 I've done a video on pop and rock and a video on classical music. In this video, interesting music from outside the Anglo-Saxon culture. For those that feel like virtual travelling the world by exploring the sounds of those other countries. I love listening to music from other cultures. Think of Ravi Shankar's Indian music. Not every day, but when I'm in the mood I surely do. Shankar is already well known. I've looked for music that is less well known, depending on where you live. Since most songs are not in English, I use lyrics translated for translation. You might like to do that too, so find the link below the video in Youtube. Let's start in Belgium with the chanchaunier Jacques Breux. He was what we would now call a singer-songwriter, but he also was an actor and director. Most of his songs were in French, although he sang some songs in Dutch. Not that he spoke Dutch, he was Flemish and thus spoke French. His passionate singing, putting the bourgeoisie to shame as is ses gens-là, those guys there in English. His lyrics can be rather villainous. I should tell you, sir, that these people don't live, sir. Don't live. They cheat. Bob McEwen translated Le Morribon, the dying person, into ses ans in the sun. It became a worldwide hit, sung by Terry Jax, but it is a rather poor derivative despite the fact that the translation stayed close to the original. Breux's passionate singing with lots of dynamics and emotions is unique, although some songs like Le Vieux, the old people, are very intimate, delicate even. This album is a perfect showcase. Infiniment, indeed, infinitely, contains a wide collection of songs. Some tips. Jojo, Le Plapi, La Chanson de Jackie, La Valse Amitant, Me Ne Quitte Pas, Amsterdam, Bruxelles, actually any braille song is worth listening to. Les bigotes, Le Morribon, au suivant, you get a picture. From Valonia to France is less than an hour's drive and the language is roughly the same. There we find Michel Frugin, that in 1972 founded Le Big Bazaar, 11 musicians and 15 singers and dancers. The stage show they made had all the characteristics of the 70s music theatre. Hippy clothes, flares, vague, unrelated dance moves and the like. But musically it is done well and I love to listen to it when I'm in the mood. His most famous song is in Belle Histoire, about a guy and a girl that accidentally meet along the highway, spend some nice time together only to go each their own way again. It's not deep but very recognisable and charming, at least to me. And when we are in France we must mention Charles Navour. This singer and songwriter, of long before the term was used for a music style, wrote over a thousand songs. His parents were from Romanian descent while he was born in Paris in 1924. Already at the age of nine he sang on stage and soon sang and danced in several nightclubs. He wrote his first song in 1944. When he opened for Itty Piaf at Le Moulin Rouge, she helped him really starting his singing career. He allegedly spoke many languages, next to French, like English, Romanian, Napolitan, Kabyl, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian. Famous songs are she, the old fashioned way and yesterday when I was young, just to name some that became popular worldwide and are sung by countless artists. I also like La Bohème, Que C'est Triste Venite, Bon Anniversaire and La Mama, but actually I enjoy about any song he performed. The album mentioned here has also been released as DVD and gives a fine oversight of his over. His voice admittedly has been better, his performance still extremely strong and controlled. In the south of France, in the city of Perpignan, we find the Gypsy orchestra Calomé, meaning black in their language. Being Gypsies they feel as much French as Catalan, inhabitants of the Spanish region Catalonia, that has Barcelona as capital. Their music is a mix of Gypsy Rumba and Flamingo with added flavors of jazz and raí from North Africa. The album is called the Otro Color, which might translate to of different color and might be a reference to discrimination. But that's my interpretation. It's very lively and acoustically sounding music. Where Calomé had influences from the North African Rai music, the Algerian born Khaled is Rai. He released his first album at the age of 14. In 1986 he moved to Paris, France and became very popular among the Algerian and Moroccan immigrants. His international breakthrough came with the track Ayesha, sung in French but style wise in what I experience as Arabic poetry, although I'm no expert of course. But listen. As if I didn't exist she passed by, without even looking, Queen of Shiba. I said Ayesha, take, it's all yours. Here are the pearls, the jewelry, also the gold around your neck, the ripe fruits with honey flavor. My life Ayesha, if you love me. You find this track on the album Sarah. That is in fact Rai with modern influences to make it more palpable for the French and the rest of the world of course. The result is an album that has sufficient North African atmosphere without being alienating to first world citizens. Live back on the north side of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy this time, for a folk rock singer and songwriter that is not too well known, even in Italy he was only moderately popular. Still, I find his folky songs very charming and relaxing. Delicate sweet songs with lots of strumming noises, hand drums, violin, wind instruments and so on, reminiscent of the Renaissance and early Baroque styles. The title song of this album is still very popular with children for it's a memory game at the same time. He visits a fair and describes what