Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Tributes & covers; Leonard's songs on the soundtracks and TV
Heather1969
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First Aid Kit - Who by Fire

Post by Heather1969 »

Nice looking blue double vinyl release from First Aid Kit packed full of Leonard Cohen covers. I believe they are recordings from the tribute concert they did back in 2017 but I might be wrong.

I haven’t managed to attach any information about it, if you head over to First Aid Kit website all the info is there.

Heather
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jarkko
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Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by jarkko »

Image

This album will be released on March 26 by Columbia Records.
TIRED (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
SUZANNE (First Aid Kit)
SISTERS OF MERCY (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
WHO BY FIRE / AS THE MIST LEAVES NO SCAR (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
TWELVE O’CLOCK CHANT (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
EVERYBODY KNOWS (Frida Hyvönen, First Aid Kit)
AVALANCHE (Loney Dear)
THE FUTURE (Maia Hansson-Bergqvist, First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani)
CHELSEA HOTEL #2 (Jesper Lindell, First Aid Kit)
YOU WANT IT DARKER (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
IF IT BE YOUR WILL (First Aid Kit)
THE ASTHMATIC (Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist, First Aid Kit)
FAMOUS BLUE RAINCOAT / ANTHEM (Maja Francis, First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani)
SHOW ME THE PLACE (Jesper Lindell, First Aid Kit)
HALLELUJAH (Annika Norlin, First Aid Kit)
PRAYER FOR MESSIAH (Klara Söderberg)
BIRD ON THE WIRE (First Aid Kit )
WHO BY FIRE (REPRISE) / LETTER TO MARIANNE (First Aid Kit, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
SO LONG MARIANNE (First Aid Kit, Frida Hyvönen, Loney Dear, Jesper Lindell, Annika Norlin, Maja Francis, Nina Zanjani, Maia Hansson-Bergqvist)
YOU’D SING TOO (Johanna Söderberg)

Release date March 26, 2021 by Columbia Records
https://firstaidkit-europe.myshopify.co ... by-fire-cd

Thanks to Dominique Boile for the info!
1988, 1993: Helsinki||2008: Manchester|Oslo|London O2|Berlin|Helsinki|London RAH|| 2009: New York Beacon|Berlin|Venice|Barcelona|Las Vegas|San José||2010: Salzburg|Helsinki|Gent|Bratislava|Las Vegas|| 2012: Gent|Helsinki|Verona|| 2013: New York|Pula|Oslo|||
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HugoD
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by HugoD »

I have seen this show several times on YouTube and it one of my favourites. Love the songs and the way they are performed by these two sisters and all the support band members.
I also loved the poems they also recited, particularly "the asthmatic " .
For those who are not familiar with First aid , check YouTube, its easy to find. .
Will certainly buy when it comes available, a blu ray release of the show would also be welcome.....
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Brian M
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by Brian M »

Hugo D - can you provide the link to the YouTube concert, please.
Heather1969
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by Heather1969 »

It was easy to find on YouTube a couple of years ago but I can’t find now, I think it may have been blocked due to copyright. Beautiful concert well worth tracking down. I’m sure someone will have it on the forum.

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HugoD
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by HugoD »

Brian M wrote: Sat Feb 27, 2021 1:38 pm Hugo D - can you provide the link to the YouTube concert, please.
I should have know.... The posting on youtube of the whole concert has been removed most probably because of the release of the album next month.

There is now only a 12 second promo :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSrNYUoua4g
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by Wybe »

by HugoD » Sat Feb 27, 2021 7:56 pm

Brian M wrote: ↑
Sat Feb 27, 2021 11:38 am
Hugo D - can you provide the link to the YouTube concert, please.

I should have know.... The posting on youtube of the whole concert has been removed most probably because of the release of the album next month.

There is now only a 12 second promo :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSrNYUoua4g
And an other link of First Aid Kit - Suzanne /Sisters of mercy - leonard cohen tribute live 2017 stockholm
https://youtu.be/0B8B3UahmW4?t=128
2008 -- Brugge, Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Helsinki, Oberhausen, Rotterdam -- 2008
2009 -- Antwerpen, Venice, Barcelona .-- 2009
2010 -- 2 x Gent, Lille, 2x Las Vegas, -- 2010
2012 -- Gent, 2 x Amsterdam, Dublin, Verona -- 2012
2013 -- Pula, Rotterdam -- 2013
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HugoD
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by HugoD »

Some more info on this release and a clip of one of the songs

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/first-aid- ... e-day/amp/
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by Born With The Gift Of A G »


First Aid Kit review, Who by Fire: A live covers album Leonard Cohen would have loved


https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 21804.html
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DennisBerlin
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by DennisBerlin »

I found a working link of the live show.

In my opinion it's really, really great and a moving tribute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SOuO_PN1DM


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HugoD
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by HugoD »

DennisBerlin wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 6:09 pm I found a working link of the live show.

In my opinion it's really, really great and a moving tribute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SOuO_PN1DM


Dennis
Wow, Great, you found an other copy of this registration on youtube! Watch it while you can!
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jarkko
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by jarkko »

The album is also on Spotify.
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Wybe
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by Wybe »

Ian article in American Songwriter by Jim Beviglia.

Firt Aid Kit talks about their mammoth tribute to Leonard Cohen

https://americansongwriter.com/first- ... -cohen/
For Klara and Johanna Soderberg, the Swedish duo known as First Aid Kit, one of the biggest differences they felt in performing the songs of Leonard Cohen live, as opposed to their own material, was the need to get his lyrics just right. “You have a different kind of respect for it,” Klara says. “If I fuck up my own lyrics, who cares, we wrote it.”

“You don’t fuck up on a Cohen lyric,” chimes in Johanna.

