Dutch art rockers Lesoir release their brand new album Mosiac tomorrow, May 1. The band have taken time out of their busy schedule to bring Prog a definite track by track guide to the new album.
"Our lives are made up of various elements and parts; people, pets, work, our homes,:" the band tell us. "They all have a colour; a shape and they vary in size. It is up to us to make our lives into works of art, using all these parts and elements, to make the complete picture. Character and style come first, and of course that which you find beautiful and important. Are your choices random, do you like to mix it up? Or do you arrange the parts into a beautiful, recognisable image? Do you arrange them by colour? By shape, or something else? The answers may not be obvious at first. But on reflection it is you that decides for yourself the parts, the colours, the shapes and sizes.
"If we stop and think, we can identify all of these different parts in our lives. At some point on our journey we realise that we alone are responsible for assembling these parts. As time moves forward, we are getting better and better at realising what we have to do. We gradually learn the tricks of the trade, but also the rules of the game: what’s done is done, we cannot start from scratch, we start from exactly where we at this point in time, and build on these foundations, and continue to do so, the process is ever evolving."
Mosaic
Ingo Dassen and I were talking about our parents, some of them are struggling with a disease. They had so many plans when retired. He said: 'Sometimes life decides to all of a sudden shatter your work of art. You have to start over, with the same pieces, to create something else'. Our parents have to find new ways to enjoy life. By rearranging their ‘pieces’ of life, they can find a way to still make something beautiful out of the things they’ve still got and new things they find that fit them in these new situations.
Is This It?
For ten years we’ve struggled to find a home and to create a place of ourselves. We had to become halfway 30 to be able to buy a house. Both working full-time with well paid jobs. Not only we, but everyone around us seems to experience these difficulties. And the bizarre thing is, now that you have what you longed for, you instantly seem to forget how hard you worked and fought for it. And sometimes even want more than you have now, although you know how hard it is to achieve more. Not me. I’ve had my piece, now it’s time to settle down and do what I love to do. A simple life is a happy life.
The Geese
A song based on a poem I wrote about migrating geese. Every year, their route goes over our house; I find it so fascinating that these, and also other animals know when to leave, where to go to and that they each year fly across half the world! The song is, like the poem, chronologically written in time, which makes it just like a story told from a book. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the geese passing our house last year, I hope they just took a different route and above all that I am able to admire them again next year.
Measure Of Things
On Mosaic there are two protest songs. Measure Of Things is one of them. I can’t help it, I’m very engaged with everything that happens in the world, I guess I inherited that from my father who was a protest singer-songwriter in the 70s to 90s. Call it the emancipation of the not-human being. A sign of the expanding ‘circle of empathy’. The beginning of the end of the human being, seen as the measure of everything. A quote by Protagoras that already in ancient Greece was a controversial statement. But what I want to say with it, is that the thought and doings of the humans nowadays have reached an absolute maximum. It is obvious that the uprising of us went despite nature and animals. Instead of living together, with respect for our environment, we’ve killed most of it and even make it difficult for ourselves to create an everlasting place to live. It is time for a new generation that thinks and acts different than we do now.
It's Never Quiet
When I walk outside, I hear lovely sounds. I enjoy the sound of the rain, of the dog and the chickens, and children playing. Although it’s not quiet, these are comforting sounds. But these moments are becoming more and more scarce. Most of the time, you hear sounds interfering that aren’t so comforting. The wind caries the sound of the highway and above us there are always planes. Disturbing sounds that you rather don’t want to hear. Even when you are under water, you inevitably hear sounds. Sounds made by yourself. And when it is really, really quiet, it still is never quiet. Because there is always a voice or thought in your head that wants your attention.
Somebody Like You
This song is inspired by two Bosnian musicians we last time met in their hometown Srebrenica in 2018. Lesoir was doing a small tour through the Balkan, and we were invited to play at their venue called Pivnica, which was then recently opened. The two boys and best friends, one a Christian and the other a Muslim, have the mission to create and exploit a multifunctional centre in order to contribute substantially to community building in Srebrenica, the place they were born and not want to leave, like most residents did after the genocide in 1995.
Two Faces
When we were kids, we had a bit of a troubled childhood. Although we played a lot together and loved each other, we were all very different. Especially in the way we remember thing from our childhood, we are nothing alike. Now, being adults, everyone has their own struggle with all the things that happened back then, and we all cope with it differently. I am quite unaffected and kept from grief. But my major issue is that I am afraid that I, as being the oldest, haven’t seen enough of what was happening to and with others. The feeling of guilt is what strikes me the most.
