leo gillespie
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Hello everyone..Here is a kind of cocktail of songs I've recorded over the past few years, here and there, whenever I was with friends who happened to have any kind of recording device where I could get these songs out of my head before I forgot their structure.Some of it is autobiographical some is just words decorated with sounds and others are just observations that I noted on my travels and tried to turn into a story. The Dice was recorded at KK's place in Reykjavik and we just tried to implant some kind of rollin' dice sounds to help the words along.KK's bottle neck slide I think adds as much poetry as the text,and it was a pleasurable production on a windy day in Iceland. This world has wonder ,this world has beauty,it has it's balance in it's place amongst the stars. Just another sun going down was done at Grappling studio in Timmele,Sweden.Those participating are Gunnar Karlberg-percussion,bass and guitar solo..Dermot O'Connor and Juliane Zeiren-backing vocals and me on the voice. Travellin' is so easy,dreamin' is for free,let your body take your mind where you want to be.. Elementary Angel was recorded in Reykjavik,Iceland at Vardis garage studio,with Dan Cassidy on the fiddle,Vardi on guitar,Vardis dad on the bass and me singing. I watch her every movement,I hear her every song,I know where she's going,where she's coming from.. Shadows on the boulevard I did in Finland for an experimental cd with some Finnish musicians (Intransit) who did their own arrangments and production on my humble songs, a couple of the tracks actually came out o.k but most were a bit over cooked for my taste.Shadows is a story of my times in Paris in the 60's. Live recording. Monsoon Rain was a David Skunk production in Denmark,was live and is a little of the story of my friend Dara in Cambodia during the Pol Phot days. The exodus from Phnom Phen . Like the beat of a drum on the tin roof above..could hardly hear ourselves a-talkin'. Live recording. . Devil Inside,is I suppose my autobiography,and I'm still living it.Was done in Reykjavik with my great friend KK spinning his magic all the way through the landscape of the Pyrenees. Each time I reach what 'm looking for,that demon inside just slams the door,throws me out on the road and then,starts me looking all over again . and .
The same old dance is about the warp in evolution which which keeps repeating itself,and each time it shows its face it seems to be more confident of success...and we all say it can never happen again.Live recording by Dave"skunk"Ochoa in Denmark.
Passing through a peaceful little village in Northern France a few years ago,I sat and pondered the two world wars that had totally ravished this idealic place and the total obscenity of all those young men who died.....A long way from Home.
These are mainly home recordings done with my good friends,not technically perfect....just looking for atmosphere to decorate the words with.Thanks for lending your ear....luv,leo.
PORTRAIT D'UN SINGULIER BALADIN
La nuit est tombée sur la rue Mouffetard, un soir glacé d'hiver.
Trouvère hiératique sous un improbable béret écossais, il cale sa guitare, vous toise un moment, se recueille mains jointes.
Et soudain une voix surgit, puissante : une basse profonde, rugueuse, à la fois chaude, rocailleuse et grave, qui transporte des paysages, des rencontres, des nostalgies, des féeries.
Oiseau solitaire, tapi dans la nuit au bord des villes, Leo Gillespie a buriné sa peau au soleil de toutes les routes, d'Oslo à Phnom Penh, sous les blizzards d'Islande ou la mousson d'Asie.
Il a écouté la plainte, venue du fond des âges, de mille coins de rues, d'un village du Cambodge ou d'un chemin des Pyrénées.
Le chanteur-baladin en a nourri ses chansons : des poèmes forgés à la main, incrustés d'images cueillies comme des fruits amers et délicieux sur l'arbre du bien et du mal.
Si les ballades qu'il égrène ont des accents de blues, c'est qu'elles viennent d'un c--ur vagabond ... avec son diable aux trousses.
Pas nécessaire d'être Khmer ni Lapon pour en sentir la déchirure. Pas besoin non plus de savoir si elles ont croisé les ombres géantes de Dylan ou de Léonard Cohen.
Leo, qui a quitté en 1965 les brumes britanniques, aime retrouver ses amis lors de ses passages dans les villes endormies où rôdent aussi des fantômes qu'il a connus. Et il a le sourire complice sous la moustache drue quand passent les enfants des mondes qu'il a rêvé au loin, sans vous.
Michel Ducoin
21/05/2007
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