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Dem Sonnengott – (Friedrich Hoelderlin)
Wo bist du? Trunken dammert die Seele mir
Von aller deiner Wonne;denn eben ist’s,
Dass ich gesehn, wie, muede seiner
Fahrt, der entzukende Goetterjuengling
Die jungen Loken badet’ im Goldgewoelk’;
Und jetzt noch blikt mein Auge von selbst nach ihm;
Doch fern ist er zu frommen Voelkern,
Die ihn noch ehren, hinweggegangen.
Dich lieb’ ich, Erde! trauerst du doch mit mir!
Und unsre Trauer wandelt, wie Kinderschmerz,
In Schlummer sich, und wie die Winde
Flattern und fluestern im Saitenspiele,
Bis ihm des Meisters Finger den schoenern Ton
Entlokt, so spielen Nebel und Traeum’ um uns,
Bis der Geliebte wiederkoemt und
Leben und Geist sich in uns entzuendet.
Dem Sonnengott (Through fire we live)
Wake up …. Sleepy head …. Wake up!
Wake up …. Sleepy head …
Erebus has given way
to the heralds of the day
Golden angels spread their wings
and enfold you ….
In the presence of the light
Bringing warmth and giving life
to the ones, who drink it in
Our beloved …
Wake up …. Open up … Unfurl
Reach out … open up….
(Michael Hamburger's translation of the original German poem)
To the Sun-God
Where are you? Dazzled, drunken my soul grows faint
And dark with so much gladness; for only now
It was I watched while weary with his
Course, the enrapturing sun-god lingered
To bathe his youthful locks in the golden clouds;
And, full of him, my eyes of themselves gaze on,
Though far from here, to pious nations
Who still revere him, by now he’s journeyed.
You, Earth, I love who join me in mourning him,
And like the griefs of children our mourning turns
To sleep and, much as in the lyre-strings
Fluttering winds will run wild and whisper
Until the master’s finger lures forth a tone
More pure, so dreams and mist all around us play
Until the loved one comes again and
Kindles new life in our minds, new vigour.
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Gothique
The foster child of Tigresses
Is steaming over Russian Steppes,
Careering over mountain tracks
in terror of the lupine pack
She remember everything
Remembers it so perfectly
The souvenirs of old Japan
The Junks on the South China Sea
Welcome to the bestial room
Some call this room “the Sphere of Spheres”
You enter for your life’s desires
But find inside your fear of fears
I always knew I’d die of love
Disguises offered no defence
My tainted lover
murdered me without pretence
So like these fables, this real life
No happy ending for the teller
nor the hero, as he fails
Living in a magic toyshop
Leda meets her clockwork swan
-a nightmare with a fiery ending
So few survive to meet the dawn
High amongst the cloudy uplands
there’s no brightness in the air
for the Executioner’s daughter.
Time suspended like the rain.
She always knew she’d die of love
~To think otherwise was foolish
No solace for her broken heart
Just echoes of reality
No fortune, fame or glory
only death …
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Human Nature
Lately I have been contemplating my position
Just how much of what I do is of my own volition
What drives the cogs that lead to cognition
Some would ascertain, it’s all down to evolution
What is the essence of human nature?
Blessing or curse, what is human nature?
Divine intention and goals – a battle for our souls?
What is the nature of human nature?
So do we all start off as tabula rasa?
Then we break out in experiential stigmata
Corruption and passion embodied in matter
With no hope of redemption until the hereafter….?
What is the meaning of human nature?
What else do I have, but my human nature?
We all contain a drive – to fight and to survive
But there has to be more to human nature
Original sin or typical tendencies?
We conjure up gods to serve our dependencies!
We’re all refusing to see what our nature compels us to be
The pressures of social mores that bind us to society…
Why are so full of such hate and derision?
Are our bigotries core or a conscious decision?
Our society seems to thrive on division
Even though we are capable of some higher vision
The spiritual ghost in human nature
The body & breath is human nature
We are a cosmic spark
We see the light, we feel the dark
The dichotomy that is human nature
The doctrine of sin turned me right off theology
So I’ve been reading up on socio-biology
There’s a certain beauty to philosophical anthropology
but the answer might lie in evolutionary psychology …
HUMAN!
… I’m sorry, we're terribly confused!
… I’m just so confused!
… I’m sorry, we're terribly confused!
… We have NO idea!
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Flow
Feel the breathing the in and out of it
BREATHE
Feel the living the ebb and the flow
LOVE
Secret aquifers and aquaporins
STREAM
Feel the pulling the ebb and flow
OOOOH
FEEL THE FLOW
The wealth of all the give and take of it
OUR CURRENCY
On a knife edge disaster or joy
A DANCE OF
She will find a way nothing will constrain her
AAAAY
With the gift of life or the power to destroy
RUSH
FEEL THE FLOW
Love …. the sacrifice of it
Given freely …. at the highest cost
A mystery of the purest origin
LIFE
At the heart of it or we are all lost
SWIM
FEEL THE FLOW
Minnows glide in dappled pools,
feel the echoes of the turning moon
In the deep and dark
our shadows entwine
Every creature, every cell
is born to swim with the tide
And then comes the current
to carry us away!
FEEL THE FLOW
FOR THE LOVE OF WATER
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The Women
I sold the moon and stars to buy your love,
but never could raise quite enough collateral
to clear the debt for being born,
for being your child,
for being your blessing and your curse, or worse.
I threw the towel in and I left
I reneged on every deal,
bad debts, bad feelings only time could heal.
I fled a childhood overcast by fear,
by your oppressive presence, mother dear.
With no regrets, no nagging doubts ,
my heart was hard and true,
I shed the skin you birthed me in
and grew, without you.
But now we barter day to day
in goods we can afford.
In daily bread, not constellations,
keeping all our expectations real.
One step, then another, I stop and hold my breath
We have become much closer since your death.
Is it the shared experience, or something in the genes?
I’m searching for an answer, for some meaning.
I had to undergo the test and wear the veil of pain.
The only way to stop the cycle going round again …
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Into the East
We who once were are scattered into seed
The last of our knowing looking to the East
look into the East
The earth is quiet now - rocking us to sleep
So many souls to keep
Life yet to come - through fire and ice released
Life going somewhere - back into the East
look into the East
We learn to listen - messages are sent
“What we have will never end.”
Forever evolving - becoming other things
Life will continue - hear the planet sing
Into the East
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This album has had the longest gestation of any album so far - the last album, "Under the Sun" - was released in October 2016. There are many reasons for this - relating to our everyday lives - that we won't cover here. The effect however, has been to make us reconsider many pieces that we had composed over the years and had never seen the light of day. Some even go back over 5 years to the sessions that led to the "Demon" album.
Much has changed in that time - evolution being inevitable as we develop musically, hear new inspirational artists and composers and acquire new bits of kit. There have also been huge changes in our home circumstances so that as a band, Not for Pussies is going into a new phase, where the time-consuming process of writing/recording will have to balance with the new goal of playing live - something we haven't done for nearly 10 years!
The songs have come together to create a loose "narrative" (yes, we are shamelessly okay with that kind of highbrow "progressive" stuff) and takes us from the sunrise, heralded by the Sun God ("Dem Sonnengott") through a journey involving death, destruction, and relationships, terror and doubt before returning to the optimism and potential of the new sunrise "Into the East".
released February 2, 2019
All songs written, recorded and produced by Not for Pussies at Stellasounds studio, Stronachie, between 2013-2019.
