I wrote this text almost a year ago, when I still thought I could manage writing a dissertation, taking my final exams, life, and posting regularly on here. So I left this blog here, dormant. And these past few days I've felt like going back to it. I had a look through my drafts, and found this post, which still rings very true. So here it is. Since I first wrote this, an album of unreleased songs was released, curated and polished by Cohen's son. Some people -- for example my boyfriend -- hate posthumous works, especially when it comes to artists who, such as Cohen or Bowie, shared a final work which felt like such a perfect ending. But I like the idea that our favourite artists might still surprise us in unexpected ways, even after they're gone.
Leonard Cohen was one of the artists that I only discovered everybody else knew and listened to quite late: for years he was just another one of my mum's singers as I thought, I heard 'So Long Marianne', 'Sisters of Mercy' or 'Hallelujah' at home sometimes, or in the car, and I liked them, they sounded warm and familiar, and homely. My English wasn't that good yet, so I didn't understand the words, but I liked the melodies. And then as I grew up I stumbled upon a few more songs, 'Banjo' or 'The Partisan', they stuck with me, but nothing more. 'You Want it Darker' was released during my first year at university : I listened to it once or twice, thought it was good of course, but didn't necessarily come back to it. And then Cohen died. At that point I realised that he was indeed much more than one of my mum's singers (but as I had started learning already, most of her singers are), I became aware of what a central part of 20th century music he was : I read obituary after obituary, saw pictures and videos of concerts, or Hydra, of his handwriting, learned about his life, and kind of left it there.
The summer after that first year at uni is when I really met Leonard Cohen. I say met, because, as ridiculous as it sounds, this truly was an encounter. It changed the way in which I approach music, but also stuck to my memories and my feelings more than any music ever had. Until then I had mostly been listening to songs rather than albums : I listened to an album once, picked the songs that I liked the most off the first listen, and then moved to listening only to these songs, often quite obsessionally, until I knew every word, every chord by heart. But for some reason with him it was different, over these three months I listened to his entire discography, especially his three last albums 'Old Ideas', 'Popular Problems' and 'You Want it Darker'. I was captivated by the power of his lyrics, the strength of the musical arrangements and harmonies, his incredible voice of course, his elegance...
I was lucky that summer, I travelled a lot, staying at friends' and moving around Europe, and therefore I got a lot of time on my own in trains and planes, to watch the world go by and get lost in the music. In fact this is how this all started : I visited a friend who was studying in Rotterdam for a few days in July. She had a turntable, and a copy of 'You Want It Darker'. I put it on and by the time the third track, 'On The Level' came on, I was hooked. And then I kept moving, and listening through his work. I went to Bordeaux, and listened to 'Popular Problems'. I went to Corsica, and listened to 'Old Ideas' and 'Various Positions'. I was there with my high school friends, and we stayed up every nights until the early hours of the morning, listening to music, dancing around and talking for hours. And I always woke up first, really early. So I got up and sat on a rock facing the sea, and listened to Leonard Cohen for a couple of hours, sometimes while reading, sometimes daydreaming, sometimes falling half asleep again. During these hours I reflected upon that first year of university, upon moving to England, thought about the encounters I made, and this is also part of what made Leonard Cohen's music such an important part of my life : it was there when I was going through a fundamental period of my life, and I fixed those feelings and memories on his songs. To me, Cohen captures just how powerful music can be, how it changes you and becomes part of you, and how certain artistic encounters can shape you.
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