Happy New Year

Happy New Year! 

Bonne Année! 

(In French because of the HouseCat's French connections and family) 

Athbhliain faoi mhaise dhaoibh!

(Irish Gaelic, in honour of Raven's family)

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

(In Welsh, thanks to Raven who lived most of his life in Wales)

Bliadhna Mhath Ùr dhuibh uile!

(Scottish Gaelic  because I live in Scotland)

I celebrated the solar New Year 11 days ago -the Solstice - as I am Pagan. I hope the festive season has been good for all of you, with that covering everything between Thanksgiving and Imbolc! (More festivities to be had!) I hope you had a good time, whatever it is you celebrate, from Solstice to Christmas to Festivus to New Year. Also feel free to contribute what festive greetings are like in your native language if it isn't already here. Next Year might be a bit more diverse!

I'd like to hear about what my readers did - if you have blogged about it, link in the comments, or if not, feel free to tell me about it. 

Have a picture of me at my Dad's house, feeding my over-sized cat Kuro from the palm of my hand. I went to England for a week to visit my family and friends there, and went on a plane for the first time that I know of (I think I may have been on a plane as a baby, but I was too young to know what was going on) despite being terrified! I have conquered my fear of airports and aeroplanes! I had a quiet Christmas with my Dad, and a busy week visiting everyone I knew within in a 20 mile radius of my Dad's house, which is a LOT of people. I got mostly chocolate as festive gifts, so my New Year's resolution to eat more healthily is not starting well... 

♫ Music Showcase: Contre Jour ♫

A bilingual music blog post for a bilingual band!
Un blog musical bilingue pour un groupe bilingue!

Band Name: Contra Jour
Genre:French Coldwave, New Wave
Languages: French, English
Active: 
Origin: France
Page: http://www.contrejourband.com/

Contre Jour are a French band based in Nice. Their previous incarnation was a band called Neptune. They have had several changes in band members since then, and are currently a trio.

Contre Jour est un groupe Français basé sur Nice. Avant, ils étaient connus sous le nom Neptune. Ils ont changé leurs membres depuis lors, et sont désormais un trio.

I don't think that Contre Jour would call themselves a Goth band; to me they are a very modern styling of French Coldwave (you may have noticed that this is a genre that I particularly enjoy). From their promotional photograph, they certainly do not appear to be into Goth fashion. Their fashion choices seem mainstream, but clothes do not define. A lot of their songs are sung in English, but the songs sung in their native French are beautiful and worth listening to as music even if you don't understand French. You're reading this in English, so I presume you can understand that!

Je ne pense pas que Contre Jour s’appelleraient eux-mêmes un groupe Goth; pour moi, ils appartiennent à un style très moderne du Coldwave Français (vous aurez peut-être remarqué que c'est un genre que j'apprécie particulièrement). En jugeant par leur photo de promotion, ils ne semblent pas vraiment porter de mode Gothique. Leurs chois de mode semble assez courant, mais les vêtements ne définissent pas le style. Pas mal de leurs chansons sont en français, mais les chansons chantées en anglais sont belles, et elles aussi dignes d'être écoutées juste en tant que musique même si vous ne comprenez pas l'anglais. Vu que vous lisez cet article en français, je suppose que vous le comprenez!

To me, their music sounds like something between The Cocteau Twins, Covenant and Sisters of Mercy, with synthesisers, the type of percussion that makes me think immediately of the 1980s, high production values and eerie female vocals. Their songs are not necessarily always about darker subject matter, but enough of them are, and their sound is such that I think there will definitely be a section of the readers of this blog who will appreciate them. I think they will appeal to fans of bands like Indochine as well as the more Goth bands. 

Pour moi, leur son évoquerait un mélange entre les Cocteau Twins, Covenant et Sisters of Mercy, du a leur utilisation de synthétiseurs, le genre de percussion (qui me fait penser immédiatement aux années 80), les valeurs de production élevés et les étranges voix féminines. Leurs chansons ne parlent pas nécessairement toujours de sujets sombres, mais un bon nombre d'entre eux le sont, et leur son est tel que je pense qu'il y aura certainement une partie des lecteurs de ce blog qui les apprécieront. Je pense qu'ils vont plaire aux fans de groupes comme Indochine ainsi que les groupes plus Goth. 

