Portraits. Kim Boekbinder - the possible wonder.(about music, love, people and stuff. )

I've been wanting to write this blog for ages but I didn't manage to come up with something for some reason or another, and now that I am up to it I'm not really sure what I want to write.

I've wanted to revive this blog for a while now.. and I had such great ideas which - as always - my laziness made me turn down..I hope I will still make it. Sooner or later. Some of the things I wanted to do were weekly features of tutorials, crafts, items mainly from threadbanger (it was supposed to be my way to keep the community going on) and the internet in general.. and a series of portraits.

portraits. this was going to be the name of a feature where I wanted to introduce extraodinary people with an ordinary life, i.e. people I have met (mainly on the Internet) who are special or interesting to me for some reason. artists, supporters, every-day-philosophers, people I admire on different levels and that have had an impact on me in these last few years.

The first portrait of the series is one which is really dear to me.
Today, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to talk about Kim Boekbinder - the impossible girl - a possible wonder.

Many of you already know how much I love this incredible artist, how fond I have grown of her music in the last year and a half, but there are probably a lot of you whodon't know her, and that's a pity. You should, you really should.

I stumbled upon the Vermillion Lies (the duo composed of Kim and her sister Zoe) pretty much casually on one of my last.fm rushes about one and a half year ago. Their music hasn't abandoned me ever since, as a matter of fact I am listening to them as I write. Their music was simply the perfect combination of styles and genres (in the literary sense) which I had always liked, it became straightaway the soundtrack of my days at home, or in the library while I was writing my masters' thesis. They are also one of the reasons why I have joined twitter (as I may have written somewhere before). I never cared about the fact that nobody seemed to know them - actually it was to me like I had found some little treasure I wasn't sure I wanted to share with everybody; of course, my room mates had been overexposed to their music willy-nilly. And I must admit we had some real fun time jumping in the kitchen and singing along "Global warming - It's Hot!".

One of the first thing which drove me to adore these girls is that they offered their music for free to listen (and partly for download) - and the fact that they did so made me genuinily want to buy their stuff. It's a bit of a paradox, but that's how it felt, and feels even today. So that is the story of how I got to love Kim and her music.

In August 2009 the duo decided to go on a hiatus to allow the sisters to explore a solo career. Somehow I got closer to Kim's efforts, probably helped by the fact that at that time she was in Berlin and webcasting, and sharing the same time zone is crucial in these matters.. and it was so that I literally wrote parts of my thesis while watching her webcasts and interacting with her and other fans in a chat box - that's how she got into my thesis'credits. But this is supposed to be a portrait not a random rambling, about her not about me.

The thing is, Kim has now a new album coming out called The Impossible Girl which she was able to record and produce thanks solely to the love and pre-orders of her fans who donated thus buying the record in advance. Depending on the amount donated contributors got several prizes, like the download code for the digital version of the album, a physical copy of the CD, signed postcards, t-shirts, goodies songs written by request and much more.. this is a link to the video she made to sponsor her fundraiser/pre-order.. it urges to support art as a process rather than a product, it makes you ponder on the efforts that go into the creation of an album, it gives you an insight of her take on art and - to some extent - life in general.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9-MCDYE4-w

The way she went through all this process, with her ups and downs, the way she communicated constantly with her audience, her perseverance in following her goals through thick and thin, the freedom of her soul and the beauty of what she creates have been for me a great source of inspiration.

She is to me the emblem of strength through rought times, of tenaciously wanting to accomplish something, of the ability to live your own dreams and make them real. She is the "don't dream it, be it". I may sound like an obsessed fangirl, but this is one of those positive "obsessions" which invite you to be a better self. My worst flaw that I have big dreams, but I am then too lazy to fulfill or follow them, and sometimes I don't believe enough in myself.. but the inspiration I get from Kim is that I can do it, if it really means something for me. And for that I am thankful. I feel like I should talk about her music, but her music talks for itself.

These are the first 3 chapters of her first solo album, the 4th Chapter will be realeased in few days, on December 15th 2010. [new release date!]




Kim's music is so rich and full of different hues and colours that it is impossible to collocate her in a specific genre (I don't like to do it in general anyway), on the other hand it makes it easy to be appreciated by very different people. Her music is versatile and manifold, she has both haunting melodies and funny and witty rhytms and lyrics (she even has Explicit Lyrics - hide your children!).
I could write for hours about her songs, and about each one of them gives me so many different feelings, but music is very personal and intimate, and I prefer that you enamour yourself in these wonderful songs through a personal journey. My personal journey was amazing, and I was lucy enough I could share it with people from time to time.

One of the things I am proudest of is when I am listening to some artist and someone in the same room tells me "this is really good, who is this?" and I can hand down my passion for that artist to them. It happened thrice with Kim in the last few weeks, and I was more than happy because she deserves it all..my room mate, a guest we had and my couchsurfing host in Leipzig (this is another topic I am going to discuss some other time).

Yes, Leipzig - Germany.
I travelled some 650 km across Germany (I live in Freiburg, by the south-western border with France and Switzerland) to go to Kim's concert.
It was a long journey, it was a very tiring weekend, I've travelled alone, on trains by night, I've waited for 3 hours at the Frankfurt station.. but I'd do it all again. It was such an amazing weekend, I had a great time, the concert was just incredible and Kim is amazingly sweet.

She played at the FrauenKultur in Leipzig, a small women cultural centre, the atmosphere was very intimate and cozy.. I haven't counted the people in the audience, but I don't think we were more than thirty. Kim appeared on the stage dressed like a modern Snow White in sequins. She looked like a character from a fairytale, impossible though extremely real. Her energy filled the room with magic and wonderous talent. Oh the beauty of witnessing the making of the songs while she plays them, playing the most unsual instruments to create the right effects mingling together to become a perfect though completely experimental result. She created music, we've experienced the art as a process live. I laughed, I cried, I was deeply touched, everything was so new and famliar at the same time. And yes, she even played on a squeeky toy alligator!




I'm sorry I don't have better pictures, but I was too busy enjoying the show ecstaticly to take more. And after the show she has come to me and asked me "Are you Floriana? Thank you for coming!".. isn't she she just great?
I only regret I wasn't able to stay longer, for a chat and maybe drik something.. my host was invited to a party and - as a guest - I had to second his choices. But it was a hell of a party - cross dressing fun! therefore, it's good nonetheless..

It's very late now.. but I leave you with another encouraging message from the impossible world of Kim Boekbinder: WE BELIEVE IN YOU!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiD3soB4bZ8&NR=1

lotta love,