Torben Asp at Yard Club Ethereal

The Yard Club is Torben’s own place, and in the ethereal part of it you get rocketed out into space. It is fantastic and very beautiful. Stars, planets, spaceships and satellites are glowing in the dark space
Torben is very special to me. Heat was the first one I listened to, when I started to listen to live music in Second Life. He calls himself Torben Asp now, but in the old days he was ”Heat”. He is also my fellow country man, and it is nice to be able to speak my native tongue – danish – with him in Second Life.
I went to listen to his music together with my friend Fyrm Fouroux. This evening was a rather quiet one compaired to the usual ones. A lot of people have like me grown attached to the ethereal, dreamy but also rhytmic tunes, that Torben creates.
The music he plays is electronic, and he says himself that he is inspired by Jean Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk, Vivaldi and many more. I can certainly hear that he is influenced by Jean Michel Jarre, but I have to say - I prefer Torben to Jarre.
He started out with ” Ice cave”, where you can almost feel the icicles on the instruments and continued with ”Dance of the sirens”. The sirens lure the sailors onto the rocks with their beautiful singing. The sailors go to party with the sirens, and of course they end up dead. All that is expressed in this song if you listen carefully. ”Last bus” with the sound of the bus starting and stopping came next. Fyrm loves that one, and he often gets to collect the fare for the bus:). And Fyrm was the inspiration for the next tune ”Take away”. He once made a synth experiment with the lyrics: ”She blamed it on the Peking duck”, and Torben was inspired to do this chinese sounding tune, which made Fyrm hungry. Usually Fyrm’s food songs make other people hungry. This time he had a little of his own medicine:)
Next came ”Whistler in the sewer” about the people working in the sewers followed by ”Touching souls”. Torben wrote that for his partner Jess Oranos. It is a beautiful love song and one of my favourites. He ended the gig by playing ”Prayer for life” and ”Daydreamer”. ”Prayer for life” he dedicated to Mother Earth, an appeal to take good care of her. It starts with a spacey, creeking sound, and I always imagine it is the sound of the infinite space where our little lonely planet belongs.
Listening to Torben’s music puts pictures like that in your head. I listen to him in Second Life but I often have him in my ears when I wander the streets of Copenhagen too. I have to listen to his music often.

Djai Skjellerup at Benzaiten Gallery

Damn I forgot to take a pic! Oh well – I will write about Djai and his music anyway (and I ended up googling a picture of Djai)
This evening he was playing at an opening of an art exhibition at the Benzaiten Gallery. Cestra Segall, Iam Yumako and Crow Vultee were displaying their art. We didn’t see much of it though, because there were so many people there, and it was very laggy. The part I did see made me wanna come back later to take a closer view.
Djai is a singer and pianist from the South West of England. He is one of my favourite musicians in Second Life, and I listen to him as often as I can.
This evening he started out with the rather quiet ”Waiting for you” Then came the more up tempo song about the american author Jack Keruoac. He sang ”Hidden depths” and ”Making me feel I belong”, where the chorus line makes people type ”Doo do Doo” like crazy.”While you wait” he introduced with a sweet little story about his son waiting for an ice cream, and he said: ”In this life it’s not what you are waiting for, but what you do while you wait”. Very true words! He continued with ”Stars shine more”, ”Cotton tree” about FannyAnn Eddy, who fought for the human rights of lesbians and gays in Sierra Leone. He ended the gig with ”Work it out”, a sad song called ”smile” and finally ”Suffer”
My friend said to me that Djai this evening was slightly more serious and reflective than usual in his way of introducing the songs, and I think that was true. He is very good at connecting with his audience, making them take part, and he is not reticent to share details of his first life. In fact I think that that is a very important skill for a musician in Second Life to have. Well more or less for musicians in first life too I guess.
Apart from his entertainment skills Djai is a brilliant pianist and a good singer. His songs are original, melodious and often make you reflect on life. They makes you wanna dance and sing along too. If you haven’t been to one of Djai’s shows you definitely should. I am sure you will end up coming back again and again.

Kourosh Eusebio at Nitida Ridge

For me 3 AM (5 o’clock in the afternoon european time) is the time for listening to Kourosh Eusebio at Nitida Ridge. Nitida Ridge is run by Bree Birke and makes wonderful surroundings for the dreamy, meditative music of Kourosh. I am not the only one having that time as a weekly landmark. There is always a lot of people there, and I recognize and say hello to a lot of regular fans week after week.
Kourosh says on his webpage about music: ”Music is the channeling of a form of Nature. A musician attempts to create a certain abstract space. Within and of that space, there is Nature.” When you listen to this music it is easy to understand what he is talking about.
His instruments are piano and synthesizer, and his compositions are dreamy, poetic, often building up to a powerful crescendo. Always with new improvisations. He plays covers too. This Saturday he played George Harrison’s “Here comes the sun”. It is a beautiful song and in Kourosh’s hands it becomes even more so. He ended the gig playing “Twinkle, twinkle little star”. Wonderful and very original.
Kourosh Eusebio is in a league of his own in Second life music.