The two spoke to American Songwriter recently about Who By Fire, their just-released double-album capturing a performance at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, Sweden in March of 2017. Cohen had passed away only a few months before, and the sisters, like so many of his fans, were having a hard time coping with the loss.

“We were definitely in the midst of grieving his passing,” Klara remembers of that time period. “It was very emotional. I remember hearing about it and thinking I can’t deal with this just yet. We were going to our parents’ house, and I was like ‘I can’t listen to him yet.’ And I came in the door and I heard his voice. Our parents were playing his music and I started crying.”

First Aid Kit took it as fate when they were approached by the Stockholm Theatre and were asked if they had any ideas for a themed show with all of the theatre’s resources, including its actors and props, at their disposal. A Cohen tribute seemed a perfect idea to explore in that unique setting. “We wanted it to be big, because he deserved that,” Johanna says. “It wouldn’t have been right with just the two of us. We wanted to supersize the arrangements and highlight the melodies. Because when a lot of people think of Cohen, they think of the lyrics. But he was also a fantastic writer of melodies.”

The sisters also had the idea early on that the show would also include recitations of some of Cohen’s poems, which meant that just about everybody on stage would be somewhat out of their comfort zone. “It was great because we were trying to do something we’d never done, reciting the poems,” Johanna says. “And they were singing with us. We were on stage with these professional actors and actresses doing what they do, but then they also got to sing, which they thought was really scary, with us. It was a good balance. We all challenged ourselves.”

“I was really nervous, especially about the poetry stuff,” Klara concurs. “We both had moments where we alone on stage with just a spotlight, and here we are reciting the poetry. But I felt weirdly, I don’t know if confident is the world, it wasn’t even that. It felt so natural, because when we were performing the show, we were so in that mode.”

With the combination of the songs and the poems, and with no chit-chat in between, First Aid Kit and their collaborators created something more than a typical concert. In a way, it was both a narrative of a life’s journey and a celebration of all that Cohen represented as an artist. “We definitely thought about that more than we would for our own show,” Johanna says of the thematic progression. “It’s called Who By Fire because it’s about death. I think there’s a tension at the beginning, and then it builds and gets bigger and darker. And then at the end, there’s a light to it. We had to end with ‘So Long, Marianne’ and his letter to Marianne (Ihlen), because that’s such a beautiful story about the two of them and how she passed away right before him.”

“To us it was a funeral in a sense,” Klara agrees. “It was our way of saying farewell. It was extremely special.”

Even with First Aid Kit sharing the spotlight with so many others in Who By Fire, their a cappella rendering of “Bird On A Wire” stole the show. “At our shows, my favorite moments are always when we do a song a cappella or acoustic, like with ‘Ghost Town,” Johanna says. “I love toning it down. It forces the audience to listen and become uncomfortable, and I like that.”

The run-up to the show proved so chaotic that the Soderberg’s didn’t realize what they had until they listened back to the performance after the fact. “We were planning this when we were still in the studio doing Ruins in Portland, Oregon,” Johanna remembers. “So everyone was at the theatre in Sweden, and we were trying to schedule all this and knock the show together and it was really rough and stressed. We weren’t really enjoying the process as much as we liked. And I think we felt that way as well when we did the show, because we only had four days of rehearsal.”

“This (the album) was the first show. There are a lot of mistakes in it and you can tell. We didn’t want to remove the flaws. We wanted to keep them. We knew it was special, but it wasn’t until we listened back that we realized that everything really fell together perfectly. It was risky with so many people involved, but everyone brought their A-game and a lot of passion.”

Upon hearing it, First Aid Kit was just looking for the right time to showcase this performance with an album release. What better time than when people are starving for live music? “In a perfect world, everyone is listening to this record back-to-back on their vinyl,” Klara says. “Flip the record, turn down the lights, sit in the dark, drink some wine and just listen to this.”

While they’re anxious to see the reception it receives, First Aid Kit are extremely grateful for the experience. “It will always stand out to us,” Klara says. “We would love to do more things like this in the future where it’s not just a concert. You kind of feel like a kid again when you to get to play around and not just play music. There are a lot of different other songwriters that we like. But it’s hard to compare any songwriter to Leonard Cohen.”

Who By Fire falls into that rare category of essential live albums, as two master interpreters (and their capable friends) honor Cohen with a counterintuitive combination of sonority and irreverence that’s emblematic of his finest work. “He has the darkness, the political side and then almost a sarcastic, humorous side,” Johanna concludes. “And the sexual part, the spiritual. There are so many layers in his music. We loved him before we did this, but afterward, we were totally smitten. The more you dig into his work, the more you realize the genius.”
2008 -- Brugge, Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Helsinki, Oberhausen, Rotterdam -- 2008
2009 -- Antwerpen, Venice, Barcelona .-- 2009
2010 -- 2 x Gent, Lille, 2x Las Vegas, -- 2010
2012 -- Gent, 2 x Amsterdam, Dublin, Verona -- 2012
2013 -- Pula, Rotterdam -- 2013
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pe swijngedouw
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by pe swijngedouw »

Long time ago, on "the scandinavian report", there was a version of "Suzanne" by Christel Alsos that did not find much appreciation by one of the most senior members of this forum. I agreed with him, and hope he will be more pleased with this new version ; to me, it's o.k., this time.
This time, it's "if it be your will", that is the most disappointing to me, from all covers on the record.
But it's a nice thing to hear songs from Leonard every day on the radio again, sometimes we even get the originals.
... precisely ...
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Re: Who by Fire by First Aid Kit (tribute album)

Post by birminghamfan »

I’m pleased to say the show is on Apple Music too ! I watched the first half on YouTube last night after reading this on the forum , reminded myself how good it was !

Best wishes to all LC fans , Steve
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