs)
Just like real-life, right! (laughs some more)
2 comments:
You need to rethink your definition of moods Alan. What I mean by moods is that he can be calm, cheeky, playful, dynamic, angry, loving, obliging, and so on. And he will play accordingly. By obliging, I mean I've seen him play real old fashioined boogie woogie at one sim, not because he likes it especially (apparently it's beneath him) but because the sim owner likes it. Another place he played really hard rock, again by request of the sim owner. But left to his own devices he will just noodle about on his keyboards, experimenting, and come up with these musical journeys of exploration. And Cat gives him the freedom to do just that. He has some set pieces, but he uses them less and less now. Doesn't mean he isn't proud of them, they are his babies, but the improv seems to have taken over. I love it, you and Cat and a few others love it. Sadly for michi most people just want to hear the same old same old, songs sung or played with varying degrees of talent.
JK
That's the same situation as pretty much every performer at the Circus as It's grim when someone can become a 'star' in Second Life by doing hack job covers of The Beatles on a box guitar. The problem isn't the audience as there will always be people who want to hear crap music but rather it's the promoters that who have pushed it so hard that anyone who wants to hear anything real never knows about it or has given up altogether. It's one hell of a damn shame when the most innovative musical platform in generations is given over to second-rate crap.
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