An Introduction to the Album
Alabaster
Producer: Brett Taylor, Pilgrim Arts: www.pilgrimarts.com
Label: Prikosnovenie, with artwork by Sabine-Adelaide: www.prikosnovenie.com
Composers: Louisa John-Krol, Mark Krol, Brett Taylor
Guest Artists:
Daemonia Nymphe
Francesco Banchini (GoR / Ataraxia)
Samantha Taylor
Harry Williamson (Faraway)
Gianluigi Gasparetti
Olaf Parusel (Stoa)
Introduction:
...the light shades bound to Pluto's realm...
with swift bark passed by the Sirens' shore.
Tibullus
Vocals & mandolin by Louisa John-Krol.
Other instruments include percussion, table harp, charango, piano, lyre, bass, ocarina, clarinet.
12 songs, recorded in 7 studios across two hemispheres, overseen by engineer Brett Taylor,
crossing genres of dream-pop, neo-classical, gothic-medieval, folk-rock, synth-pop and ambient.
"Alabaster" the album title is a tribute to lines by the poet Emily Dickinson.
Mythical basis for this album (and its twin to come) is the union of Persephone and Hades: an embrace between life and death.
Recordings are "cut" like fruit; a pomegranate ready to nourish - or cast a spell.
"The harvest of bliss or woe will be according to the seed-time of this life." Bathsua Makin
Alabaster
Individual Track Information
#1. The Throng on the Pier (3:57)
with Greek neoclassical band Daemonia Nymphe
Refers to a battle-scene in 'The Iliad' by Homer and to Dante's 'Inferno'.
But a ferryman is no longer enough. Today they are bringing in trains to carry the dead�.
#2. The Lily and the Rose (5:09)
with Francesco Banchini (GoR/Ataraxia)
An anonymous 16th century love poem, which might describe plague, rape, or love.
#3. Waterwood (2:17)
For my niece Lucy, after she had an operation on her eyes. I was thinking of how in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', Puck sprinkles magic dew into eyes of mortals. Can we see the world through the eyes of a child, with wonder? Initial tracks made with Lys in France
#4. Stone Lake (5:38)
Lakes around Melbourne (Blue-Stone Lake� Moondarra�) shine with translucent light. Our oceans are pristine yet treacherous. I have swum in waves coming up from Antarctica, wild and clear. The sand is like velvet, the shoreline shines like a mirror, but the tide is stronger than human will.
#5. Me and the Machine (5:07)
A parody of ego / alter-ego, identity / image in our technocratic age. What powers are unleashed? What feelings are repressed, denied or forbidden? A reference to Gurdjieff, who suggests many of us are just sleeping machines, feeding energy for the moon.
#6. Light on the Wall (4:22)
How much of our experience is bound to this dimension? How much of this world is a dream, how many other versions of us dwell in Parallel lives?
#7. The Seventh Ingress (3:24)
with Olaf Parusel (Stoa)
An improvised piece with Olaf Parusel made in Germany 2001. Part of a series of sketches, we kept this one in its original form. From his window I could see the buildings and skies over Halle.
#8. Paint the Wind (3:45)
Dedicated to the artist Karan Wicks, who contributed cover-paintings for my 3rd CD 'Ariel' and Australian edition of my 2nd CD 'Alexandria'. Initial tracks made with Lys in France
#9. How should I your true love know? (3:29)
Ophelia's song from 'Hamlet' (Shakespeare/Walsingham) when she goes mad with grief at her father's death and Hamlet's apparent estrangement, after which she drowns herself. For me, Ophelia's death is more poignant than Shakespeare's other female suicides such as Lady Macbeth or Juliet, for they had power over men, whereas Ophelia strikes me as the sweetest, loneliest and most fragile of women.
#10. The Search for Lost Souls - Midnight (7:49)
Poem 419 by the American poet, Emily Dickinson.
#11. Approaching the Island of Sirens (9:45)
with Gianluigi Gasparetti (Oophoi)
The voyager is led by sirens whose intentions are ambiguous: to guide you to safety, or draw you more deeply into the depths of the sea?
#12. Dancing over Acheron (8:15)
The ghosts of a bride and her groom dance over one of the five rivers of Hades.
