Travels With A Donkey「騎著驢子去旅行」
S-040 Milky / Travels With A Donkey
Design: El Graphic
Tracks:
travels with a donkey
up on the moon
dima the kirgilyakh mammoth
the chess players
maisic
lovely tree
the invisible man
jackie onassis
the mouth organ
the emperor of oranges
這可不是安徒生童話，而是Siesta又一張精彩作品，
這張專輯也是英國音樂人Nick Currie在Momus之外，
與前妻Shazna以Milky為名共同完成的最新作品。
第一首歌曲，
也是專輯title—"Travels With A Donkey"，
內容的靈感是來自英國一名年輕藝術家
在南義大利小島上的生活，因為那裡沒有車子，
只有驢子可以代步；歌名則是來自愛丁堡作家
Robert Louis Stevenson
一本描述在法國南部騎驢子探險的書。
歌曲由吉他與驢子蹄聲般的節奏揭開序幕，
跟隨著輕鬆愉悅的口哨聲，便是Shazna輕柔鬆軟的歌聲
述說著旅途的種種，好像看見一名少女騎著驢子
正在南歐鄉間小徑漫遊著。
旅途當然不是時時順利，所以在第二曲"Up On The Moon"
就出現了轉折，夜色漸濃，四周不時出現奇怪的聲響，
少女該怎麼辦呢？不如就讓我們跟著Milky的安排，
邊聽邊看看故事如何發展。
「騎著驢子去旅行」，雖然不是安徒生童話，
卻也同樣精彩萬分。
MILKY: TRAVELS WITH A DONKEY
Momus and his ex-wife Shazna Nessa have made the long-awaited and first full-length album of Milky. The record was originally commissioned by Mike Alway and Shoichi Kajino for the Japanese market. In very brief, Shazna Nessa is the kind of vocalist that could make you melt in her hand like chocolate. She has contributed with her clean vocals to various If? and Reverie projects including Maria Napoleon . In this classy record it is easy to hear moments that sound like Astrud Gilberto, Jane Birkin or Claudine Longet, but no amount of influences could fully sum up her vocal silk and the quality of Momus songwriting. At times it's almost as if she is talking with you in the same room, confiding enchanting secrets and to you stories. Her fragile, thin voice remains her lasting trademark and Momus has adapted his songwriting to Shazna's timbre. Rest assured that this album will remain on high-rotate in your CD collection for many months, perhaps many years, to come. We admire you, Milky, keep up the fantastic work!
“Shazna and I recorded 'Travels With A Donkey' in New York City in January and February of 2002. We'd been talking about making this record for years, ever since we were married and living together in Paris. In the end, all that survived from the Paris Milky of 1995 was the song 'The Emperor Of Oranges' (which was recorded in London by Bid of The Monochrome Set and used in the film 'Cleopatra's Second Husband') and the song 'Jackie Onassis'. In fact, we scrapped a lot of the more fun, childish songs, like 'Mandalay Cow' and 'Estridentistas', partly because New York just after the terrorist attacks had a much darker feeling than Paris in the mid-90s, and partly because we'd grown up. Shazna was no longer a child-woman and I was in a non-pop frame of mind, getting more interested in blending electro-acoustic experiments with classic French variety songs in the style of Georges Brassens.
Despite this, the record begins with a light, happy song, the title track. It's based on the life of Martin Creed, the young British artist who lives on Alicudi, to the south of Italy. On this island there are no cars, only donkeys. (Dislike of cars seems to be a recurring theme; later there's 'The Mouth Organ', a court drama about a hit-and-run driver.) The title comes from Edinburgh author Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote a book about an expedition through the south of France with a donkey. It's also based on the meeting of Brecht and Schoenberg in Hollywood, which for me symbolises the meeting of form and content (the same split as the one between electroacoustic music and variety). The two German masters found little to talk about, until Schoenberg mentioned how he'd been educated by a clever donkey, which he observed climbing a mountain by zigzagging left and right rather than trying to walk straight up. Brecht was delighted by the peasant-like practicality of this.
'Up On The Moon', which follows, is electroacoustic in its inspiration. Many of the sounds are inspired by pioneers like Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry. I think there's also an influence from the French cult animation series from the 60s, The Shadoks.
'Dima The Kirgilyakh Mammoth' is a 'found lyric', a description I found on the internet of the discovery of a baby mammoth perfectly preserved by ice in Siberia. Maybe, subconsciously, there's an identification in my mind between Shazna, my own 'baby mammoth', and the prehistoric creature. Making a record with her so long after our marriage was like melting the ice around something cute yet ancient.
'The Chess Players' is one of my favourite songs on the record, a beautiful lyric by Shazna based on the Satyajit Ray film of the same title (Ray is Bengali like Shazna, although he came from Calcutta in India rather than Bangladesh). To me, the music and the lyrics bring out the surrealism which is never far from the strange medieval game of chess. 'Maisie' is scary, a sound poem in the style of 'Neue Horspiel', the experimental radio play style of post-war Germany. The space of this 'tone poem' really feels haunted to me.
'Lovely Tree' is a dream song. It literally came to me in a dream. I played it live in Paris when Ari, the son of Nico, was in the audience with his little son. That was nice, because I believe the song was a sort of visit from Nico, his dead mother, with words of tender love for him.
'The Invisible Man' is a song about how Shazna used to feel when she slipped away from school and family to visit me. It also has a private meaning for me. I've changed trains so many times, on the way to secret meetings in so many white rooms.”. Momus Paris, 25th August 2002
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