These words (Latin for ‘Behold the man’) come from a tragic moment in Jesus’ biography. In painters’ renderings of the moment, Pilate’s hands are often open towards Jesus, directing our eyes to Him, as if to say: “what has he done? What have we done?”
Of the bird called carduelis carduelis, there are hundreds of very clear appearances in religious and secular art - if you fancy some better-researched renaissance info, Herbert Friedmann has the book for you, called The Symbolic Goldfinch. But I didn’t know about any of this when I wrote a poem, years ago, one morning.
As botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer says, "The idea of reciprocity, of recognizing that we humans do have gifts that we can give in return for all that has been given to us [by nature] is, I think, a really generative and creative way to be a human in the world."
Song Stories: The New Direction It starts in Lucerne, Switzerland, where I’m interrailing with a couple of school buddies. In the middle of an unscheduled, ramshackle journey we find a very chilled point by the Lake. There’s a music fest happening nearby, and the only act I remember now are AK4711, an all-female German band… Continue reading Build the World You See in Your Head
At last, a seven-song mini-album which you can listen to with your ears! Right here. This weekend it's exclusively on Bandcamp, where you can hear the songs in their entirety, download them in whichever format you like, and see the full lyrics and credits. As I'm still rather tired and beatific like a student after an all-nighter,… Continue reading Flora & Fauna Side A – hear it today!
The album opener is ‘Kingfishers Catch Fire’, a song I've been trying to harness for years. Though it got a 2020 update, the lyric was mostly written in 2014, whirling out of me with caffeinated ease in a single session...
For Flora & Fauna, I’ve been recording demo’s at home, to flesh out or re-draft later. Often it’s like a body having all its cells regenerated – every original recorded element, or cell, gets replaced by a better take or better idea, but overall it’s still the same beast. This one went through sooo much re-drafting.
Remember when songs were sung? Actual air, from actual lungs?
I've been taking audio recordings of the sea, of rivers, creating software instruments out of samples I made in a forest and just loving how the growing world (plant life, recently fledged birds, amphibians) has given me therapy while the human world has been rather locked down.
Think of the places you've lived in your life. Time spent anywhere is always limited, but now I'm aware of just how limited that time is. Here are some priorities I've made (& ignored)...
Culture Me Up 