... is the colour

My local biocoop organic shop has put another strangely coloured cauliflower on sale. The top of the vegetable was very dark purple, nearly black, but the flesh inside and stalks were white.

I made another soup and, being colour blind, I must admit I am baffled by its colour.
Can anyone name the colour of this cauliflower soup?

Green is the colour
Pink Floyd, More (original film soundtrack), EMI UK

Allons, enfants !

After the Pink Floyd concert last January, Les Métaboles have been invited to participate in another professional recording, this time of the French national anthem, as orchestrated by Hector Berlioz in the 19th century.

So this afternoon I took all my patriotic feelings with me into the large recording studio with the chamber orchestra Les Siècles playing on romantic period instruments and a large choir. I found it quite exalting to sing my own country's national anthem in a professional setting. It is often decried as violent and bellicose, but it is still our national anthem. Berlioz has set the sixth verse as a moving a cappella section for men before the whole orchestra, tenor solo and choir join in again for the final refrain. On several instances I even found it difficult to concentrate on my singing as I was overwhelmed by the music we were singing and the words calling upon our Dear Liberty.

If the musical experience was very rich, the lunch that was provided to us was frugal: patriots are fed by their ideals... One ham-or-chicken and lettuce sandwich, a bottle of water, a slice of chocolate cake, an apple or mandarin. Staying on the patriotic side, I must admit the baguette bread of our sandwiches was excellent: crispy outside, soft and fluffy inside and with lots of healthy grains.

Rather than recommending another recording of the piece, I prefer to wait for our own recording to be published so that the young professional musicians and singers can earn part of their living from it. Instead, I suggest you listen to an iconoclastic but now classical reggae version.

Aux armes et caetera
Serge Gainsbourg, Aux armes et caetera, Mercury records

Rapateeka dôdô tah!

I have been involved in a very stimulating musical experience with Les Métaboles. We have given a concert produced by the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra which involved its brass section, a cello solist from the orchestra and our choir. This orchestra is one of the best orchestras in France so there was enormous pressure on us to deliver a satisfactory vocal performance. We could sense the high stakes as our musical director Léo Warinsky was very tense during all the rehearsals with the orchestra. We did our best to act professional.

Indeed, judging by the grey or white hair of most of the instrumentists involved, these ten gentlemen and one lady were not only among the best musicians in France, but they had been so for quite some time already.

I was extremely impressed by the clockwork precision of the brass section in playing a rythmical section that looked incredibly difficult on the musical score.

One of the composers of the piece we were giving was present and playing the piano. More pressure...

However, Ron Geesin turned out to be a charming Scotsman. He was always encouraging us, providing advice to the conductor on how the piece should sound. He was seemingly thrilled that his composition should be played and sung by such outstanding performers.

The concert was held at the Théâtre du Châtelet in central Paris. It was very impressive to be on stage in this huge italian-style musical theatre currently specializing in large-scale classical concerts and musicals productions. The concert was sold-out: over 2 000 people in the audience. Pressure, pressure, pressure...

The contemporary piece started with a synthetic and eery background. The brass instruments came in one after the other, adding tension to the musical atmosphere. Enigmatic cymbal and percussion interventions here and there. The texture of the brass became increasingly complex and dense, a climax was close...

And then the rock band crashed in! Banging drums, thumping electric bass guitar, mesmerizing keyboards, overwhelming electric guitar! We were giving "Atom heart mother" by the Pink Floyd, which Ron Geesin had first orchestrated in 1970 and extended in 2008. It is one of two examination pieces for the musical option of the 2012 French end-of-secondary-school baccalaureat exam. Our audience was composed of final-year secondary school students. The piece finishes with all instruments, rock band and choir giving their biggest sound for the final chord. The crowd went wild and we got a fullhouse standing ovation!

Despite the rock-and-roll nature of the piece, working with the Radio France Philharmonic gave this production an extremely professional turn. We had rehearsed our choir part separately before joining the orchestra. In all, we only had around three hours of rehearsal with the instrumentists in very brief sessions. We had very little opportunity to meet and socialize with the instrumentists, the conductor or composer. In a sense, I did miss the many opportunities for friendly interactions with professionals of the long rehearsal sessions I had known singing for Bangkok Opera. But it fealt great working again with professional musicians, and such outstanding ones too.

