sharing your mind

a very vivid memory from childhood: daruman lying in front of the loudspeaker, listening to songs. it was not just something he did to be entertained while doing something else, but a focused, purposeful activity. there is an amusing photograph from a time when compact discs still were something new, showing skinny daruman in this big arm-chair next to the family stereo with these huge headphones on his head like a pilot’s helmet. a good memory.
most of daruman’s favorite songs back then were from swiss or german singers and songwriters such as Mani Matter, Fritz ‘Fnitz’ Widmer and Franz Hohler, or from bands like Die Erste Allgemeine Verunsicherung. i suppose that kind of music appealed to young daruman because he could understand at least part of what the songs were about.
over time, daruman’s taste has not changed much in this respect. he has come to appreciate other elements of music, of course, like complex rhythms and harmonics in jazz music, for example, but still he finds himself captured most by the lyrics of a song. he admires the ability of certain songwriters to fit a thought or a feeling into a rhythmical and poetic frame, thus relating a whole piece of mind in a few accurate words.
sometimes I wonder if there is a greater motivation to art than the need to share our mind with the rest of the world.

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