Piano & Vocals - Peter & Yann

Vol. 8

Another collaboration with Yann Vienne, merging lyrical prose, or poetry, with piano. For me, a sublime combination that I hope you enjoy as well.

Music/piano: Peter Bennborn
Lyrics/vocals: Yann Vienne (https://soundcloud.com/non-sapiens, https://soundcloud.com/non-sapiens-and-ko)

Lyrics:

Sitting here in your old red chair,
The one dating back to your school days, When you used to have hair,
You look around, at the time that's left... At life passing,
You walk back the track inside your mind, looking for traces, looking...
Games and laughter, looks and sun shedding gold,
Smiles and sighs, the fire after, the dead and the old,
It's just fall at play, twining round your heart,
As in a drunken dream, you relive your part,
Looking for the pieces scattered in the rain,
Looking for your reason as one looking for a train...
1971... 1982... 1991... 2002...
Not afraid of getting old, not scared... of going away but try as you will...
You'd like to come back, and leave, and break away from time standing still...
Slightly nostalgic, you're mostly confused,
So little magic and moments left to lose,
It's just fall at play, twining round your heart,
As in a drunken dream, you relive your part,
Looking for the pieces scattered in the rain,
Looking for your reason as one looking for a train...
Sitting here in your old red chair, you smile and sing
And try to grab here too at that elusive thing...
You look up high, you search the endless skies,
Search for life a passing and eternity in disguise...

Life Passing (feat. Yann Vienne)

This collaboration was a long time in the making. Following our first work together on "Une minute dans la vie" I wrote lyrics for Life Passing too (here's the link to the instrumental: https://soundcloud.com/peter-bennborn-project/life-passing-1).

Peter and I tried different approaches and mixes and finally we settled on two separate versions: he uploaded a version where I recite the English adaptation of the lyrics (https://soundcloud.com/peter-bennborn-project/life-passing-feat-yann-vienne) while I chose one in which I asked my wife to sing most of the original lyrics (in French).

In case you find there is too much noise on this version don't hesitate to say so in the comments: the mix is mine (and the one my wife prefers) but Peter did a cleaner one of his own, so maybe if I get a lot of audiogeeks complaining I'll upload his version instead in the end... ;)

The beautiful picture was taken by my friend Alain Rueff. You can visit his Flicker for more nice shots: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alain-rueff/sets/

Please, don't hesitate to leave a comment if you like this track: they're always greatly appreciated...

La vie qui passe

Music and piano: Peter Bennborn (https://soundcloud.com/peter-bennborn-project)
Lead vocals: Kennou Vienne
Lyrics and additional vocals: Yann Vienne (https://soundcloud.com/non-sapiens)

Ici et assis sur ta vieille chaise rouge en bois,
Celle qui dure depuis l'école et même l'école de papa,

Tu regardes autour, le temps qui reste... La vie qui passe,
Tu remontes le cours au fond d'ta tête, tu cherches des traces,

Les jeux et les rires, les yeux, le soleil qui dore,
Les sourires et les soupirs, le feu et les morts,

C'est l'automne qui joue, autour de ton cœur,
Comme un rêve soul, tu revis les heures,
Tu cherches les morceaux semés en chemin,
Tu cherches ta raison comme on cherche un train...

1972... 1982... 1992... 2002...

Pas peur de vieillir, pas peur... de t'en aller, pourtant...
Tu aimerais revenir, partir, sortir... quitter ton présent...

Un peu nostalgique, surtout dérouté,
Si peu de magie et tous ces ratés,

C'est l'automne qui joue, autour de ton cœur,
Comme un rêve soul, tu revis les heures,
Tu cherches les morceaux semés en chemin,
Tu cherches ta raison comme on cherche un train...

Ici et assis sur ta vieille chaise rouge en bois,
Tu essaies de saisir aussi ce "je ne sais quoi"...

Tu sondes le sens ascensionnel, tu scrutes les cieux,
La vie qui trépasse et l'éternel tapi dans le bleu...

---

Here is the accurate translation into English (slightly different from the version Peter uploaded on his cloud):

Sitting here in your old red wooden chair,
The one dating back to your school days, even your dad's school days,

You look around, at the time that's left... At life passing,
You walk back the track inside your mind, looking for traces,

Games and laughter, eyes and sun shedding gold,
Smiles and sighs, the fire and the dead,

It's just fall at play, twining round your heart,
As in a drunken dream, you relive those hours,
Looking for the pieces scattered on the way,
Looking for your reason as one looking for a train...

1972... 1982... 1992... 2002...

Not afraid of getting old, not scared... of going away, and still...
You'd like to come back, to go away, to break out... and leave your present...

