Some of the Cohenites who attended the Amsterdam LC Event in 2016 know Francis Mus who gave a very interesting book presentation, accompanied with music by Sophia Ammann.
After the presentation we had many questions if the book was available in English, now it is and will be available on August 25 2020 in many (on-line)bookshops.
on https://press.uottawa.ca/demons-of-leonard-cohen.html
The countless roles assumed by Cohen’s personas are not some innocent game, but strategies in response to the sometimes conflicting demands of a “life in art”: they serve as masks that represent the performer’s face and state of mind in a heightened yet detached way. In and around the artistic work they are embodied by different guises and demons: image (the poser), artistry (the writer and singer), alienation (the stranger and the confidant), religion (the worshipper, prophet, and priest), and power (the powerful and powerless). Ultimately, Cohen’s artistic practice can be read as an attempt at forging interpersonal contact.
The wide international circulation of Cohen’s work has resulted in a partial severing with the context of its creation. Much of it has filtered through the public image forged by the artist and his critics in concerts, interviews, and reflective texts. Less a biography than a reception study—supplemented with extensive archival research, unpublished documents, and interviews with colleagues and privileged witnesses—it sheds new light on the dynamic of a comprehensive body of work spanning a period of sixty years.
on https://www.flandersliterature.be/books ... ard-cohen
A unique view into the singer's soul
The Demons of Leonard Cohen
Francis Mus
Who is Leonard Cohen? Connoisseur Francis Mus visited all available archives, interviewed people from the entourage around Cohen, knocked on the door of the singer himself and analyzed his song texts in his quest to find the man behind the most well-known singer-songwriter in the world.
Francis Mus displays an expertise not seen before by Cohen’s Canadian critics.
Brian Trehearne:
Leonard Cohen recently passed away, but the Canadian singer is more popular than ever: his concerts in Belgium and The Netherlands are sold out in no time and his recent record 'Popular Problems' entered out of nothing on the first place in the charts. Nevertheless Cohen remains an artist wrapped in mystery. A spitting image of a gentleman with an unshakeable charisma, yet having at the same time something unfathomable and intangible. But is this image correct?
Authority on Cohen Francis Mus portrays the real Cohen and his recurring demons. He searched for and found ‘Cohen pieces’ that never have been written about. This book offers a unique view into Leonard Cohen’s soul.