Ein Song über verpasste Chancen und die Einsicht, dass sich manche Gelegenheiten nur einmal im Leben ergeben. "Eine Andermal" ist meiner verstorbenen Chorleiterin gewidmet.

Ein Andermal

Third and final single from the upcoming album 'Night Sequences 3'. Out August 5, 2022 on Bandcamp!

ANNOUNCEMENT: NIGHT SEQUENCES 3

„3“ seems to be always the hardest. For every Return of the King, there’s a Godfather Part III. How make things work a third time while trying something new? It took me a while to figure it out, but I think NIGHT SEQUENCES 3 became the perfect continuation of the NIGHT SEQUENCES saga. A very melodic, complex, atmospheric and groove-driven record - not only inspired by the sound of the 70s and 80s, but the 90s as well.

Featuring the lead-singles “The Rats Are Out Tonight”, “Do You Remember the Synthwave Days” and “Coming To Terms With Who You Are (And Then Forget About It In Five Seconds)” as well as new collaborative works with The Astral Stereo Project on the track “Meet Me At The Station Past The Steel Rails” and Full Eclipse on “Our Church Is The City And The Prayers Burn Bright”.

With “What’s On The Air This Christmas Tonight” I’ll bless you with my first and probably last synthwave-ish Christmas banger.
NIGHT SEQUENCES 3 will be released on August 5, 2022 at Bandcamp and later on all major streaming platforms.

Tracklist:
1. The Rats Are Out Tonight
2. When The Mirror Image Has Stopped Yelling At You
3. Magic, Mysteries And A One-Way-Ticket Into The Midnight Hour
4. Coming To Terms With Who You Are (And Then Forget About It In Five Seconds)
5. Our Church Is The City And The Prayers Burn Bright (feat. Full Eclipse)
6. What’s On The Air This Christmas Tonight
7. A Tense Quiet Moment Before The Thunderstorm Breaks Loose
8. Do You Remember The Synthwave Days
9. Meet Me At The Station Past The Steel Rails (feat. The Astral Stereo Project)
10. Time Spent In The Kitchen

europaweiteaussichten.bandcamp.com

Coming To Terms With Who You Are (And Then Forget About It In Five Seconds)

So this is the standalone, final (kind of) version of my tune "The Third Secret". Full of changes, quiet moods alternating with more intense, dramatic moments, a little world to discover, "The Third Secret" is nothing else than the third song that I wrote in less than one month, between November and December 2022. That's the secret. However, I will spin a story to be sung in the future lyrics to the song, which will in some way with the theme of a third secret (and maybe also the other two, at that point).

I am very much honored to have gotten permission for the use of one of the fantastic paintings of my friend Sonja Streck, a German-Swiss lady who emigrated to Sicily and who is among the most "ardent" fans of my music. In harmony with the theme of the song, it is a triptych that shows mysterious features, resembling landscapes and/or plants or persons --- three secrets, indeed!

Year Of Fire

The Third Secret

A song about a lost friendship

Standing in the fire 
by Lilli A. 

You were like a shadow
that followed me in the sun.
But when I stood in darkness,
Somehow you always were gone.

It hurts to let it go
like you did long time ago
when you dragged my name through muck and mire.
 
I'm standing in the fire. 
I am burning (inside)
and you’ve inflamed 
my pain.

I'm standing in the fire 
that you lit.
I’ve had enough of it it!
I quit (and I’ll walk away).
 
We were never right for each other.
I’ve learned the hard way, of course.
I blame myself for expecting too much.
My mind is trying to understand yours.

It's good to let it go.
Should've done so long time ago
when you dragged my name through muck and mire.

I'm standing in the fire. 
I am burning (inside)
and you’ve inflamed 
my pain.

I'm standing in the fire 
that you lit.
I’ve had enough of it it!
I quit.

I know they say never say never,
I just don’t see us together.
I don’t wanna see your face again
cause you are no longer my friend.
nana na naa na naa na na na
nana na naa na naa na na na.
I don’t wanna see your face again
cause you are no longer my friend.

I'm standing in the fire 
I'm standing in the fire 
I'm standing in the fire 
that you’ve inflamed.

I'm standing in the fire 
I'm standing in the fire 
I'm standing in the fire.

Standing In The Fire

Here is the entire "Dance Of The Volcanoes Suite", all three parts in one, which makes this a different listen. 

And I am very honored to have received another piece of artwork from a friend as title image: the Sicilian volcanoes Etna, Vulcano and Stromboli dancing together, with dormant Vesuvio sleeping in the foreground. The artist is my friend Grazia Musumeci (aka Grazia Emme). Grazia is known in the Etna area for her "Vulcomics", little comic strips depicting the "human side" of the Sicilian (and Italian) volcanoes, which have become rather popular over the years.

Grazia produced this image while listening to the music of "Dance Of The Volcanoes", which my family and I chose from no less than four images of dancing volcanoes made by Grazia!