Soundcircel Flanagan at the Vibe

If you haven't heard Sound before you are in for a treat. Monday evening I went to his gig at the Vibe. The Vibe is run very well by Bratt Lunasea, and I always love to come there. Well - Sound cannot sing, but his guitar sure can. He plays his guitar to backing tracks, that he makes himself. They are amazing, and when he adds his guitar ...Well you have to come and listen to him.
He started out with Barry Manilow’s Mandy and continued with ”A little bit of green”, that he composed after having watched river dance on tv. Fyrm had to go home to get his green wellies for that one. There was a really nice crowd at the Vibe: Roni, his blue haired manager, Cher, Sin, Lara, Fifi, Bratt of course, Nya and some more that I didn’t know.
He played Gary Moore, Queen – great tunes and in Sounds hands they were lifted to a new level of melodiousness. His big idols are Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, and he saved them to the end of the gig. I have heard Steve Vai in first life, when he was a guest at a Dweezil Zappa concert, and I do think that Sound can compete with him, when it comes to handling a guitar. It feels like man and guitar becomes one. It is fantastic!
And oh –I forgot to mention Sound’s laughter. He laughs a lot, and he has a sweet, charming laughter too. And he has a dog called Summer, who sometimes snores during his gigs. Sound’s gigs are amazing mixtures of sounds.

Fyrm Fouroux at Cascadia Harmonics

Fyrm Fouroux has a gig every Sunday at Cascadia Harmonics, and I have been there most of the times. Normally Woodstock Burleigh is hosting. He is also called Woody or Woodipedia. The last because he is a virtual wikipedia. He is a master of finding things on the internet. Ticious Trottier was hosting this Sunday though, because Woody was at the SL get-together in Montreal. She has made Fyrm's tipjar – a red english postbox, that he is very fond of. Fyrm started by playing some of his own songs. One of the songs he played was actually ”Postboxes”. It is a kind of sad song about how the red english postboxes will be gone in a few years, because we all use email now instead of snail mail. His lyrics are always telling an interesting story. I simply love them, and I also love his classical trained bass-baritone voice and his in my view brilliant guitar play. He continued with a cover –"Love hurts". One of my favourites. Nowadays his gigs are split into two. First a guitar section and then a section with digital piano and synthesizer. This evening he played ”I don’t like Mondays” on digital piano. It is originally sung by Bob Geldorf and The Boomtown Rats. He continued with the Metallica song "Nothing else matters". In my opinion his deep voice is perfect for that song. Recently Fyrm has also started singing "Wicked game" – originally sung by Chris Isaak. He sings it very beautiful, and it lets you experience the full range of his voice I think. He is always experimenting, trying new things, and I think that's brilliant. He is not afraid of making mistakes, and that makes you relax – and laugh when an occasional "shit" escapes him. In the end he played ”Save the last dance for me”. Yes Fyrm –save the last dance for me :)

Saturday evening in Second Life listening to Nad Gough, Djai Skjellerup and Strum Diesel

Yesterday we went to listen to Nad Gough at the swamp. Fyrm always wears his green wellies when we go to gigs there. I must have listened to Nad at least a hundred times, but I need a Nad fix regularly. That is just how it is. His arrangements are catchy and intelligent, and I love his voice. Somehow he reminds me of the danish jazz singer and trobadour Povl Dissing. When he first started his career people either loved him or hated him. His hoarse and theatrical way of treating danish folk songs offended a lot of people, but nowadays I think he is loved by most.
Anyway – in some strange way Nad reminds me of him, and the atmosphere at his gigs are always friendly and cosy. His manager Jody Perkins adds to the atmosphere with her spectacular particle shows.
Later in the evening we went to listen to Djai Skjellerup. He was playing at Nirvana Beach.They did something they called ”originals day”. Djai is a piano player and a very brilliant one, and his songs are wonderful and indeed very original. He is good at getting the attention of the audience. He makes people sing along in so far as it is possible in chat. Somehow it works. I definitely want to tell more about Djai’s music later on.
Last gig of the evening was Strum Diesel’s. He was also playing originals at Nirvana Beach, and I must say I was blown away. That man can handle an acoustic guitar. He is not using a loop machine or anything. He just plays with incredibly fast fingers, and it sounds awesome. I didn’t catch a lot of the lyrics of his songs. I am danish, and although I speak english rather well I think I often have to listen more than once to understand english lyrics fully. He said something interesting though. He also plays gigs in his first life, but he said that he found it more satisfying to play in second life because people there really listened. They were not so occupied with other things besides listening to the music. He also emphasized that he didn’t say ’real life’ but ’first life’. Both first and second lives are real. I so agree with him. I am definitely going to catch a Strum Diesel gig soon again.

Jed Tharnaby at Guthries Folk Club

Fyrm and I went to listen to Jed. I had tried to catch him the evening before, but the manager didn’t show up, so he had no stream. That’s so annoying when that happens.
Anyway – we went to Guthries Folk Club. There was no sound although it was nearly 10 min. past the hour. Eventually it was sorted out though and Jed played his first song – a song I like a lot:”Last thing on my mind” by Tom Paxton.
I quite liked his version although I must say I love Fyrm’s the most. Russell Eponym sings a very nice version too.
Jed plays a steel strung acoustic guitar and has Bob Dylan, Donovan and several others in his repertoire. It is when he sings Johnny Cash that his gig really takes off though in my opinion. His voice is very well suited for his songs. I would say that he is more of a country and western singer than a singer in the english folk tradition, although he comes from Birmingham apparently.
At some point he even played a mandolin. It sounded very good I think. I would like to hear more of that.
There was a nice crowd at about 12-15 people at Guthries and they seemed to get into the music. It was a nice experience to be there and to listen to Jed.