The production is due to be broadcast on national radio and national television so I hope this production will lead to other similar projects for Les Métaboles.
Atom heart mother
Pink Floyd, Atom heart mother, EMI

I'm not hungry no more

I think I have developed a certain reputation for enjoying food, preferably of good quality and in wholesome quantities.

However, this week I experienced the unpleasant feeling of not wanting to eat. My parents and I went up to the northern tip of Chile in the Andean village of Putre, altitude: 3 500 m. The weather was typical of what is called the "Bolivian winter": cold temperatures, rain and drizzle all day, all night.
Weather conditions were inhospitable and the feeling of uncomfort was made much worse by the thin air and low level of oxygen. Result: altitude sickness for my mother and me. Head throbbing, heart running wild, sleepless nights, falling asleep all day, feeling sick once in a while. Luckily we had no physical effort to make as we toured the region in a vehicle.

The only way to escape the rain was to move further up to the altiplano above 4 500 m where the sun would shine in the mornings, but of course, it made the altitude sickness worse.

We even went very high up to see the Andean volcanic peaks.













It felt strange and unpleasant to arrive at meal times and not want to eat at all, sometimes having to force myself to eat just a bit.

Luckily, by the third day my body had started to get used to the lack of oxygen and my appetite came back as the altitude sickness subsided. And then the weather cleared and the views were stunning!
Losing my appetite
Floetry

5 250 m photo: Pheck Yin Cadilhon

Over the mountain, across the sea

Here I am back in Chile for the holidays with my parents, my brother and his wife. Chile is a very narrow country: sea and mountain are not far from one another.

On one day, my brother and I hiked up the Cerro Pochoco just behind Santiago. Warning: it is not as easy as advertised. The rock is very brittle and we ended up having to use all fours to move both up and down. After two hours of climbing we were rewarded with an early lunch of sandwiches at 1 805 m altitude with a beautiful view of the Central Andes.

On the next day, my father took us to the seaside at the miniature village of Quintay. Frigid waters made it impossible to swim without a wetsuit but we enjoyed a lunch of fresh seafood at a small seaside restaurant overlooking this breathtaking view of the Pacific.


Over the mountain, across the sea
Johnnie and Joe, I'll be spinning, the J&S recordings, Ace records UK

The final straw

I have blogged on FAO's e-agriculture about a case study mingling the latest ICT with an every-day tool to ensure traceability of fresh organic asparagus all along the food chain from the most demanding rich-country supermarkets right back to the smallholder producers in Thailand.

Read more here.

As a result, I have had the honour to become a guest blogger for e-agriculture.

Final straw
REM, Around the sun, WEA

Photo: Jeff Golden

I will crumble I will crumble I will crumble

Last Sunday I hosted Brittany whom I had met and sung with in Bangkok. She stayed with me for a few days to visit Paris. Before coming she had browsed through my blog and asked whether I would cook for her the cauliflower soups I was blogging about. She also mentioned that she remembered my apple crumble from the time I baked one in Bangkok for a musical rehearsal.

I guess I went a bit silly because I decided she would get both her wishes, and more: the whole dinner was made of crumbles.

First, I served a cauliflower soup with bread and Parmigiano Reggiano crumbs on it. I must admit it did not look as good as the coloured cauliflower soups of the past few months but the biocoop only had the white variety last week.

Then came the entrée: cucumber yoghurt seasoned with the secret spices of Isabelle Pelissolo and crushed cereals on top. Refreshing.











The main dish was a beshamel sauce fennel crumble.

Usual salad and cheese to pass time and help finish the wine.

And finally, the long-awaited apple crumble, which I thaught Brittany how to bake.

We had a great time reminiscing our musical and food experiences from Bangkok while enjoying the food. The silliness was contagious: we both took photos of each course as they appeared on the table.

To know what Brittany thought of the crumble experience, read here.

I will crumble
Mike Vogel, Wuthering heights original soundtrack, MTV