Space Is Only Noise by Nicolas Jaar // Jardin du Luxembourg, Paris

I recently discovered “Space Is Only Noise“, an enthralling debut album by American-Chilean musician Nicolas Jaar, while browsing on YouTube.

The album cover reminded me of two photos that I had taken in December 2009 at Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris with my Lomo LC-A, using a roll of Kodak TXP400 film.

The first track on the album that I listened to was “Colomb” (that’s “Colombus” in French) and I was hooked. Love the textured melody and how it gradually builds up. Oh, and the vocals, are so seductive:

Espérez! Plus d’espérance!
Trois jours, leur dit Colomb, 
En montrant le ciel immense 
le fond de l’horizon 
“Trois jours et je vous donne un monde 
Vous qui n’avez plus d’espoir” 
Sur l’immensité profonde 
Ses yeux s’ouvraient pour le voir

Interestingly, these lyrics were sung in the 1967 French movie “Mouchette” directed by Robert Bresson and are adapted from a (very long) poem by Casismir Delavigne, titled “Trois jours de Christophe Colomb“.

In English:
Hope! Hope is dead!
Three days, Columbus said to them,
Pointing to the vast sky ahead
that stretched beyond the horizon
“Three days and I’ll give you a world
to you who have no more hope”
Over the vast depths
He opened wide his eyes