Hi there!
You know what? Gunnar is working in a museum. Not the one which was looking for a janitor but another one which was really looking for a true guide and a curator. Meaning that my foreign husband has a more interesting job in the Center of France than when we were living in Stockholm.
Weird, isn't it?
While I read Swedish books. Unreleased. For a French publisher. I am among those people who read drafts or achieved novels and have to judge them for a specific market. Here, France. As when one watches films, there are embargos. I'm not allowed to talk, write about them or name them until they're released. So you won't read a word about them here.
Otherwise, I must inform you that I rank! Again. My professional website is on the first page of GG France. I get contacts, send offers but haven't found any serious client yet. The main problem not being my ability to rank but the lack of French credentials. Does it mean I will have to contact Scandinavian partners? We'll see...
Being occupied is nice, but not always.
We were invited to a Berry-German wedding in Berlin but won't be able to go there. That's a pity. I have known the groom since 1993 and would have enjoyed a lot going to Germany for the occasion.
And for more than a breakfast at Berlin Train Station.
The latest time we met my friend and his bride to be was during Les Rencontres de Luthiers, last year. It was too short and we are a bit ashamed to stay in Berry instead of finding a way to party in Berlin :-/
That's all folks.
If you want to keep updated with Gunnar or I, here are our main twitter accounts: @GunnarBjursell @cineaster
For those who have never heard of this project, let me sum it up shortly. Alex, the world famous PHP coder, founder, leader, bass player and howler of Lord Shades was my superior during one year.
Since we both like Scandinavian extreme music and since he appreciated Gunnar's voice a lot, he invited him to be one of the numerous guests on The rise of Meldral-Nok.
And of course, the Swedish former Tenor (who according to me sounds more like a baryton now) accepted. :-) What do you think of this?
In the photos below you can see, what we called, 'The Swedish Music Maffia', consisting of (from left to right): Bruno Andersen, Olle Gällmo, Thor Ahlgren, Johannes Geworkian Hellman, Elias Frigård and Jordi Carrasco Hjelm.
In the two photos below you see Olle Gällmo, one of the pioneers on bagpipe/cornemuse in Sweden, having popularised this, since long, almost forgotten instrument in the North. Parenthetically one can mention that he combines his musical lifewith a post as fellow-adviser to post graduate students,studying Artificial Intelligence, at Uppsala University in Sweden. He held two concerts, very well-attended both of them. In the first concert he played with Rachel Averly and it was actually the first time they played together and they had very little time to rehearse before the concert. The second concert was a solo concert (below).
He is also playing the hurdy-gurdy and according to Johannes Geworkian Hellman (who won the soloist competition at Château d'Ars) Bruno is the best hurdy-gurdy musician in Sweden. He is not at all as serious or severe as he the photo suggests. When he came here, he had lost his tent during his travels. We therefore checked the internet and found a man who sold his three-men-tent with a mattress for only 14 €! We took the car, went there and Bruno bought his tent. Below you see Thor Ahlgren. He is a bagpipe-/cornemuse-musician. He is from the southern parts of Sweden called Skåne. He came here with a tent, the first night sharing it with Bruno 'lost a tent' Andersen.I don't remember if this was the first time Thor visited the festival but he enjoyed it, as did all the other Vikings!
During the festival they all ate different specialities being served and not least 'escargot'. Bruno Andersen had earlier eaten escargot's and he displayed himself being a real gourmet and not least gorumand, buying three dozens of snails during his visit!! The others had not earlier eaten this French delicacy but they all enjoyed it. If you click on the names you will find more information concerning their musical lives and their upcoming events or concerts. Shortly we can conclude that these new acquaintances - the Swedes - where all very nice, being a very pleasant encounter. We'll hope to see them next year too.
The 14th of July, the French National Day, we awaited the arrival of the three Swedish musicians, Johannes, Elias and Jordi. They together form Garizim, a folk music fusion group.
We had planned to meet them at Châteauroux train station but as one of them (we don't say who) lost his Inter Rail-card on a train they had to go back and get it, meaning that they came in the evening, not the afternoon as we had agreed.
As Aurore and I had to work late the afternoon/evening we met them outside the castle, Château d'Ars, where the festival is held. They were lucky as the bus - during the festival - brought people just outside the area, a couple of hundred meters from the 'Château'.
This is the first time these young musicians visit this event and during the very same they would meet musicians, instrument manufacturers and dancers from all over the world, making it a very special occasion for them. Not least as this is one of the absolute biggest folk music festivals in the world.
Among the musicians they also came to meet three Swedish musicians: Olle Gällmo (bagpipe-musician, giving two concerts), Bruno Andersen (hurdy-gurdy-musician) and Thor Ahlgren (bagpipe).
In the photo below you see the backs of (from left to right): Johannes Geworkian Hellman, Jordi Carrasco Hjelm and me, Gunnar leaving our apartment (where they all stayed) heading towards the car and the castle.
