The Happiness Project

Nunca na minha vida tinha ouvido uma ideia tão original (presumo que a ideia, em si, não seja original, mas, sim, a concretização da mesma) a nível musical, como este álbum de estreia, a solo, de Charles Spearin (Do Make Say Think, Broken Social Scene). Basicamente, baseado nas flexões, inflexões, tons, cadências, fluências, ritmos e melodias naturais das vozes das pessoas que o rodeiam, Charles Spearin, acompanhado de alguns amigos músicos, "compôs" músicas, nas quais a voz tem um papel fundamental - e principal -, dando bastantes vezes a entender, ao longo do álbum, que estamos a ouvir alguém a cantar, ou a utilizar a fala como um instrumento propositadamente. Mas não. São só os vizinhos, a mulher, as filhas e ele, a conversar. Aconselho verdadeiramente, em particular a todos aqueles que procuram algo novo (embora alerte para o facto de o resultado final poder não agradar a todos os ouvidos... é, na verdade, um álbum conceptual bastante experimental, avant-garde, chamemos-lhe o que quisermos, de onde resultaram músicas finais bastante similares a blues, jazz, folk, sobretudo coisas deste género), a que arranjem uma forma de ouvir este álbum maravilhoso, na íntegra, inclusivamente, se assim puder ser. E termino, com as palavras do próprio Charles Spearin a propósito deste seu projecto:

"These are my neighbours. My wife and I have two little kids and live downtown Toronto. In the summertime, all the kids in the neighbourhood play outside together and everyone is out on their porch enjoying each other’s company, telling stories and sharing thoughts. A year or so ago, I began inviting some of them over to the house for a casual interview vaguely centered around the subject of happiness. In some cases we never broached the subject directly but nonetheless my friends began to call it my 'Happiness Project.' After each interview I would listen back to the recording for moments that were interesting in both meaning and melody. By meaning I mean the thoughts expressed, by melody I mean the cadence and inflection that give the voice a singsong quality. It has always been interesting to me how we use sounds to convey concepts. Normally, we don’t pay any attention to the movement of our lips and tongue, and the rising and falling of our voices as we toss our thoughts back and forth, just as we don’t pay attention to the curl and swing of the letters as we read. I wanted to see if I could blur the line between speaking and singing and write music based on these accidental melodies. So, I had some musician friends play these neighborhood melodies as close as they could on different instruments (the tenor saxophone as Mrs. Morris, the harp as Marisa, etc.) and then I arranged them as though they were songs. The result is a beautiful and unique collection of songs, blissfully blurring the lines between jazz, folk, indie rock, and inspirational improvisation."

(E, pelo menos a mim, faz-me mesmo sentir feliz, no fim de cada audição que lhe dedico.)