Photo credit : Nana Dix
(So this is it, the big post. It was written all day between meetings and travels…)
I listen to the pulse of downtown Munich on a Monday morning and realize how silent the city was yesterday.
Silent? Only outside. Because if you knew where to look out to, you would have heard the heart of the Munich Underground beat. Fast and hard and full of love.
This is the hardest post I’ve ever written. My skin is still tingling from the nervous shock that yesterday was. My head is buzzing with new memories popping up on top of each other as if to keep fresh forever. It’s as if my brain is trying to do a hard disk back-up : Processing data, please wait…
How to properly introduce yesterday? Let’s just say that this crazy network of artists I’ve been blogging about for months organized in secret (well… I was actually the only one in the dark, of course) a huge happening of music and love sharing. Sunday February 1st, 2015 should be remembered as the (first of many, I hope) Munich Studio-hopping Day. Artists of the Munich Scene opened the doors of their studios and rehearsal rooms to give me (Yes, this was organized as a tremendously immense thank you gift for all this blog’s love) private concerts. Those who were not playing came to listen to their friends, colleagues, and some of them even discovered new sounds. A music marathon crafted specifically for music lovers, all over the city. Cold hard schedule for your comprehension and words of love afterwards :
15:00 Station 1 – Parasyte Woman’s studio : Parasyte Woman, Protein, Tom Wu
17:00 Station 2 – Glockenbachwerkstatt : Majmoon, Candelilla, Dizzy Errol
19:00 Station 3 – Lothringer Gallerie’s cellar : The Great Tyrannia, Jason Arigato, Damenkapelle,Sonytagartony
21:00 Station 4 – Bartellow’s studio : Bartellow live session
22:00 Station 5 – Pollyester’s headquarters : MurenaMurena, Pollyester, never-ending open jam session of greatness with musicians from other bands, such as LaBrassBanda, Katie Smokers Wedding Party, Friends of Gas, Von Tram, Belp and LeRoy too, and more and more and more.
Even the cold hard facts are too much to handle, right? Imagine my feeling. I was kept in the dark until I arrived at Parasyte Woman’s studio. And even then, I was fed information station per station, and didn’t know how long the night was going to be. Of course I had ideas, everyone spilt some info at some point in the last week, but still! The whole journey, the car was driven by Nana Dix, visual artist and Protein’s partner. She lived the whole journey with me, along with Ralf Summer on behalf of Zündfunk Radio and LeRoy, who audio recorded the whole ordeal.
There. Cold hard facts over.
Oh wait. Cold hard fact is : 13 bands and more than 30 persons organized a unique parkour of music for this ONE crazy fan aus Kanada.
There is a very surprising freedom in surrendering all power over a situation (and yourself) and let people guide you through happiness. Yes, it was exhausting. Yes, I was shaking all over. Yes, I wanted to cry, scream and laugh hysterically all at the same time. But yes, it was the best day of my life.
I want to do a proper recap of everything that happened. Band per band. I received it all. All the emotions, the energy, the love. Every act in itself was a climax to me. Every artist’s performance was a gift beyond value. Every minute was absorbed and memorized and wrote itself in my soul. I think that on February First, 2015, no human on Earth felt more important and loved than I did.
So this is not a recap post anymore. I will wait for pictures to flow in and write specifically for every moment that was lived. It’s gonna be tedious. It’s gonna take a few days. But it’s gonna be infused with all this energy I received. (EDIT: yeah, weeks later and nothing has been done yet… it’s too raw for me?)
My brain is overloaded now. So many faces and smiles and eyes to take in. So many hugs I was able to give. I remember the first travel chronicle and think about how completely impossible it would have been for me to take in all of this at the beginning of the trip. It’s so NORMAL to meet the artists that I love, now. To spend quality time with them. To go to their studios and see them at work. That we have dinner together and talk about summer plans. 10 days ago, I felt like I was part of the Scene. Now I feel like a part of the Family.
On Zündfunk I talked about living the ultimate fan experience, just by being able to interact with all these amazing artists. Ha! If I had known… It’s so different now. Something changed in my life. A part of me will always stay in Munich, somehow. I left a little of myself in all these spaces, I shared something with people from here and a little part of myself will stay with them too. I’m part of memories of this city, now. I’m somehow part of it’s musical history. It’s so unbelievable still, every time I think about the grandeur of all of this, it’s attacking me physically as if oxygen left my body all at once. It’s drowning for a second, and then the breath intake is so full of life that I am humming with adrenalin.
I’m leaving soon now. This trip was a complete step out of reality for two weeks. It is better than fantasy. Nobody dreams about stuff like that. No one dares to hope to have all of this. This is a typical Internet story for the world, but it’s a life-changing story for me : crazy person invests time, love and money in a very surprising passion halfway across the globe and becomes a local little celebrity for it.
What will my world be after this? Will I get flashes of the sweet taste of ein Helles bier when waves of nostalgia hit me randomly in the middle of the day? I’m going back home with the ghost of so many smiles in my heart. Of beautiful words exchanged. Of secret knowledge. Of music that will never be the same again.
And now the very directed paragraph : Thank you for the privilege of getting to know you. Thank you for sharing so much with me. Thank you for the warmest of welcome. Thank you for allowing me into your lives. Thank you for the physical contact too, your hugs are all amazing. Thank you for the love in your eyes. And of course, thank you for the beyond-this-universe performances. Thank you for making all this magic happen.
You are my wings and I am flying right now.