Episode #72 : After Cologne, the wish to meet again

Indiependence Day 2026 is over. The music has stopped, but something is still moving.

There are weekends that end when you get home.

And then there are weekends that keep travelling with you.

Indiependence Day 2026 was one of those. A few days in Cologne surrounded by artists, friends and people who still believe that independent music is not merely something we release, promote or stream. It is something we build together.

This episode of Le Salon Indie de Mitxoda was, inevitably, filled with memories of Cologne: the joy of seeing everyone again, the conversations between concerts, the familiar faces, the new ones and that very simple feeling of being exactly where we needed to be.

It also carried a desire: let’s do it again next year.

Somewhere. Bigger, perhaps. Louder, certainly. But above all, together.

And when imagining that next gathering, I also thought about those who could not be with us this time. Nadine, of course. But also all the artists and friends who might join us next year: RedPrint, Turn Blue, Histheory… and many others. Why not Jay El Dee from the US!

Nothing has been decided yet. But the wish is there.

Sometimes, that is how things begin.

A moment without music

This episode was broadcast on September 11.

There had to be a moment without sound. Not because silence can repair anything. It cannot. But because continuing as though nothing had happened did not feel possible either.

September 11 evokes the attacks of 2001 and all the lives shattered that day. But the date also belongs to another painful memory: the military coup in Chile on September 11, 1973, the overthrow of Salvador Allende and the beginning of Pinochet’s dictatorship.

Different histories. Different tragedies. The same date.

So, for a moment, no song. No words.

Just the acknowledgement that some things cannot, and must not, become ordinary.

Knowing when to stop

I would have liked this Salon to last longer.

There was more music to play, more to say about Cologne and more energy from Indiependence Day that I wanted to keep alive.

But I am tired.

And sometimes the most honest decision is not to push through. It is to recognise the limit, stop for a while and take care of yourself before the body makes the decision for you.

So episode 72 ends a little earlier than I had imagined.

Not because the desire is gone. Because I want it to remain.

Next week: an empty house

Next week, the story will become more personal. I will tell you about my mother’s house.

A house I have finally emptied.

A house that is now silent, cleared of its objects, its memories packed away or left behind. A house that is empty now, but not exactly absent.

That will be for the next Salon.

Until then, take care of yourselves. Take care of the people around you. Keep creating, keep listening, and keep finding reasons to meet again.

Have a beautiful week.

Love on you. <3