Slightly nostalgic, mostly confused,
So little magic and all those failures,

It's just fall at play, twining round your heart,
As in a drunken dream, you relive those hours,
Looking for the pieces scattered on the way,
Looking for your reason as one looking for a train...

Sitting here in your old red wooden chair, you
try and grab here too that elusive thing...

You scan an upwards sense, you search the skies,
Search life a passing and eternity lying low in the blue...


La vie qui passe (aka Life passing) - Collaboration with Peter Bennborn, with Kennou on lead vocals

Though Peter Bennborn and I turned out quite a few collaborations in the past it had been a good while since we'd last done so. As a matter of fact, this tune was a long time in the making being left to the side because of life and other musical endeavours but I'm very glad Peter once again allowed me to write some lyrics over another one of his gorgeous piano tracks and let me sing them too!

Hope you'll enjoy this little track full of mid-life crisis angst, regrets, routine and lost love. Hey! I'm French, whatcha gonna say?! ^^

Music and mixing: Peter Bennborn (https://soundcloud.com/peter-bennborn-project)
Lyrics and vocals: Yann Vienne (https://soundcloud.com/non-sapiens)

Here are the lyrics in French with an English translation at the end:

Il est cinq heures du matin,
Tu vois les chiffres rouges sur le réveil...

Elle est partie et puis plus rien
Ne bouge, plus de sommeil.

Et tu l'attends, cramponné
A tes draps : forcené

De l'habitude... La solitude
N'est pas une option parce que sinon

Tout ce passé va s'effacer :
Printemps, étés, ton ingénuité...

Pourquoi tu crois encore à tout ça ?
Qu'à ton âge le barrage

Ne peut plus lâcher : une vie
Sans danger, sans incongruités...

Tu te raccroches à tout ce qu'elle laisse
Quand s'effilochent les liens sans cesse,

Tu n'te vois pas, tu n'te sais plus,
Elle n'est plus là et toi non plus,

Tu tournes les pages sur les images :
Automnes, étés, ton ingénuité...

Cinq heures passées, toujours tu guettes
Un bruit de clés, une porte ouverte...

* * *

It is five a.m.,
You can see the red digits on the alarm clock...

She's gone and now nothing
moves any more, no more sleep.

And you wait for her, clinging
To the sheets: mad on

Habit... Loneliness
Is not an option or else

All this past will fade away;
Springs and summers, your ingenuity...

Why do you still belive in all this?
That at your age the dam

Can no longer break down: a life
Devoid of danger and incongruities...

You hold on to everything she has left here,
While the bonds keep unraveling,

You can't see yourself, won't know yourself any more,
She's no longer here and neither are you,

You turn the pages over the pictures:
Autumns and summers, your ingenuity...

Past five in the morning and you keep waiting for
The noise of keys, an opened door...

Ingenuity

Written and produced by John de Wit (White Mash)

license : all rights reserved (c) 2020

Contact : dewitdesign@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/johnwhitemash/
twitter.com/dewitdesign
www.instagram.com/white_mash_
www.whitemash.bandcamp.com/
itunes.apple.com/nl/artist/white-mash/

Sun's Out

Composed, arranged, performed and produced by:
Leon Pajer

orlando51music © 2014

Exit Countdown

Empty Streets

Always loved this track of mine so I tried to upgrade the sound a little bit. Hope you'll like this new version as much as I do!

Photo by Elias Maurer on Unsplash

Stay

"Out of the Blue"  electronic music with guitar and vocals

Out of The Blue

Out of the Blue

New collaboration with Peter Bennborn. Once again a fantastic ethereal piano piece by Peter which I sat on for a little while till one day, last October, I went on one of my weekly walks and images started accumulating. As I was walking, I was also listening to one of my favourite French artists, Allain Leprest, and so when I got back home, I decided to make a mix of all the elements running around in my head: I jotted down as best I could all the impressions and phrases that had come to me and then I went through the songs by Leprest I'd been listening to, picking a couple of words here and there when I felt they could get incorporated... so that the end result is about 80% my words and 20% his.

Music and mixing: Peter Bennborn (@peter-bennborn-project)
Lyrics and vocals: Yann Vienne (@non-sapiens)

If you want to find out more about Leprest, here is the link to one of his albums posted on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWpEAx_NrtQ&list=PLpwUqL0q8iXUDCuzaBYIwZkMWKe7c3C4L

Finally, here are the lyrics (I've outlined the parts I borrowed with asterisks) with a quick translation at the end:

Comme un * vieil ingénu *
croquer dans une pomme
comme la beauté nue
en poche un marron 
en somme un vieux con 
je m'en vais marcher 

c'est toi ma colline, je t'aime 
jt'aime comme ma tronche 
car je te connais 
avec tes ronces
tes tunnels de ramées
pourtant après toutes ces années 
* t'es plus la même *

profiter ... des trouées 
déboucher ... éjecté au-dessus de la ville 
* l'horizon loin *

le clocher... explosé (dans)
une flamme de feuilles fauves 
le soleil trop mouillé 
et je me sauve 

