“Concerts á Emporter”

If I’m feeling beleaguered after a particularly crappy day, I like nothing more than visiting Blogotheque.net in the hope that they have added a new video to their “Concerts á Emporter” collection, and it’s high time you did too. Now the eagle-eyed blog readers among you will notice that it is in fact a French Web site, but try not to despair on grounds of being unversed in the language of love – Google has your back with an built-in translator, so no excuses folks!

Les Concerts á Emporter, which translates to ‘Takeaway Shows,’ began as a merging of cinema and music, driven by the impassioned Vincent Moon (real name Mathieu Saura) and has culminated in an impressive back catalogue of D.I.Y and acoustically-performed shows.

From R.E.M to Arcade Fire, Moon has employed a guerrilla approach to filmmaking amounting to some triumphant and often overwhelmingly intimate reinventions of already incredible music. Want to see Bon Iver harmonizing beautifully in a hallway off a busy French street? They’ve got you covered. Feel the need to see Guillemots' front man Fyfe Dangerfield wandering around a lazy courtyard in the midst of Parisian winter singing “I love you through sparks and shining dragons, I do”? Of course you do!

Vincent Moon has pretty much constantly lived on the road for the past few years, something which never seems to affect the production values of the filming that he does. Far from being phased when an elderly blind gentleman ambles into a shot, or excited dog invades the frame, Moon relishes it as an enrichment of the form and often resumes recording as a single take. As such, his endearing portraits do a lot to uphold the notion that Paris is the most romantic city in the world, though frequently for surprising reasons.

Below are three of my favourites from the site, and you can find many more to warm your bones as the impending winter rolls in!

"For Emma, Forever Ago" by Bon Iver

"The Penalty" by Beirut

"Apple Tree" by Herman Dune