1. |
Stahlhartes Gehäuse
18:43
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Stahlhartes Gehäuse - a song of many parts
A. De Petrecut
B. Curse Upon Iron - Kaua Needmine
C. Stahlhartes Gehäuse - Part 1
D. Klage II - Lament II
E. Stahlhartes Gehäuse - Part 2
F. Ma Uitai Spre Rasarit
A. De Petrecut
Fire, fire, trandafire
Dar tu ce te-ai zăbovit
Şi n-ai înflorit?…
Bud, Bud, Rosebud
Why did you wait so long to bloom.
To bloom?…
De Petrecut” is a Romanian ritual funeral song to accompany the deceased as they transition into the other world. Stemming from the Borlovenii Vechi in Banat this selection of drone harmony which is sung on the way to the graveyard of which is sung directions for a safe journey. Other “laments” are sung by key women at certain prescribed moments that beseech the sun not to rise till the dead person has all the food and drink they need for their journey “from the land of pity to the pitiless land,” or speak of planting and decorating a pine tree at the head of the grave. These chants are what survive from an archaic oral tradition. Here we lament the death of modern civilization in the grips of the stranglehold of rationality.
B. Curse Upon Iron - Kaua Needmine
In “The Curse Upon Iron” or Raua Needmine in the original Estonian, we fuse a magical hex conducted by Veiljo Tormis into a martial drum piece. Here we strive to sever iron from its power over us and to regain our hold over it. Based in shamanism and the ritual incantations of the Finnish Epic the Kalevala, Tormis notes that, “in order to acquire power over a material or immaterial thing, one communicates knowledge to the object. Thus the describing and explaining of the birth of iron to iron itself forms a part of the shamanic process. The magical rite is performed to restrain the evil hiding inside iron. Each and every thing created by man may turn against man himself when used without respect towards the living.”
C. Stahlhartes Gehäuse - Part 1
Knife like life
Cased in steel
This life under duress
Drenched in Axiom
Steel hard casing
These prison walls enclosing
Housed in unrelenting demand
Coffins engulfed in flames
Stahlhartes Gehäuse
Shackled enslaved steel cage
Steel graves death embrace
Condemned and damned to lie
Pressed within an iron cage
This light cloak no more
This harsh razor existence
This harsh razor existence
Coffins nailed into place
Gutted embalmed euthanized
Coffins nailed into place
Gutted, embalmed, euthanized
Stahlhartes Gehäuse the third piece in this overall movement is a four part song. Here the Curse, this Hex incanted upon Iron, we place in a larger construct; that which is the basis for Max Weber’s theory. We pull the various threads of the phrase apart and regain a foothold on their implications. Break its spell by casting our own by naming it and recounting to itself its properties. This is intersected midway through by a break in which a poem from the great Austrian poet Georg Trakl is recited. Klage II or Lament II is a sympathetic allusion to the plight of humankind as this intersection, in the stranglehold of this prison, this ‘light cloak,’ to be shed at a moments notice, is our guillotine. We are the crimson body dashed on horrid reefs.
D. Klage II (Lament II)
Schlaf und Tod, die düsteren Adler
Umrauschen nachtlang dieses Haupt:
Des Menschen goldnes bildnis
Verschlänge die eisige Woge der Ewigkeit.
An schaurigen Riffen zerschellt der purpurne Leib.
Und es klagt eine dunkle Stimme über dem Meer.
Schwester stürmischer Schwermut
Sieh ein ängstlicher Kahn versinkt unter Sternen,
Dem schweigendem Antlitz der Nacht.
Sleep and Death the gloomy eagles
Whirr all night about this head:
The icy wave of Eternity
May devour the golden image of man.
On horrid reefs the crimson body is dashed
And the dark voice laments over the sea.
Sister of stormy melancholy
Look a tremendous boat is sinking beneath the stars,
To the mute countenance of night
Klage II or Lament II is a poem by the great Austrian poet Georg Trakl (1887 -1914) chosen by Markus Wolff as fitting allusion to Weber’s theory. One of the last poems he wrote before taking his own life, while in the military working as a doctor caring for the wounded and dying on the front in WWI.
D. Stahlhartes Gehäuse - Part 2
Stahlhartes Gehäuse
Knife like life
Cased in steel
This life under duress
Drenched in axiom
Coffins aflame
Cased in steel
Steel hard casing
These prison walls enclosing
Housed in unrelenting demand
Coffins engulfed in flames
Stahlhartes Gehäuse
Shackled enslaved steel cage
Steel graves death embrace
Condemned and damned to lie
Coffins aflame!
Coffins aflame!
E. Ma Uitai Spre Rasarit
Foaie verde margarit,
Ma uitai spre Rasarit,
Vazui primavara vind.
Eu cunos’ vara când vine
Pa fluturi sspa albine,
Pa frunza da maracine,
Pa cântatul cucului,
Pa haitul plugului.
Primavara cand soseste
Neica la plug îmi haieste,
Mândra la pânza-mi nalbeste,
Cine om atunci traieste
Si ce-I place tot iubeste.
I Looked Toward the Rising Sun
Green leaf of the daisy,
I looked toward the sun,
I saw springtime coming.
I know spring when it comes,
By the butterflies and bees,
By the hoys of the plowman.
As the spring arrives,
The young man gets ready to plow.
His sweetheart starts bleaching the cloth.
It’s then that a bold man really lives
And makes love to every girl that pleases him
Ma Uitai Spre Rasarit the final movement is translated as “I looked toward the rising sun” here at the end of this journey we beseech the sun to return and greet it with optimism and nostalgia. A donia from Lelesi, Gorj sung by the queen of donia singers the Oltenian Gypsy Maria Lataretu.
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2. |
Psalm of Misery
12:04
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Psalm Of Misery
Misery
Knot the noose of the hanged man
Melancholy gripping the throat
The night reaches out
To choke the haunted castle of memory
This psalm of misery
Tongue heavy with coffins
The black wings of the grave
Grown decrepit with rage
This psalm of misery
Our dead mouths sing
Seizing the throat
This psalm of misery
Misery
The world’s eyes are blind skies
Black sun in an impenetrable night
The hard stupidity of man
Will greet the law of the knife
Night falls within us
Verbannt, vergessen und gefesselt
Die Klinge berührt die zuckende Zunge
Stählerne Gräber bergen gläserne Wut
Die eisige Stirn fühlt die gleissende Glut
(Banished and bound, and forgotten
The blade touches the twitching tongue
Steel graves conceal vitreous rage
The ice cold forehead feels the luminous blaze)
You will bite the horrible sun
You will pay for your share of hate
Cast the lime on our open graves
You will bite the horrible sun
You will pay for your share of hate
You will bite the horrible sun
You will pay for your share of hate
Slit the throat of man
Psalm of misery
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3. |
Perdition
13:53
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Perdition
Mankind drawn within the jaws of fire
A roll of drums
Blood red eucharist
Ravens plash in gory gutters
Carrion scented funeral procession.
Perdition
Bells tolling the flight of murder
Black birds lament from barren branches
Night falls into burial urns
An empty grave languid with death
How dark this endless night
Against a countenance of crimson flame
Blood red wound, a darkened chamber
Sweet breath of decay
Perdition
Bells tolling the flight of murder
Black birds lament from barren branches
Night falls into burial urns
Black dew drips from barren willows
Black blood runs from the throat
At our feet, the graves of the dead
Open to our future, our perdition
(Filled with festering sighs, facing our open graves)
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