A collaboration with Karin Augenmerk on her great spoken poem ‘These Days’.
I used a single guitar to accompany, and at times counterpart - or countermand, the words; my whole intention being to make the poem - and Karin's voice - central.
The poem reminds me of the Nietzschean warning to those who want to be ‘at one’ with Nature.
A Nature that is cruel, inhuman, fickle, inequitable and terrifying ...
... so you want to be ‘at one’ with that?
Amazing treatment of Karin's voice..gives it such an otherworldly authority and omniscience. Immense guitar sounds..perfect topography
- great summation, if I may say so -
wow Bill what music!!!
Thanks Karin - there's music even in distortion and feedback!
the changing timbre of voice ... incredible coloring and changing the atmosphere, your music streams effortless ages, mankind , inner and outer development, this is such a magic present, wow thank you Bill for the honor!!!
: It was by getting inside your words, wrapping them around me like a sheet ... it was the mountain peaks ... I wanted your voice to have such peaks to ... dredging up from the deepest wells of sound, and twisting macabre in the Macbethean wind ... I wanted to suggest all this ... make all this appear .. it is a real pleasure for me to know that you think I may have achieved some of that ...
mind-blowing strong!!! incredible opening space
Thanks Karin - your words conveyed wide open inhospitable spaces, barren regions with huge mountains and deep valleys - I tried to convey that with the sounds
i love very much your approach!!
Although I know this is a strange thing to say, as this is a somewhat uncharacteristic piece for you, it may also be my favorite. Then again, there are so many good ones from which to choose.
- I'm just happy to get a bit of variety in there, thanks to Karin. I must say, I'm not happy with a track until you have listened to it and commented on it -
You took the most right approach to this, in my view. "Dueting" with Karin. I'll bet she respects it.
Well, I have taken some liberties with her vocal, stretching it here and there [well, everywhere] ...
for my "money", this shows you at your best
oh, my.
Cry Baby Wah pedal came in handy on this one!
wow. very impressive to hear you so exposed.
: I've just realised that that is what the words demand - the poem is a monologue on a bare mountain ... that's why I have approached it that
sinister!
: all left-hand path stuff!
The tracks lead to the fuzz chamber!
That repeat begs for a segue into something with a martial beat!
Go ask Alice, when you're buzzsaw tall!
I used the Zoom Tri-Metal pedal on this, although I intended to use my Fuzz Face. Unfortunately, when I plugged it in, the battery was completely flat. I could have changed it, but I was in the mood to play there and then, and didn't want to cool off changing a battery. As you know, you can't use a mains adaptor on a Fuzz Face, so I used the Zoom instead. Very different sound.
Yea, that's a problem with most of the germanium monsters. My FF-based monster can be AC-powered, but it was designed from the getgo to be. My Tonebender Mk2...nogo,battery only, and it likes half-drained ones.
Yeah, the Fuzz Face would have been warmer, so there's a slight regret, but I didn't want to lose the feeling I had to smack these sounds down.
Yea, I get that, it's why I have everything ready to roll around me and love the electronic tuners on the Paul - I can be recording within 30s of sitting down.
A carnival snarl in mist, it wouldn't have worked with tons of layers.
No - when the voice goes low it reminded me so much of Nico ... and while I haven't listened to them in a while [I'll remedy that] I loved her three solo albums, Marble Index, Desertshore and The End. This is very different, but there's a connection ... you are right to use the word 'mist' and 'carnival snarl' ... very Nico
Yea, she was really on when I'm in the mood for her. Not an everyday thing to be sure...but...nothing else quite like her.
quite chilling to hear a live tape of her playing a solo version of The End on an old harmonium!
Those were force of nature moments!
Sometimes, one makes their peace with cruel nature - the abyss does more than stare back!
lyrics
1
These days I am swamp, I’m mountain and dale.
I’m deep, I’m steep, I’m dumb and deaf,
my word gets lost on me.
Landslide is, the year of power passed.
Screens of fog run through me
till blind and dark I touch the ground,
still resisting.
2
How may my shield break away
without pervading sun,
without meadows floating me green
and water that allays?
Who climbs free, once my vision has gone
and my strength has turned?
Where to tears me the war?
3
Scarce years at the bottom of breath -
I’m clouds, I’m abyss and sea.
Demons and angels rise
My light fades and glints
Years run through me
Caught in a circle I surround me
The world’s beauty mere sensing
Busy life far away.
4
Has the wall penetrated me,
leaning me bare against the cleft?
I’m falling not knowing the end.
But in the thick of it you cannot get out.
At times the world reaches hands to me,
at times a river flows through,
sometimes voices.
My inner eyes still weighty with tears.
5
You filled me full, life, glass from which I drink,
Now I’m the mountain that I ascend.
I’m the canyon into which I jump.
My own dance has changed and emptied me.
Silence yet.
6
Are you quiet, world?
Another door is opening, another view.
Accordance now
between soles and the ground,
Confine myself to one step, in which I’m whole.
And within me one wakes up,
whose dance is not exhausted yet,
but innocent and loud.
7
Here, this bird is mine and his tone am I.
I extend these wings, I paint him colourful.
I throw him the flight.
I raise him out of flames, out of calm waiting.
8
Behind the dark horizon there is the sun.
The sun-hour clears and the nightbark lands.
The silent sea sets me free
into a new measure of time.
My step has got other tracks.
credits
from King Chaos,
released December 4, 2017
Augenmerk, vocals, words;
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