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Siegessäule, Grosse Stern, Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany, fotoeins.com

My Berlin: 29 tracks for the German capital

Above/featured: Siegessäule & Grosse Stern, at night – 13 Nov 2012 (HL).

I compiled a list of songs accompanying my travel, a soundtrack that’s full of meaning and memories. This is another set, a listing of tracks I associate with Germany’s capital city. Music is always about personal selection, and every track fires a specific memory of time and place within Berlin. For example, watching “Lola rennt” (Run Lola Run) in a movie theatre in Toronto in the fall of 1998 planted the seeds for a move to Germany three years later. My first visit to Berlin soon after marked the beginning of a deep love affair with the “grand lady of BAER’leen.”

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Lands End, Sutro Baths, Point Lobos, Pacific Ocean, San Francisco, CA, USA, myRTW, fotoeins.com

21 sonic landmarks to travel by

Above/featured: Late-winter sun over Lands End, San Francisco, USA – 18 Mar 2012 (HL).

These are sonic landmarks and signposts marking passages of time. They’re also some of my favourite tunes to set the tone by which I’ll travel or while away the hours. That’s when I allow my mind to wander in dreamless landscapes, disentangle wished-upon possibilities, trek through inaccessible realms, sail on faraway seas, and arrive at a distant universe where Dad’s kickin’ it large with age.

With a sprinkling of songs in German and Spanish, your kilometrage may vary with these songs between 1975 and 2017. Select a single track or the entire playlist; I hope you enjoy listening to one and all.

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Europe at night, 2012: NASA Earth Observatory

Favourite 10 German songs (mid-2012)

When I moved from Canada to Heidelberg, Germany in late-2001, I had no idea how my life would change.

After two years in Heidelberg and frequent visits since 2003, I’ve become a Germanophile, and I’ve learned that my nature is more European than North American; such is the relative ease I feel every time I’m back in Germany.

Like an ongoing soundtrack, music provides snapshots to key memories and important events. I’ve been learning the German language over the last decade with the help of the domestic music scene. Even after several listens, I’m not good at picking out song lyrics, so I’ve generally sought them online.

It was difficult to limit the list to just ten. The following are listed alphabetically by title, and corresponding weblinks go to their respective videos on YouTube.

“Elektrisches Gefühl” — Juli, 2010. Broad translation: “electric feeling”.
“Himmel auf” — Silbermond, 2012. Broad translation: “open sky”.
“Ich, Roque” — Sportfreunde Stiller, 2004. The title is wordplay on “Ich rocke” or I rock. The band members are fans of FC Bayern Munich, and one of their favourite players at the time was Paraguayan striker Roque Santa Cruz.
“Meer Sein” — Silbermond, 2006. The title is wordplay on “Mehr sein”, to be more. “Meer” is another word for the sea.
“Mensch” — Herbert Grönemeyer, 2002. Translation: “human”.
“Nur ein Wort” — Wir Sind Helden, 2005. Broad translation: “just one word”.
“Schiffsverkehr” — Herbert Grönemeyer, 2011. Broad translation: “ship traffic”.
“Stadt” (featuring Adel Tawil) — Cassandra Steen, 2009. Translation: “city”.
“Steh Auf, Wenn Du Am Boden Bist” — Die Toten Hosen, 2002. Broad translation: “get up if you’re down”.
“Unendlich” — Silbermond, 2006. Translation: “endless”.

A favourite is the band Silbermond, a quartet from the humble origins of Bautzen in the southeast corner of the country. Lead singer Stefanie Kloss appeared recently (May 2012) on Deutsche Welle’s Talking Germany and Typisch Deutsch programs; here is her interview in English.

This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress (fotoeins.com) on “musikalischer Montag” (musical Monday).