Leonard Cohen
As influential as he was, in many ways, Cohen's recordings were sonically mostly "neutral", appropriately backing his voice and music, and good in their time, but not that significant as such - until his last several albums. And in that regard, I consider his last release, You Want it Darker, produced by his son Adam Cohen and Patrick Leonard, a masterpiece similar to his poetry, music, and life.
And even though you might think there is no big deal with arrangement and instrumentation here, and there was no big change in Cohen's sound for decades, for me this was the uppermost point of the unique sound development curve that started with Ten New Songs and Dear Heather. Just another fascinating thing about this man, in his ninth decade.
And, visiting Hydra recently... you might know why, although the island is inspiring anyhow. There are no signs on the island to direct you here, no plate on the house either, but on its door there is still the mark "the little Jew who wrote the Bible" was living here.
Very neat that you visited Hydra island. Until you posted this I only knew a little about Leonard Cohen's personal life and writing. I just knew his music from movies and sought out his albums afterwards. That crazy door knocker is so intriguing, it made me google "leonard cohen" hydra island and I read this article about his time there. Thanks Pedja!
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/mar/30/bohemian-tragedy-leonard-cohen-and-the-curse-of-hydra
I was very surprised to learn there's a new tv series dramatizing Leonard Cohen's life on Hydra island. it's already out now in entirety.. about to give it a watch
Interesting, thanks for posting this. I will look for it.
The world is changing, now possibly way too fast to truly expect anything, but I would expect the interest in Cohen and his work not to fade away.