1. |
An Arrow
03:40
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…And each year he will return
In the sifting silence of the falling snow
To turn the ticking, taking hand
To turn the night sky ‘round its drifting pole
Creasing the folds in our skin
And though ghosts may fill the air we breathe
Though death may provide the food we eat
And in the veins of our children, our ancestors seethe
Still we breathe as we did breathe before
So as the cold white turns/burns
And floats to the ground, breathe in
Sift the ashes
And watch ice turn to water and be gone
And begin
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2. |
Cardboard
05:20
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You showed me your teeth and I showed you my teeth
It’s just something we do to keep things running smooth
You showed me your teeth and I showed you my teeth
It’s just something we do to ‘cause it’s something we do
What is your name and what do you do?
It’s just something we say to have something to say
What is your name and what do you do?
It’s just something we say to keep things all in place
To keep ‘em all packed up in cardboard boxes
If you gave me your name, then I’m telling you I already lost it
It’s time to move on I’ve been feeling alone
Ever since I moved into this town
It’s time to get gone so I can
be as alone as I am
It’s time to get packed
It’s a long time I’ve been lacking movement
It’s time to pack up
It’s a long time I’ve been standing still
Better keep it all packed up in cardboard boxes
There’s no need to unpack or else you might have already lost it
So I keep it all packed up in cardboard boxes
If you told me your name then I’m telling you I already forgot it
If you gave me your name then I’m telling you
I’ve already lost it.
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3. |
In the Leaves
07:54
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There were times I spent with you
Times that fell away too soon
Lain against the forest floor with leaves all in our hair
But then when the tides came in
And when they’d pull me out again
And leave me lost in the leaves and fighting, fighting to be fair
But as our swaddled daughter knows
In stillness we find repose
For the earth’s embrace is waiting like a bed of fallen leaves
And though this house still looks the same
Everything has changed
But I still smell your cigarette smoke hanging in the eaves
~
Things I felt I had to say
Seeking shelter in the waves
And flinching as they crashed against you, flooding through our home
There were times I hated you
Times I let you know it too
And times I heard them breaking and taking everything for foam
~
But of all you left behind
Ten years on and still I find
When she says my name I hear your voice instead of hers
And so you put her in my care
But when I hold her in the air
With the trees above her frame I see our bodies in the dirt
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4. |
The Sinking of Orion
04:26
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5. |
Tinnitus
07:06
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Today I hear a bell-less ringing
A solemn siren singing
Wordless songs of warning
I choose to ignore
As I draw near
Singing along with the wind in the leaves
And to the heart’s slowing beats
Encrusting our bones in salty rime
And feeding islands to the tide,
“You are growing, growing older
Decades swallowed in the waves
As you draw near”
And as the leaf begins to pale
So now do the senses start to fail
And like the tolling marks the tide
So the sunlight makes me blind
And slow tinnitus dulls my ears
As the sun draws down the years,
“You are growing, growing older
Choosing to ignore
What you draw near”
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6. |
Panna a Netvor
08:00
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It was forty years younger you were saved for your skin
But if you met that beast tomorrow, would he spare you again?
As the ripples mark the surface, do the depths stay clear?
Or does scar remember what you would not hear?
How many more encounters till your dreaming gave out?
With the black claws tracing along your snow-white throat?
As your face has warped, has your heart grown pure?
How deep did you break when you could not endure?
Would you do this for me –
Make this cut somewhere secret so the scar won’t be seen?
Split this flesh from your skin so we can see what we really need?
As the ripples stir the surface, does the deep stand still?
Or does each wave remember what you could not outwill?
Now with you behind the claws how do you see the end?
Do you see everything you’ve lost, to be lost all again?
Would you do this for me –
Make your face smooth and pale as a frozen stream?
Make your body rise like ice from the bed of a creek?
And be perfect as a lily, dried, pressed, and framed,
And remain forever fixed, frozen –
Will you do this for me?
