The willows have found Flowers of evil 😀
What better way to merge a post with my love of poetry & music with an experimental fondue such as this. If you love this track (taken from Ciani’s Lixiviation album), then you should definitely check out her debut EP (2019
I’ve never heard of Suzanne Ciani until today, & I’ve not read much about Charles Baudelaire ( the controversial French poet) who produced the famous work ‘Elevation’.
Suzanne Ciani ( musician, composer, sound engineer, record label executive who predominantly creates Avante Garde electronic music.
If you are a fan of into Boards of Canada or Aphex Twin this EP might just be what you need to hear today,.
Suzanne Ciani uses a (previously unheard) sample from one of Baudelaire’s 4th part of his Elevation works, ‘Fleurs de Mal’, in her new track.
This is the exact kind of stuff I love.out of chaos I find order ( depending on mood)
She has been compared to the legendary Serge Gainsbourg ( another musician inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s works)
The track starts with the intro of Baudelaire’s ‘ELEVATION’ Check out the English translation at the end of this post)
Baudelaires ‘Elevation’ is divided into 6 parts.
Charles was seen as a visionary and a rebel of his time. Elevation has been quoted as contributing work to the symbolism & modernist movement in the early 1900s. Charles was a part of-of the symbolist movement in France. depicting art metaphorically, using wordplay and allowing more fluidity in writing poetry.
YAY! POETRY doesn’t have to rhyme.
This opened up a new platform for free verse poets.
They wished to present an object not as it appears in reality but how it affects the senses. This is the basic technique of most successful literary works known as ‘show don’t tell’.
Baudelaire also translated many of Edgar Allan Poes English works into French.
So what do flowers represent in symbolism?
Since ancient Greek times, they have represented peace and happiness in the afterlife & of course, they are also often seen as a symbol of life & hope.
So what do the flowers of evils mean to Charles Baudelaire’s? From my Google search, He wasn’t s peaking of the feminine form. Althoug he has referred to females as a dead animal carcass (as an example). Make of that what you will…
A metaphor – Ha ha! use all your senses not just your visual ones. mmh meat .
The closest meaning could be that even in beauty there is evil or ugliness or even sorrow and pain.
Either way, I love music, experimental works of art, flowers, symbolism, spoken word, the French language & taboo subjects like Erotism and decadence. Haha!
Above the ponds, above the valleys,
Mountains, woods, clouds, and seas,
Beyond the sun, beyond the heavens,
Beyond the confines of starry spheres,
My spirit, you roam with agility,
And, like a good swimmer bracing the waves,
You soar happilythe into profound immensity
With exquisite male delight.
Fly, far away from these noxious surroundings;
And cleanse yourself in the pure air above,
And drink, the clear fire that fills lucid spaces,
As you would a pure and divine liqueur.
Behind the nuisances, and the vast chagrins
Amassing with their weight our bewildering existence,
Happy is he who can with a vigorous wing
Propel towards the luminous and serene realms;
He whose thoughts, like larks,
Free, in the morning take flight,
— Hover over life, and understand with ease
The language of flowers and silent things!