happens there, starting with only one event and adding one every new verse so he ends up like this. At the eastern fair for two pennies my father bought a mouse and finally the Lord on the angel of death, on the butcher who killed the bull, who drank the water, who put out the fire, that burned the stick, that beat the dog, that bit the cat, who ate the mouse that my father bought at the market. Charming, fun and entertaining for sure. We travel to the east of Greece for a completely different genre. Mickey Steyodorakis is THE Greek composer of the previous century. He started composing music even before he could play an instrument. He studied at the Conservaty of Athens and later on in Paris where he studied music analysis under Olivier Messin and conducting under Eugene Bigot. During the Second World War he was with the Andates, the Greek partisans and after the war he was active against the colonial regime. He became forbidden to play and listen to his music. He was even imprisoned and banned from Greece during that period. Still he stayed politically active all his life. Steyodorakis wrote operas, ballets, symphonic music, songs, cantatas, oratoria and even film scores. It was the film score for the movie Zorba de Griek in 1969 that contained La Danse de Zorba that brought him a high position in the pop charge. With far more recognition he got for his songs. In my young years I played guitar in a trio and the Malthausen trilogy was on the setlist. They are songs about surviving in the Malthausen concentration camp. The music is hypnotising, the lyrics very poetic and sad. Beyond the bleak and frozen square, above the yellow line and star, no heart will ever beat again, because the beautiful have lost their way to paradise and the wise have lost their reason, braves the will to fight. No, it's not easily digested, war never is, but it's good these kinds of songs are written and performed. Let's go to pre-war Germany and end up in a rock song. In the night on 9-10 November 1938 the Nazis organised a pogrom, a riot against the Jews. Shop windows of Jewish-owned stores were smashed, as were the windows of buildings and synagogues. This night became known as the Night of Broken Glass or Kristallnacht in German, meaning Kristallnacht. It's this event the band BAP from Cologne made an impressive rock song on. The band is of my post-war generation and certainly didn't feel happy with their war legacy. The song described how the general public looked away during that night. Let's translate a verse to English. In the calm before the storm, what is this? People leaving town on the quiet. Dignitaries under cover are rushing past, they don't like to be seen being part of it. When the public opinion, always ready to go, with its anger reaching its boiling point, screaming heilalali, right up beyond any limit, crying for vengeance, trembling with envy, during Kristallnacht. Like other bands from Cologne, like Black First, Brings and Heuner, BAP sings in Kölsch, the local dialect of Cologne. I think it's safe to say that Grönemeyer is not only the most popular rock singer in Germany, he is also known for his performance in the film Das Boot. So we're back at war again, no, let's leave that behind us. The album Mensch is influenced by the passing away of both his wife and his brother in the same week. You don't wish that to anyone but it does make fine music and great lyrics. Like this first from the title song Translator to English. And it's okay, all on the way, and it's sometimes carefree and free, and man is called man because he forgets, because he suppresses, and because he gushes and steers, because he warms when he tells, and because he loves, because he lives. You miss. I own the SACD that also holds the tracks in surround mixed by Ronald Plend, who did quite a lot of surround mixes for SACD. I had the stereo tracks on the SACD ribbed to DSD. I use the Air Acoustics AX520 amplifier that powers the audio physics Scorpio loudspeakers over AudioQuest Robinhood Zero loudspeaker cables. The DA converter was a Denaflips Terminator Plus, connected to the amp over Grim Audio SQM balanced interlinks. It got its input signal over I2S from the Denaflips Gaia over an HDMI cable, while two professional 75 ohm video B&C cables were used to clock the Gaia from the Terminator Plus. The streamer is the Aurelic AirDIS G2, connected to the Gaia over AudioQuest DiamondUSB A2B cable. The RSG2 is connected to the network over the network acoustics ENO streaming system and the SOTM SNH 10G switch. After the switch the network is built up as I described in my video about my reference setup November 2020. As I said in the beginning, this is about music first, the sound quality varies. I also looked up YouTube videos of the songs, most of them are live registrations, so slightly different from the album version. To listen to those I made playlists on both Tidal and Cobus. Links in the comments below this video on YouTube. I know it's not mainstream music, let alone ear candy, but for those that want to stimulate the brain with different sounds and lyrics, it might be an interesting virtual travel. This brings us to the end of this show. As usual there will be a new video next Friday at 5 p.m. Central European Time. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. Help me reach even more people by giving this video a thumbs up or link to this video on the social media. It's much appreciated. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and lets me improve the channel further. If that makes you feel like supporting my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music.