Don't miss visiting her "Vulcomics" blog: https://vulcomics.blogspot.com/

Dance Of The Volcanoes

In the spring of 2002, my first marriage fell apart after only five years, and my illusion of the perfect relationship with the girl of my dreams was blown to smithereens. One of the reasons for the failure of the marriage was my sort of stubbornness in pursuing my stuttering career as a volcanologist. This brought considerable financial hardship and insecurity, and so I accepted to accompany groups of hikers, mainly from France, on one-week-long cruises in the Aeolian Islands, north of Sicily. Many of the hiking tours went from island to island on a magnificent sailship, the "Sigismondo", under the command of Capitan Felice.

If I remember correctly, only one of the about 10 tours I did on the "Sigismondo" in that period, was not haunted by at least one day of stormy, rainy weather. There were thus many moments of melancholy under a gloomy, gray sky, where my mind went into collision course with itself, between immense frustration and sadness, and a spirit of curiosity, waiting to explore the unknown, virgin new period of my life that had opened with the demise of my first marriage.

I've already told the story of how that young lady Catherine suddenly burst into my life during one of the later tours with the "Sigismondo", in early September 2002, and things changed in a way I had not been able to anticipate the least. The season had started with despair and the implosion of what had seemed a dream of a marriage; it ended with a new love that would turn out the most important of my life, and with a dramatic, destructive and disruptive eruption of Etna, which brought a lot of nuisance, anger and renewed frustration and nearly drove me away from my acquired home, Sicily.

This is the geographic and emotional setting in which "Tears In Paradise" was born. After carrying the melody in my head for 18 years, I finally recorded the tune in August-September 2020 and published it here on Soundcloud, but was not really satisfied with that version. It took me another four-and-a-half years to create a considerably improved version of the music, especially for the sax sound at the end. So here it is, complete with a nylon guitar track mimicking the melody that, hopefully, one day will be sung by a singer with a good voice. 

If you like to listen to a "karaoke" version of this song, here's the link:
https://soundcloud.com/boris-behncke/tears-in-paradise

The title photo was taken during one of the tours on the "Sigismondo" in the summer of 2002, while sailing toward the island of Stromboli, seen in the background.

Tears In Paradise (2025 version)

Sicily is a land of fire - the fires of its volcanoes, Stromboli and Etna, but also frequent wildfires, which especially during the summer ravage the dry vegetation and are in most cases human-made fires. After the particularly bad summer of 2017 - in terms of wildfires - I had the idea of "Summer On Fire", which I started creating and editing using the Hydrogen software. However, I soon got stuck without knowing where to go with the tune, and it took several years until I had a reasonably complete version in early 2020. This version is a completely re-recorded and re-edited version created with Studio One in early summer 2025.

During the particularly hot summer of 2023, hundreds of wildfires burned their paths through large areas of Sicily, including several of the scoria cones formed by eruptions on the slopes of Etna. The large cone of Monti Rossi near Nicolosi on the south flank of the volcano was severely hit, with a major portion of its pine forest devastated by the flames, as seen in the title photograph taken on 25 July 2023, when scorching heat and strong wind fanned the flames at record speed across the land. Fires broke out in numerous locations simultaneously, clearly indicating that the cause was arson.

As of early July 2025, Sicily has so far been spared from major wildfires, but the season is just starting as I am posting this tune, and there are concerns that like in many previous years, fires will take their toll in the vulnerable vegetation weakened by long drought. 

Summer On Fire

This melody came into my mind during my first voyage on an Italian hydrofoil, going from the volcanic island of Stromboli to the nearby island of Lipari (also volcanic but less active) in September 1989. "Aliscafo x Lipari" actually means "Hydrofoil to Lipari". Since then, each time I travel on hydrofoil to revisit the charming Aeolian Islands, this music is with me.

This is the completely re-recorded and re-edited version of the tune, which I uploaded on 20 November 2021. In my humble opinion it sounds a thousand times better than the earlier versions.

Photo was taken during a trip by hydrofoil from Stromboli (seen in the distance at left) to Lipari, in late March 1990, during my second visit to the Italian volcanic areas.

Hazards

Aliscafo x Lipari

For years I have been waiting for that magical idea for a tune describing the many years of discovering my home volcano, Mount Etna. This is as close as I have come thus far: an instrumental voyage lasting more than 8 minutes, and going across a vast variety of musical styles, sounds, moods, and tempos. In February 2024 I re-edited the tune, which now has a much clearer and dynamic sound, and the guitar in the second part is a completely different story ...

The photo shows one of the most significant moments in this voyage of discovery: the first hike with my then fiancée Catherine, now my wife since almost 10 years, in the most beautiful area of Etna, the western flank, in mid-October 2002. I had been hiking many areas of the volcano over the previous years, sometimes with friends, more often alone, hoping one day to share these experiences with a woman I loved. Catherine was the one person to come into this private dimension of exploring Etna, and she still is there with me. We are both delighted to see that our daughter Ida is following us into these secret worlds almost unknown to the masses of tourists commonly visiting Etna.

If someone knows Steve Hackett's hauntingly beautiful tune "Spectral Mornings", they will note that it did inspire to some degree the slow last part of this tune.

Summer On Fire

Boris Behncke