* c'est facile d'aller loin *
mais de sentir soudain 
dans le dos le souffle chaud 
d'une dernière bouffée d'été

* les moineaux démarraient *
vers la plaine et les nuées 
sans les Alpes, âmes scalpées
par la grisaille tartinée

Boire les verts et les roux
les nuages à la traîne 
le bleu du ciel qui joue 
* au moins une fois par semaine *

entre rochers et racines 
entre les buissons d'églantine 
sans se presser pour ne pas se mettre en nage 
on l'est déjà bien assez, en âge

et * sonné au sommet *
saluer un Christ blanc comme de la craie 
il doit se peler 
moi je vais marcher 
en apesanteur 
dans mes hauteurs

* * *

Like an old man forever naive 
Biting into an apple 
As into naked beauty
Water chestnut in my pocket 
All in all a gentle old sod 
Off on a walk...

You are my hill and I love you 
Love you like my mug 
Cos I know you 
With your thorn bushes
Your tunnels under the canopies
And yet, after all these years 
You ain't the same any more... 

Relishing... the gaps between the branches
Coming out... as if shot into the sky over the town 
Horizon so far away... 

The spire... Exploding inside
A flame of fawn leaves 
The sun far too wet 
And off I went...

It's easy enough to go far 
But to feel all of a sudden 
In your back the warm breath 
Of a last summer spell...

The sparrows were taking off
Towards the plains and the sun raining through the clouds
Without the Alps, scalped souls,
buried away under a thick layer of grey butter...

Drinking in the greens and the reds
The clouds lingering by 
The blue of the sky at play 
At least once a week...

Between the rocks and the roots 
Between the thickets of wild roses 
Taking my time so as not to break into a sweat 
One's quite old enough as it is*

And, knocked out at the top 
Greeting a Christ as white as chalk
He must be freezing
I'm off on a walk 
Weightless 
Up on high...

*untranslatable pun, sorry... ;)

Breathe - Collaboration with Peter Bennborn

Some time ago I got inspired to write a short piece reflecting the time that the listener, you, took to listen to the song, to stop and reflect - for a minute of your life.

Yann got inspired by this moment in time to reflect on the longing for love and the moment you find it. 

This is a collaboration of  Yann's words, vocals and my music. French is truly the language of love and passion...for life! Feel it...enjoy the moment. 

See the visual expression as well: http://youtu.be/RJmqOR6-b_c

Piano: Peter Bennborn
Vocals/Lyrics: Yann Vienne: https://soundcloud.com/non-sapiens

Mixed & Mastered: Peter Bennborn

Lyrics:

Tant de temps... Tant de tendresse à tenter...
Pour toi... Te pouvoir tenir, te toucher sans compter...
Ces heures qui sucent le cœur sans une âme-sœur,
Seul éperdu, et perdu en une tempête perpétuelle et pourtant ténue, tu sais...
Tu sais les siècles essaient mais ne cessent,
Sans issue...
Et toi, tu sens... En moi, en moi là, cet émoi si...
Une minute dans la vie...

J'attends cette minute tant, cet instantané,
Battement comme hébétement qui se sait condamné,
Soixante secondes dansantes dansent sans discontinuer,
L'essence de ton absence, tant de sens, dénué,
Naissances d'arborescences, cent mille présences,
Tu sens en toi cet étau si...
Une minute dans la vie.	

So much time... So much tenderness to try...
For you... To be able to hold you, touch you, not counting...
All those hours that suck at your heart, with no soulmate,
Alone and madly in love and lost in a neverending storm yet so faint, you know...
You know the centuries try but never stop,
No way out...
And you, you can feel... In me, right here in me, this emotion so... A minute in your life...

Waiting and yearning for that minute, that snapshot in time,
A beating pulse like a stupor aware of one's own end,
Sixty dancing seconds, dancing without cease,
The essence of your absence, such meaning, bereft,
Births of trees and branches, myriads of spirits,
You can feel inside now, such a grip...
A minute in your life.

Une Minute Dans La Vie (Peter Bennborn & Yan Vienne)

Bonjour,

Cette page Soundcloud regroupe la suite de mes collaborations sur Soundcloud et dans la vraie vie.

Contact : yvienne@gmail.com

Autres pages Soundcloud :

Compte principal : https://soundcloud.com/non-sapiens

Collaborations Internet : https://soundcloud.com/non-sapiens-and-ko

Collaborations Internet avec Carlo Presti : https://soundcloud.com/spidersapiens 



Breathe - Collaboration with Peter Bennborn

Non Sapiens and Ko #2