Jordi Carrasco Hjelm (below left) Johannes Geworkian Hellman (below right) Elias Frigård (below in the middle)
(Photo at the top copied from: http://www.garizim.se/images/om_garizim_460px.jpg)
...is the title of a book written by the French journalist and nowadays writer Sébastien Acker, having lived and worked in Berry/Le centre for ten years.
He has always been a bibliophile and as young he read around 4-5 books per week.
When working as a journalist he became fascinated by Swedish and Scandinavian literature and specifically the crime fiction ('polar'), beginning with Sjöwall & Wahlöö.
Later on he continued to interest himself in other authors and more or less incidentally he came to write this book with the above name that - with a rough translation - means: "Much somber/darker than the shadow of your wings".
Acker today (Saturday) visited La Châtre and La Maison de la Presse in order to sign his book. The photo below (published some days later in the newspaper 'La Nouvelle République') shows Acker in the middle - of course - and my wife Aurore to the right, carrying a box of cinnamon buns, something Acker had asked for and through a 'cooperation' between Aurore and me, he was able to enjoy these Swedish delicacies. Part of the deal with the cinnamon buns was that he promised to carry the yellow shirt of the Swedish football team and below you can see that Acker also kept his part of the deal. (The text in French under the photo)
(DÉDICACE. Sébastien Acker était à la Maison de la presse, samedi matin, pour dédicacer son premier ouvrage Plus sombre que l'ombre de tes ailes aux éditions La Bouinotte. Sébastien avait tenu son pari en revêtant le maillot de foot de l'équipe suédoise ; Aurore, une Castraise, mariée à un Suédois, venue faire dédicacer son livre, avait apporté des kanelbullars, brioches suédoises à la cannelle.)
The events in the book take place both in Berry/Le Centre and Stockholm wherefore Aurore contacted Acker through Facebook, in order to talk about Swedish and Scandinavian literature and parenthetically the links between me and the implicit main character in the book - not mentioned by name - Stieg Larsson, among other things.
The book circles around Léonard, a Parisian postman (always ringing twice?) who is a huge fan of Scandinavian crime novels but also a (very) private investigator, working for noone and nothing.
When having finished the reading of a world famous Swedish crime novel (guess which one), he becomes convinced of one thing: To him it's clear that the author of this crime novel, dying before he get to see the success of his books, as a journalist threatened by the extreme right wing groups in Sweden, was murdered!
Léonard plonges into this certitude. How can it be that everyone believes that the author of this blockbuster actually died from a heart attack?
Our postman starts his first own major private investigation, flanked by Léon a disabled colleague.
To the Stockholm of Mysteries from Berry, the two men experience a surprising adventure, taking them from places like The Old Town in Stockholm to the province of George Sand, from The Blue Tower in Stockholm, where August Strindberg lived to Sainte-Sévère and Jacques Tati's 'Jour de Fête'.
Below an interview in French by Bip tv, (Berry Issoudun Première Télévision), where Acker explains a little about himself, his passion for Scandinavia and his own book.
(Photo cover copied from: http://livreaucentre.fr/files/2011/03/plus-sombre.jpg) (Photo Acker and Aurore at La Maison de La Press in La Châtre copied from: http://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/indre/LOISIRS/Livres-cd-dvd/D-233-clic19)
Johannes ate (as we could see in yesterdays blog) his breakfast with us and after this we went on a stroll around the city. As he had seen that the well known 'vielle'-designer Bernard Kerboeuf lived in La Châtre ("Does HE live hear!!!") we toke him to his house and knocked on the door. Monsieur Kerboueuf opened the door and asked us in. This was a great moment for Johannes and in the photos below we see him together with monsieur Kerboeuf, looking at and trying a 'hurdy gurdy', playing some tunes on it. The conversation between the two was held in French and 'Fredish'.
Kerboeuf: "Here you can see some of the instruments I've created and repaired" Johannes: "Wow...!"
Kerboeuf: "Do you want to try one of them?"
Johannes: "Wow (for at least the second time), can I really do that?!" Kerboeuf: "Of course, I'll help you...!"
Kerboeuf: "That's it and now you see the buttons here... You use them like this..." Johannes: "Ok, a little bit different from the ones I'm used to"
Kerboeuf:
"And now You try to play!" Johannes: "I have to adjust this button and this..." Kerboeuf: "That's it!"
Unfortunately everything has an end and we had to say goodbye to monsieur Kerboeuf, walking back to my mother-in-law, putting the bags of Johannes in to the car and head towards Châteauroux.
This is on the station just before the train arrives.
Now we know that Johannes - after having finished his concerts and recordings with his group Garizim - will return this summer for Rencontres Internationales des Luthiers et Maîtres Sonneurs... (to be continued).
