The More You Live, The More You Love

After the official release of the MTV unplugged shows of October 2015 on the album Unter Dampf, Ohne Strom in November 2015, Der Graf surprised his fans earlier this year with the last live album Danke! Ein letztes Mal - Live!, which was only available for a special price during the 2016 farewell concerts. Like all other artist der Graf wrote much more songs for Gipfelstürmer, then he was able to fit on the album. Somehow I had expected they would show up on the physical cd single versions of the Gipfelstürmer era singles. But they didn't. Einer von Millionen was presented during the first leg of the 2015/2016 farewell concerts (and is on the album Danke! ein letstes Mal). When Unheilig opened their second leg of farewell concerts in Mai 2016 they presented the new songs Auf ein letztes Mal and Mein Leben ist die Freiheit. And finally weeks before the final concert at Cologne the word came out that on the fourth of november a last, and ninth, studio album would see the ligh...

Tonight I was at the boerderij in Zoetermeer to see ABC. The Lexicon Of Love is still a great debut album I listen to now and then. the band had attracked a sold out venue. The support Model Depose, from Groningen, opened the evening with an half hour set featuring songs from their debut album Splitting Light. A great album featuring an 80s mix of sounds from bands like Ultravox, This Mortal Coil and a male vocalist which is a crossover of Mark Almond and Alison Moyet. I bought the album straight after the show and listened to it in car on the way back home. ABC turned out to be a trip down memorylane, Although the band played some new songs from the earlier this year released  Lexicon Of Love Part II. Somehow the new songs fitted in much better than listening to them on the new studio album. The sound was superb and so tight, and Martin Fry's vocals are still so strong and recognizable, This for sure was one of the best concerts I visited this year. Setlist: When Sm...

Six years ago as a joke I compiled a compilation filled with songs containing Winter in the title. It was just for fun, since I like the season, especially when there is snow and ice involved. When we're able to skate on the lakes and rivers. This year I visited Switzerland in February. Spent some days in Bern and visited the Kander Valley, my favourite Swiss location for the summer holidays. In Bern there was no snow but as soon as we drove towards the Kander Valley, the snow dominated the landscape. And when we came out off the tunnel, that connects Spiez with the Kander Valley, we arrived in a white world, while snow was still falling. We parked our car in the center of Kandersteg and walked for hours through the snow. Familiar places look much different when there is a white carpet spread over it. It made a great impression on me, and is a memory that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. It was not only for the snow we went there. We also visited the Unhe...

This year was a very low blog year. To be precise no entries up till now. And I'll end with my top ten album list, which will be featured in the upcoming issue of iO Pages. 01. Big Big Train - Folklore 02. Multi Story - Crimson Stone 03. Unheilig - Von Mensch zu Mensch 04. Silver Key - The Screams Empire 05. Lee Abraham - The Seasons Turn 06. Steve Jansen - Tender Extinction 07. Tony Patterson- Equations Of Meaning 08. Drifting Sun - Safe Asylum 09. Cosmograf - The Unreasonable Silence 10. Jadis - No Fear Of Looking Down So hopefully 2017 will bring a more structured way of writing again.