Friday, July 04, 2008

On Stage - Carl Johan Vallgren & The Midnight Orchestra

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As I've mentioned a bit here a bit there, Swedish author Carl Johan Vallgren is one of my definite favourite word equlibrists. Ah, he has such a wonderful imagination and has a skillful, amazing way with words. If you haven't read the truly remarkable novel Den vidunderliga kärlekens historia or as it's translated to in English The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-reading Monster Hercules Barefoot, His Wonderful Love and Terrible Hatred - I implore you to! Now.

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As far as I'm concerned Vallgren falls in to the snazzy dresser, cool dandy dude category - and very obviously he has the gift of verbiage to match. And not only that, he plays music too. Singer/songwriter style. Admittedly I have been concentrating on his words in books and not when teamed up with music. And for reason this and that I haven't been to any of his concerts.

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That is, until yesterday. Up on the rooftop of Kulturhuset - The Cultural House, once home to the Swedish government, now a melting pot of various exhibitions, cultural events, theatre, concerts, workshops, restaurants, reading rooms and so forth - with a smashing view over Stockholm city on a hot sunny evening, it was a really very enjoyable event. Indeed.

I love those kind of unpretentious, homely, like-meeting-an-old-friend kind of concerts - as opposed to the gigantic-arena-lazer-show-extravaganza events, which rarely give me as much pleasure as the smaller dos.

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First out was guest-artist Ola Sahlén, sporting yellow pants and shiny red shoes. A bit of singing and playing the piano, but I got the distinct impression, most of all melting away in the sun. Taking the worst heat off CJV and his Midnight Orchestra, one might say.

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Music, words, humour, wisdom, wittiness and food for thought under a benevolent summer evening sky in the heart of Stockholm. Somehow one can't wish for much more than that.
For some more pictures from that evening, have a peek at Flickr

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a nice concert. The complete title of The Horrific Sufferings is certainly a mouthful. LOL! Good to know that it's a good read. I'll keep my eyes open for the book.

Paz

Pia K said...

Oh yes, do that, it's just so wonderfully written and hopefully they've made a good translation of it!

Another really good Swedish book with a clever plot is "Caipirinha with Death" by Maria Ernestam. That's another tip:)

Anonymous said...

Thank you! I'll make note of it.

Paz

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