Producer: Brett Taylor, Pilgrim Arts: www.pilgrimarts.com
Label: Prikosnovenie, with artwork by Sabine-Adelaide: www.prikosnovenie.com
Composers: Louisa John-Krol, Mark Krol, Brett Taylor
Guest Artists:
Daemonia Nymphe
Francesco Banchini (GoR / Ataraxia)
Samantha Taylor
Harry Williamson (Faraway)
Gianluigi Gasparetti
Olaf Parusel (Stoa)
Introduction:
...the light shades bound to Pluto's realm...
with swift bark passed by the Sirens' shore.
Tibullus
Vocals & mandolin by Louisa John-Krol.
Other instruments include percussion, table harp, charango, piano, lyre, bass, ocarina, clarinet.
12 songs, recorded in 7 studios across two hemispheres, overseen by engineer Brett Taylor,
crossing genres of dream-pop, neo-classical, gothic-medieval, folk-rock, synth-pop and ambient.
"Alabaster" the album title is a tribute to lines by the poet Emily Dickinson.
Mythical basis for this album (and its twin to come) is the union of Persephone and Hades: an embrace between life and death.
Recordings are "cut" like fruit; a pomegranate ready to nourish - or cast a spell.
"The harvest of bliss or woe will be according to the seed-time of this life." Bathsua Makin
Alabaster
Individual Track Information
#1. The Throng on the Pier (3:57)
with Greek neoclassical band Daemonia Nymphe
Refers to a battle-scene in 'The Iliad' by Homer and to Dante's 'Inferno'.
But a ferryman is no longer enough. Today they are bringing in trains to carry the dead�.
#2. The Lily and the Rose (5:09)
with Francesco Banchini (GoR/Ataraxia)
An anonymous 16th century love poem, which might describe plague, rape, or love.
#3. Waterwood (2:17)
For my niece Lucy, after she had an operation on her eyes. I was thinking of how in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', Puck sprinkles magic dew into eyes of mortals. Can we see the world through the eyes of a child, with wonder? Initial tracks made with Lys in France
#4. Stone Lake (5:38)
Lakes around Melbourne (Blue-Stone Lake� Moondarra�) shine with translucent light. Our oceans are pristine yet treacherous. I have swum in waves coming up from Antarctica, wild and clear. The sand is like velvet, the shoreline shines like a mirror, but the tide is stronger than human will.
#5. Me and the Machine (5:07)
A parody of ego / alter-ego, identity / image in our technocratic age. What powers are unleashed? What feelings are repressed, denied or forbidden? A reference to Gurdjieff, who suggests many of us are just sleeping machines, feeding energy for the moon.
#6. Light on the Wall (4:22)
How much of our experience is bound to this dimension? How much of this world is a dream, how many other versions of us dwell in Parallel lives?
#7. The Seventh Ingress (3:24)
with Olaf Parusel (Stoa)
An improvised piece with Olaf Parusel made in Germany 2001. Part of a series of sketches, we kept this one in its original form. From his window I could see the buildings and skies over Halle.
#8. Paint the Wind (3:45)
Dedicated to the artist Karan Wicks, who contributed cover-paintings for my 3rd CD 'Ariel' and Australian edition of my 2nd CD 'Alexandria'. Initial tracks made with Lys in France
#9. How should I your true love know? (3:29)
Ophelia's song from 'Hamlet' (Shakespeare/Walsingham) when she goes mad with grief at her father's death and Hamlet's apparent estrangement, after which she drowns herself. For me, Ophelia's death is more poignant than Shakespeare's other female suicides such as Lady Macbeth or Juliet, for they had power over men, whereas Ophelia strikes me as the sweetest, loneliest and most fragile of women.
#10. The Search for Lost Souls - Midnight (7:49)
Poem 419 by the American poet, Emily Dickinson.
#11. Approaching the Island of Sirens (9:45)
with Gianluigi Gasparetti (Oophoi)
The voyager is led by sirens whose intentions are ambiguous: to guide you to safety, or draw you more deeply into the depths of the sea?
#12. Dancing over Acheron (8:15)
The ghosts of a bride and her groom dance over one of the five rivers of Hades.
