Publisher Description

SOUNDTRACKS OF MY LIFE -Carl ClevesSoundtracks of my life is a blended memoir with a sweeping musical world history, enriched with cultural and historical detail, and observations of the human condition. Carl Cleves takes readers on an intimate global journey in his search for the elusive feeling of tarab, the Arabic notion of musical and poetic ecstasy. A parade of musicians accompanies us, famous and obscure, from the first thrill of French chansonniers in his Belgian childhood, through the skiffle, blues and rock music of his youth, the folk and roots renaissance of the sixties, and the music he discovered as a student in Africa, relief worker in India, popular band leader in Brazil, musicologist in Madagascar, and hippy farmer and lecturer in Australia.
Soundtracks of my life is a blended memoir with a sweeping musical world history, enriched with cultural and historical detail and philosophical observations. It has the markings of a classic in the field of music and will be a must-read book for anyone that loves music and travel. It has a distinctive conversational style and rhythm, a literary prowess and a wondrous feel of stream-of-consciousness. It is his third book.

Author Biography

Carl Cleves was born in Mechelen, a traditional Flemish town in Belgium. He graduated in his Belgian Law Studies and was offered a scholarship to study traditional African music with ethnomusicologist John Blacking in South Africa. This started off many years of travel throughout Africa, the Middle East, the Orient, the Pacific Region and South America, guitar in hand, acquiring musical skills and an endless supply of stories and songs. His adventurous life has included stints as an antelope trapper in Uganda, relief worker in cyclone struck India, foreign correspondent and ethnomusicologist in Africa and night club crooner in the South Pacific. While living in Brazil he became a popular singer and bandleader. He settled in Australia in 1972.Besides a Phd in Law from Leuven University in Belgium and his Musicology degree in African studies from Witwatersrand University in South Africa, Cleves hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in Contemporary Composition (SCU), was a research fellow at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, lectured in World Music at Southern Cross University and in Composition at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium. He speaks five languages.He is the author of Dancing with the Bones and Tarab: Travels with My Guitar, an epic tale of high adventure and the search for musical ecstasy (TransitLounge.com.au), now in its second print edition. His six solo albums and six with The Hottentots, co-founded with his wife Parissa Bouas, have won international praise and numerous awards, including Music OZ, NCEIA and Australian Songwriters Association Award for Best Australian lyricist. 'Songs both intimate and powerful'; 'a vision whimsical and wise'; a guitar style 'utterly captivating, pregnant with unexpected nuance'. He has toured internationally, records for the German Stockfish label and has appeared at all major Australian Folk festivals, including Woodford, Port Fairy and the National FF.

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