When the Pieces Finally Fit
Last night I attended a performance by Eloi Youssef, former lead singer of the Dutch rock band Kensington. That name might not mean much to people outside the country, but within it, they easily sell out the largest concert hall for multiple nights in a row. They did back when Eloi was still the frontman, and they’re still doing it now, several years later, with a new singer.
Eloi, however, has taken a different path. After spending over a year away from music, he recently started performing again. Not in a new rock band though: he’s headed in a completely new direction. Together with a classical orchestra, he’s now performing in concert halls across the country, playing reimagined versions of his old band's songs, as well as new music. According to him, he’s finally where he’s supposed to be in life: in a more intimate setting, making a very different type of music. Whether he’s truly found his place, I’ll leave that up to him, as I think that’s something we’re all figuring out for our entire lives without ever really getting there. At best, you find a place that suits you now, in this moment. A few years down the road, that might look completely different.
Where Eloi does have a point when it comes to "being in the right place," is in the new format he’s given his old band’s songs. These songs, performed with a classically trained orchestra, fit like a well-tailored coat. As if they’ve been waiting all this time for this moment. Only now, with the right framing, do they fully show what they’re capable of. The pieces were always scattered here and there, but until now, they’d never managed to come together.
Sometimes, that’s how things go with other things in life, too. Sometimes you come across something: a passage in a book, a scene from a film, something that doesn’t really stick with you the first time. And then, years later, you encounter it again, and suddenly it turns out to be priceless. It just needs to hit at the right moment.
In that sense, life is strung together by coincidences. The art lies in paying attention at the moment when those coincidences bring the right elements together.
For those who are interested, watch the performance of one of his new songs on YouTube.