Wouter "Wally" De Backer (born 21 May 1980), also known professionally by his stage name Gotye (pronounced /ˈɡɔːti.ɛə/), is a Belgian-Australian^[1] multi-instrumental musician and singer-songwriter. The name "Gotye" is derived from "Gauthier", the French equivalent of "Walter" or "Wouter". His voice has been compared to those of Peter Gabriel  and Sting.^[2][3][4]

Gotye has released three studio albums independently and one album featuring remixes of tracks from his first two albums. He is a member of the Melbourne indie-pop trio The Basics, who have independently released three studio albums and numerous other titles since 2002. Gotye's 2011 single "Somebody That I Used to Know" reached Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making him the fifth Australian based artist to do so and the second Belgian (after Sœur Sourire in 1963).^[5] He has won five ARIA Awards and received a nomination for an MTV EMA for Best Asia and Pacific Act. Gotye has said he sometimes feels "less of a musician, more of a tinkerer."^[6]

Gotye is bilingual, speaking both Dutch and English.^[7]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotye

Kimbra Lee Johnson (born 27 March 1990), known mononymously as Kimbra, is a New Zealand singer-songwriter/guitarist. On 29 August 2011, she released a debut album Vows, which reached the top 5 in New Zealand and Australia. On 22 May 2012, the album was released in North America, debuting at number 14 on the Billboard charts.^[1] Kimbra featured in the multi-platinum single "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye.

Kimbra Lee Johnson^[2] was born on 27 March 1990 and grew up in Hamilton, New Zealand. Her father, Ken Johnson, was the head doctor at the University of Waikato's student health centre, and her mother was an orthopaedic nurse. At the age of 10, Kimbra began writing songs. When she was 12, her father bought her a guitar and "after a few years of lessons, she was on stage, performing with her guitar tutors (she was never taught to sing)".^[3] Kimbra attended Hillcrest High School, competing in the national schools' musical competition Rockquest for three years running, where she was awarded second place in 2004 at the age of 14. Kimbra made her first music video, "Smile", for the children's TV show What Now. Kimbra was a member of the Hillcrest High Jazz choir, Scat.^[4]

Early public performances by Kimbra included singing at the Waikato Times Gold Cup race meeting in 2000 as a 10 year old and singing the New Zealand national anthem before 27,000 people at the 2002 NPC rugby union final. In 2007, after winning the Juice TVaward for Best Breakthrough music video for her second single "Simply on My Lips", she came to the attention of ex-Independiente Records boss Mark Richardson (Jamiroquai, Paula Abdul) and his newly formed management company and independent label Forum 5 in Melbourne, Victoria.^[5] She signed with Richardson and relocated to Australia.^[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimbra

"Somebody That I Used to Know" is a song written and recorded by Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter Gotye, featuring New Zealand singer/guitarist Kimbra. The song was released in Australia and New Zealand by Eleven Music on 5 July 2011 as the second single from Gotye's third studio album, Making Mirrors (2011). It was later released byUniversal Music in December 2011 in the United Kingdom, and in January 2012 in the United States and Ireland. "Somebody That I Used to Know" was written and recorded by Gotye at his parent's house on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria and is lyrically related to the experiences he has had with relationships.

"Somebody That I Used to Know" is a mid-tempo, indie pop, ballad song. It samples Luiz Bonfá's song "Seville" from his 1967 album Luiz Bonfa Plays Great Songs. The song received positive reception from most music critics, which noted the similarities between the song and works by Sting and American folk band Bon Iver, but said that it was crafted "for the music-buying masses". It was also compared with Human League's "Don't You Want Me". The song won the Triple J Hottest 100 poll at the end of 2011, as well as ARIA Awards for song of the year and best video, while Kimbra was voted best female artist and Gotye was named best male artist and producer of the year.

Commercially, "Somebody That I Used to Know" has become Gotye's most successful and signature song. It topped the ARIA Singles Chart, UK Singles Chart and Billboard Hot 100, as well as 23 other national charts, and reached the top 10 in more than 30 countries around the world. As of May 2012, the song has sold more than one million copies in the United Kingdom, becoming the best selling single of the year so far, and over six million in the United States. It is the third-best-selling single of all-time in Australia, having been certified 10× platinum. It is the most downloaded song of all time in Belgium, the Netherlands' most successful chart single ever (although other singles have sold more copies), and the third best-selling digital single in Germany. "Somebody That I Used to Know" has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling digital singles of all time.^[1] In its 2012 Year-End issue, Billboard ranked this song number-one in the following charts: Hot 100 Songs, Radio Songs, Digital Songs, Adult Pop Songs, and Alternative Songs. It also ranked number-one in the 2012 Year-End Canadian Hot 100 Songs chart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_That_I_Used_to_Know

Comment: If life itself is absurd (& without any a priori meaning) then where does redemption fit in? I see Love as the ultimate form of redemption of our essential humanness. But that's maybe just me. Art is another way. Action another (although there's a caveat here: be sure your actions are geared to "repairing the world" etc.). Otherwise...

Youthful love-affairs. Experiments. Sometimes they just fail. Everything is in flux & subject to temporal limits.  Sadness abounds. The Wasteland doesn't end so fast. The trek is often hard & long; while life is short & success, as Conrad wrote, far off. But...we either keep trying or we shut down. Join a monastery or a crack den.  Run off to  Himalaya ashrams or ride the NYC subway system to doom. Severe wounds to the vitals--if they don't finish you off-- take a long time to heal.

I'll revere at the least the very concept of Love in all its forms until the last. That's just the way I'm built. Testosterone? Not entirely. On occasion Love (even being in-love, & of course that means different things to different persons) takes the form of just wanting to help the beloved. Sex--& I never thought I'd say this--as has been suggested to me by a friend can sometimes just get in the way. I don't eliminate the possibility entirely in deep relationships. They really can't--in the majority of cases, as I see it-- last without intense passionate physical intimacy. (Although there must be rare instances of lovers living chaste with one another; temporarily taking a hiatus.)

To close out who better to defer to than the great love-poet Rumi?

Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy,
absentminded. Someone sober
will worry about things going badly.
Let the lover be.

Just a quick thought: The above sentiment takes courage to follow. I see the wisdom in it. However, to be totally honest: sometimes I have balls, & sometimes I don't...

That's where getting loaded comes in.

Somebody That I Used To Know
(feat. Kimbra)

[Gotye:]
Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
Told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it's an ache I still remember

You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness
Like resignation to the end, always the end
So when we found that we could not make sense
Well you said that we would still be friends
But I'll admit that I was glad it was over

But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
No you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now you're just somebody that I used to know
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

[Kimbra:]
Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believing it was always something that I'd done
But I don't wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know

[Gotye:]
But you didn't have to cut me off
Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing
And I don't even need your love
But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough
No you didn't have to stoop so low
Have your friends collect your records and then change your number
I guess that I don't need that though
Now you're just somebody that I used to know

[x2]
Somebody
(I used to know)
Somebody
(Now you're just somebody that I used to know)

(I used to know)
(That I used to know)
(I used to know)
Somebody

--song written by  Wally de Backer