I only came across them recently, listening to online radio (I think it was either Cathedral 13) and think they are brilliant. They've got a new album out this january, and unfortunately I cannot pre-order it, but hopefully I will be able to buy a copy after I next get paid. Their new album will be called PASSION/FALL and you can watch a trailer on the band's website. It looks very promising from where I am sitting. 

Je ne l'ai découvert que récemment, en écoutant la radio sur en ligne (je crois que c'était soit Cathédrale 13 ou GothVille Radio) et je trouve qu'ils sont merveilleux. Ils ont un nouvel album en vente ce Janvier, et malheureusement, je ne peux pas le commander en avance, mais j'espère que je serai en mesure d'acheter un exemplaire une fois que je reçois mon prochain salaire. Leur nouvel album sera appelé PASSION / FALL et vous pouvez regarder une bande-annonce sur leur site web. Il semble très prometteur à ce que j’ai vu.

For those decidedly interested in darker things, I think that their music video for the song 'Old Age' is both suitably Gothic in its imagery and dark in its lyric content. 'Diseased' isn't exactly cheerful, but the video of the band running around the French countryside seems a lot chirpier. 

Pour ceux qui sont décidément intéresses par tout ce qui est sombre, je pense que leur vidéo pour la chanson <<Old Age>> est à la fois suffisamment Gothique dans question images, et sombre question paroles. <<Diseased>> n'est pas vraiment la plus gaie des chansons, mais la vidéo qui montre le groupe en train de courir dans campagne française a l’air quand même assez joyeux.

Big thanks to Sarge for correcting my French translations. The next band will be from an English-speaking country, I swear. French is the limit of my modern languages, I promise not to bother you with my truly awful grasp of German (I failed it at school) if I ever showcase a German band. 

Inverness Town House

⚜ It's Friday and that means it's photo time! ⚜   

This is was the quietest moment for photographing...

The focus this week is the Town House in Inverness. I've been avoiding it for a while because it's not exactly in the quietest part of town, being at a busy intersection, off the high street, and always full of people, and I'm not exactly a 'people-person' or the sort of person that is happy standing around on the high street with a camera. That and I was considering clambering up the street furniture to get a reasonable angle.

The front of the Town House.

There's two sets of lights outside the townhouse - big cast iron things. I can't figure out if they quite fit the aesthetic. I know the chunky design is supposed to compliment, and I am sure they are purpose made, but maybe it's the fact that I know that real castles would not have had electric (or gas) lights outside the front door like that. Still, they serve a function, and they are quite fabulous in their own right, and they look far better than the brackets for the flowers. 

Turrets, tourelles, something...

The Town House in Inverness is one of those over-the top Scottish Baronial buildings - Scottish Baronial architecture being a combination of Gothic Revival extravagance and inspiration from the old Scottish defensive tower houses. Basically, it's pretending it's a castle, which is quite surprising considering it is next to the actual castle (now the Sheriff court - I had to do jury duty there) and really does not compete when it comes to size and location. The current castle in Inverness is also 19thC, built in 1836 (a year too old to be Victorian) but not quite as overtly Gothic. Inside the castle there's a good few Gothic Revival details, but on the outside it's actually rather plain with lots of rounded arched windows. Anyway, the Town House was one of those Victorian buildings where it seems no expense was spared and all architectural exuberance was permitted. It is one of those buildings designed to impress, and it does that very well indeed. 

Fancy windows.