Remove innards offal so they don’t tarnish your sheen
Fill the spaces with cotton, your eyes two glass bead –
Little bird, would you do this for me?
There’s a beauty in this innocence we’d all like to hold
But our claws they can’t grasp it, so we just watch it go.
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7. |
The Giant's Arm
04:10
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8. |
Gilroy
08:19
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You were screaming with your face all pink
And the tears all on your cheeks
Your little body thrashing against anything
to blame
Just swinging your arms
At the world that had wronged you,
Could not console you,
Though the only answer was tears
This you knew
But comes a time when we box them away
Corrugated into walls, all masked over with tape
And when they’re gone we sing a different song
This he knew
I was yelling with my face all red
My cardboard teeth were shielding me from whatever I thought you’d said
And my righteous tongue was thrashing against you,
Who were to blame
Just swinging my arms
And walking toward you
No comfort could you afford
Though the only answer was tears
This you knew
But comes a time when the world takes your tongue
When all those you’ve loved are gone, no one’s left around to blame
And when they’re gone we play another game
This he knew
~
What do you do?
What do you do?
What do you do with the mad?
~
He was screaming with his jaw clenched tight
Screaming down each life like it was an unfought fight
His hot steel body thrashing against the world
that was to blame
Just swinging your arms in the crowd,
And if anyone came too close it was their fault they got gunned down.
In that world that had wronged you
Before it consoled you
In less than a minute, one more boy to fall
This, too, you knew.
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9. |
Oecanthus
03:22
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10. |
A Wilderness
12:28
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A wilderness is coming
I’ve read it in the news
I’ve heard it in the barks of good men
Settled up to lose
I’ve seen it in subzero winds
Driving ghosts of snow
Across another frozen waste
I’ve watched it in unseeing eyes
That watched the ice-drunk waters rise
And landscapes disappeared beneath the swell
I’ve felt it in the freezing
In my own frozen lack of feeling
And I’ve smelt it in its striking lack of smell
I’ve tasted it in sharp contractions
Copper boiled straight past olfaction
And onto my own boiling tongue
A wilderness is coming
A wilderness is coming
~
And I’ve watched the sky reach down
To touch the mountains over town,
And they were taken
With fire and snow and mud
I’ve heard it in the echoes growing louder than our voices
No matter how we shout into the din
I’ve seen the ravens come down from the mountain to cull the weak
And half of us were gone.
And I’ve thought it in the thoughts of men
Who search the low and high
Knowing the stars do hold their answers
But not knowing how to read the sky
Oh, a wilderness is coming
A wilderness is coming
…
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Cedar Bozeman, montana
These sounds live in a place between melody and drone, soundscape and song; between field recordings of wind, and rivers of distortion and noise. Richly textured, emotive, horrific, and deeply personal.
Cedar recommends:
Ο θάνατος του Ταύρου (Death of The Bull)
by Darja Kazimira (ft. Dagmar Gertot)
Like an ethnographic field tape of ritual music from some terrifying, imagined country bordering Tibet & the Balkans. One of the most mesmerizing & utterly unique albums I've heard.
go to albumIf you like Cedar, you may also like:
Purportedly the recordings of a disgraced experimental psychologist (you decide), “Jumand” sets spoken word to eerie synths.
go to album
A collection of unreleased material from Daniel Burke's beloved experimental project, spanning four decades of loud, off-kilter weirdness.
go to album
Seeking the intimacy of silence
by Haarvöl
These seven drone-based songs both hypnotize and unsettle, stretching bands of sound to their breaking point.
go to album
Work of Progress & Etudes
by J.Lynch
J.Lynch (aka Thirty Pounds of Bone) plays with organic elements, including prepared piano, against electronics to impressionistic effect.
go to album
ILLUSION OF SAFETY & Z'EV
by ILLUSION OF SAFETY & Z'EV
A potent sound collage from 2008-2012 by experimental titans Illusion of Safety and Z'ev.
go to album
