When I was confirmed in church at the age of 14 I was given a brand new stereo by my family along with my very first CD - which is the most formative Album to me up to this day: “Blue Lines “ by Massive Attack. One day after school I happened to see Shara Nelson singing Unfinished Sympathy on MTV and I was utterly swept off my teenage feet. Ever since I had been obsessed with Trip Hop, and Massive Attack in particular or rather anything that was published on their label “Wild Bunch”. Ever since I was a child I had been spending most of the day (and most nights) listening to music: I loved cheesy Richard Clayderman (probably the equivalent to David Garrett at the time), Tschaikowskys Schwanensee, Stevie Wonder, Prokofieff, Le carnaval des animaux, Hot Chocolate, Good old Whitney Houston, lots of Soulmusic and even more Soulmusic, Blues if I could get my hands on it which could be a little tricky at junior school age, and when puberty hit, my ears devoured anything by the sugar cubes, Björk, Trip Hop, Motown, Acid Jazz (I adored Incognito), I loved Stina Nordenstam, Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, all these wonderful women who inspired me to live my life the way I felt it was supposed to be lived … and my stereo, oh how I loved my stereo and my headphones, I never left the house without my walkman or CD player and almost panicked when I left my headphones at home … until today I feel safe and sound underneath them. They cut out all the noise and chatter outside and allow me to walk on sunshine even on a cloudy day. So a tribute to the day when this brand-new wonderful stereo became part of my teenage life was most definitely overdue.
