Sound of music

After a long time, I listened to Pachakuti, Andean melodies (meaning 'return of time'.). A decade ago, a group of Bolivian singers and musicians used to entertain passers by at the corner of Ahlens departmental store and the T Centralen in Stockholm. Every time I passed by, I would recognise the tunes from a distance and spend a few minutes listening to a couple of numbers. When I left Stockholm, I made a point to visit the group with their native attire and instruments to purchase the CD. As I play it now, it brings back the memories of snow, mist and Ahlens.

I have Argentine, Arab, Norwegian, Swedish, South African, Sri Lankan, Nepalese, Chinese, Turkish, Italian, and many other kinds of music. But my all-time favourite is Renee and Renato (Save your love), Bonny M (Holiy Holidays) and Koli songs, besides the Andean tunes.

I heard Renee and Renato in Venice at the end of a day in the paradise, the only birthday I remember celebrating in my life. It began with a chance encouter with a Peurto Rican beauty and an American professor, another chance encounter with my friends from Oxford, Peter and Gill, who had decided to go steady from that very day, and a closing chance encounter with a vivacious Swiss tourist who wanted me to drink the strongest coffee in the world, which would make it impossible for me to sleep. It was a day of aromatic pizzas in little lanes outside Venice, rides on vaparettoes, and tearful farewales at the Venice railway station. When I curled up in the bed that night (alone despite all chance encounters and strong coffee) and switched on the TV, Renee and Renato was playing.

Several numbers of Bonny M bring back the memories of magical moments in the Pyrenees mountains, on the border of Spain and France. It was a tiny village in Valley d'Aran where the mayor had a gift shop and the mayor's wife was asking every visiting man to dance with her very pretty daughter at the local discotheque. I had my turn. As she did not know English and I did not know Spanish, the dance movements to the tune of Bonny M numbers did the speaking.

And, of course, Koli songs, go further behind, to the days of innocence when my little place seemed to be the whole world. Those were the days when I learned to find Stockholm, Venice and Barcelona on the map.

Today as I listen to these carefully preserved CDs, I wonder if the sound of music is really about the sound of musical memories of life. Actually, once I did spent a week at the palace in Salzburg where Sound of Music (the movie) was filmed but it does not mean much too me. It was another beautiful site, a good walk around the lake in the evening and that's it. Every minute was neatly planned, as by this time I had entered my professional life. Gone were the days of chance encounters in Venice and planned encouters in a Spanish village store. And that's why Pachakuti means so much to me. It is at the corner of Ahlens that despite all my busy appointments, I often did not care and simply allowed myself to be one with the return of time.

(The accompanying picture is of Stressa. Music is less about words and instruments and more about moments.)