Before record stores neared extinction, Sade was often stocked in the easy listening section. The band’s breakout success in the 1980s owed much to the advent of adult contemporary radio, where huge hits like “Smooth Operator” and “The Sweetest Taboo” eventually got sandwiched between selections from Michael Bolton and Kenny G. But then and now, Sade had an appeal that lifted it far above the slush pile of schlock.

The band’s trench-coat-favoring Nigerian-born frontwoman, Helen Adu, known to the world just as Sade, is more responsible for the popularizing of gold hoop earrings than an entire industry of jewelry executives. ..As a generation turned, house D.J.s turned remixes of Sade ballads into club classics, and a raft of hip-hop artists repeatedly sampled her…Sade is one of the most relentlessly quiet famous people on the planet. But in her extended silences, her place in the pantheon of cultural…

“If you’re looking for some extra groove in your life, young Icelandic singer-songwriter Júníus Meyvant needs to be added to your playlist ASAP. Unnar Gísli Sigurmundsson, who plays under the JúníusMeyvantmoniker, creates songs that get your body moving. Maybe it’s his voice, or the brass accompaniment that makes these songs epic, but for someone who was kicked out of music school it sure makes you wonder what you’re doing with your life. Although he released his LP Floating Harmonies back in July, this is definitely an album to check out now. The songs work perfectly with the changing weather, whether it be the leaves dropping, rainfall or just basking in the sun of mild temperatures while you cling to your pumpkin spice latte. If there’s one thing for sure, his voice will bring the warmth to your day.

~ Matthew Fisher, 5 Icelandic Artists You Need to Know(CBC Music)

See how the trees
Reach up and outward
As if their entire existence
Were an elegant gesture of prayer.
See how they welcome the breath of spirit,
In all its visible and invisible forms.
See how the roots reach downward and out,
Embracing the physical,
The body and bones
Of its soul of earth and stone,
Allowing half its life to be sheltered
in the most quiet and secret places.

Oh, if I could be more like a tree on this Sunday morning,
To feel the breath of invisible spirit
Touch me as tenderly as a kiss on the forehead.
If I could courageously and confidently
Dig down into the dark
Where the ground water runs deep,
Where shelter and sanctuary
Can be had and held.

Ah, to be like a tree
With all its bent and unbent places,
A whole and holy thing
From its topmost twigs
To the…

Source: YAOYAO MA VAN AS with Untainted Morning

It is, after all, not necessary to fly right into the middle of the sun,

but it is necessary to crawl to a clean little spot on earth where the sun sometimes shines

and one can warm oneself a little.

~ Franz Kafka, from Letter to His Father

Notes:

• Photograph: Rob Miller Photography in Dundas, Ontario, Canada (via Your Eyes Blaze Out)
• Kafka Quote source: kafkaesque-world
• Related Posts: Miracle. All of it.