Apparently the Highland Council run guided tours of the building twice a week, and apparently it is rather fancy inside (and has swords), but I haven't actually been in it yet. I'm hoping to go on one of the guided tours during half term, as it is a historically interesting building with a lot of items within it relating to the broader history of the city. I'm still trying to work out what the difference between a turret and a tourelle is. I think a tourelle is a specific sort of turret which has to be round, corbeled, with a conical roof and on a corner (as opposed to rectangular or starting on the flat plane of a wall.) Anybody who knows the answer to this is encouraged to elucidate me on the matter. The decorative ironwork on the roofs, and the dormer windows, show a Parisian influence. 

The top of Mercant Cross

A lot of my photographic ventures have been based in Inverness, and I think it is about time I addressed the Cathedral, seeing as I've showcased Eden Court (directly next to it) and a few other ecclesiastical buildings of various denominations already - leaving out the Cathedral, of all buildings, seems odd! I wanted to hear the Merlewood ensemble there yesterday - there was a free concert with a charity retiring collection (I think in aid of the building's restoration, not entirely sure), and I like a bit of chamber music, but unfortunately I had somehow got convinced it was tonight rather than last night. Oops. Anyway, I have been out to photograph the cathedral, but my efforts have been less than satisfactory, so far. The Cathedral shall be next week, if I haven't been to Cromarty church in the meanwhile. 

Sometimes I'm just lucky...

When out photographing things in any city, it is always a good idea to look upwards as even a lot of boring shops are part of more interesting. I originally wanted to take a photo of this Scottish Baronial style façade over a shop, then I saw the seagull and waited... 

♫ Music Showcase: Memoires D'Automne ♫

Band Name: Memoires D'Automne
Genre: French Coldwave
Language: French and English
Active: 1992 - 2000
Origin: Roanne, France
Page: On MySpace

I'm not sure how many of the people who frequent my blog are going to be familiar with what French Coldwave is, but to be very brief and vague it is a similar style to what in the UK was termed Goth, but lasted longer, starting in the latter seventies (and influenced by UK acts such as early Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division, etc.) and lasting into the mid nineties. It is not to be confused with American Coldwave, which is more related to Industrial music.

I recently found a gem while perusing reasonably obscure Coldwave bands in stumbling across Memoires D'Automne. A lot of the smaller bands don't really compete with the well known bands of the era, but with Memoires D'Automne  their music is enjoyable (although not exactly joyful!), danceable, and actually rather good. According to their MySpace page, they cite The Cure, Joy Division, Clan of Xymox and And Also the Trees as their influences. I would add a dash of Bauhaus to what they actually sound like. Lead singer Denis Régnault does not do the eerily arch singing Peter Murphy does, but does have a very lamenting and haunting voice that conveys emotion well. Making music as a small independent band in the early to mid nineties rather than the early eighties meant that Memoires D'Automne had the ability to have a relatively good production quality despite not being signed to a major label.

Memoires D'Automne are relatively late in that genre, only forming in 1992 (which is still 20 years ago!). The band originally consisted of 3 members, previously of the band "The Joy Stream" (which I can't find anything about at all, not even a passing reference!), who were drummer Hervé Becouse, bassist Sandrine Cognet and guitarist and singer Denis Régnault. They then were joined by Marc Zottos as a second guitarist and by Laurent Marcoux as a second singer. Like many small bands, they first started with local gigs, and gathered the support of a local audience. Late in 1993, Marc and Laurent left the band, reducing it back to the original 3.

They produced a demo album called 'Gloria Victis', which attracted the attention of minor independent label Alea Jacta Est. They produced two studio releases; the single "Memoires D'Automne" titled after the band rather than either of the two songs, and the studio album Cliché. 200 copies of their first two releases were made, and 500 of their last, which I think indicates well how they really were a small operation. They toured around France and parts of French-speaking Europe through the nineties. Sabrine went on to be in French Post-Punk act Naked Man. Songs by Memoires D'Automne have also appeared on various genre compilations.

My favourite songs by them are "Trauma" and "Fatalité" I haven't found all of their songs available to listen to freely and legally online, nor anywhere I can buy their work, to say I like everything they have produced, but that which I have heard I have enjoyed.

I apologise for a lack of images, but I can't find who owns the copyright on what few images of them there are to ask permission.