I'm pretty busy with work at the minute so I can't do clues but in all honesty, I'd have been amazed if anyone would've got this as it's probably not a well known album or artist!
As I've said a few times now, my musical tastes change with the seasons. In winter, I prefer something a bit slower, bit more 'raw', folky or bluesy and when summer comes around I'm more into upbeat dancey/indie stuff again. It's something I've noticed I do for quite a while now and of course I have some albums that I can listen to anytime of the year, there's definitely some music that I prefer at certain times of the year. There are albums on here that I will have scored higher/lower just because of the season!
Anyway, this album is one of those that I discovered quite recently (2022 I think) on Spotify. It just came on after I'd finished listening to an album/playlist, but it really caught my ear and I went off to find the album. Of course, looking at an album on Spotify is very different to looking at vinyl or a CD but I loved the artwork, title of the album and the track names. I played it a few times and pretty soon it became a firm favourite and is a 'start of Spring or Summer' album I will go to again and again.
The album is People On Sunday by Domenique Dumont.
I'm not sure if I can describe this album as ambient (I don't think it is), electronica (it's hard to tell) or what really.
You might be thinking that ambient music is my favourite genre seeing as I've nominated Planetary Unfolding and Air before but it's not. This is very likely to be the last ambient album I nominate as most of my favourite albums are from the 60s/70s. However, I love ambient music and it's a genre that's really grown on me in recent years.
I love just being able to put it on and know that I can just dip in and out. It's .always subtle - you have to listen to find the beauty much of the time but when you find it, it's probably as good as any written word, if not more so. I think classical music is very similar in this respect but of course it's more 'obvious' for want of a better word. I've said before that words get in the way with some music and I sometimes like to have no words as you have to listen more to what is being said in the notes!
I love it that it can be nothing and everything at the same time. It can help you concentrate, provide a backing track to a dinner party, help you think, meditate, be still or just be something to listen to in a similar way you might do with classical music. As I have said many times before, the lack of words is something I love because it allows you to interpret the music and 'fill in the blanks' so to speak.
Anyway, it was a good few months after I discovered the album that I found out it was actually a soundtrack to a silent film of the same name. It was filmed on Sundays in Germany in 1929 and I've actually watched the film with the soundtrack and it's really quite poignant. I'm going to keep the album separate to the film, but the track 'Sunshine in 1929' does give you a hint of what it's about. It's that idea that in the summer of 1929, people were doing very ordinary things on Sundays just as we do - fall in love, go for a coffee, bicker, walk in the park etc. However, for me it's the context that they were unaware of what was coming - the Great Depression and ultimately World War II. I am not quite sure how many words you would need to convey that sense of portence.
What I love about this album is that it's joyful, playful and completely optimistic. It sounds like the first flowers of spring coming up. Spring is definitely in the air, the suns out, the trees are waking and young lovers are about in cafes, walking in parks and doing the things young lovers do.
This isn't an album really where you can pick out tracks as such, it's one to listen to from start to finish I think.
Each track is both similar but tells a different part of a story in my view.
'Arrival' feels like that first morning in May when you wake up and know it's going to be warm. After months of shit weather, summers coming and that feeling of warmth, the sound of animals and birds waking up and trees moving feels like this track to me.
'Gone for a wander' just makes me think of them lockdown days of just walking a couple of minutes to the fields near my house where you can walk for miles surrounded by trees, grasses and the like. Me, the wife and our son in nature and that feeling of love and togetherness we had.
'Sunshine in 1929' again just makes me think of the early days of romance with the wife, giggling, laughing and falling in love. It's playful, dainty and just catchy.
I could go on for each track, this is my taking from it and yours will almost certainly be very different simply because there's no words. It's about the 'mood' you make and take from it.
I really hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I do!