Jun. 10, 2024
Brush: Proraso Professional
Razor: EldrormR Industries MM24
Blade: GEM PTFE [1]
Lather: Declaration Grooming / Chatillion Lux - Confluence - Soap
Post Shave: Declaration Grooming / Chatillion Lux - Confluence - Aftershave
Post Shave: Stirling Soap Co. - Unscented - Balm
Osma: Osma - Osma
Scuttle: Georgetown Pottery - G20
I only have two collabs: La Fôret De Liguest and Confluence. My wife hates one of them, but I can’t remember which. Hope I picked right because it’s our anniversary.
I really liked the song aspect of this challenge. I started with how the soap made me feel—it’s woodsy and smokey and so I felt like fall. This moved me towards acoustic folk music. I was thinking something in the Americana genre, but while going through my library I came upon Le Vent Du Nord, a Quebecois band I’ve been following for over a decade.
Confluence was inspired by history, by the city of Saint Louis at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The cedar and smokey scent is supposed to call to mind the early days of that community.
With that in mind, the song I chose is the first one on Le Vent Du Nord’s second album, and is called “Les Amants du Saint-Laurent,” the Lovers of the St. Lawrence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmQG2NSfsMY
Like the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and how they shaped Saint Louis, the St. Lawrence River shaped the northeast and the confluence of English, French, American, and Canadian cultures.
This song takes place on the banks of the St. Lawrence in 1754, where two star-crossed lovers are running away to get married. They are caught and he is jailed for kidnapping, but at the end of the song he returns to her and they are reunited years letter (or so says this annotated translation).
The use of the hurdy gurdy in the instrumentation calls to mind the era of Confluence, as does the setting along the river and the story from the 1700s. It felt appropriate for all these reasons, so enjoy!