about
THE CRYSTAL JOY
This is the mythology of how Shade and Flake came into being.
It incorporates the sounds of skissors, a piano accordian, and the ticking of a clock and the manipulations of these sounds within a soundscape, over which a poem and guitar part are delivered.
ABOUT SHADE AND FLAKE
In 2006 I made a white top hat and a black top hat. In the night I woke up, put the hats on in front of the mirror, and out came the two poems “Shade’s Theme” and “Flake’s Theme”. I proceeded to make two costumes, write music for them using my loop machine, and started performing the two pieces in open mics. The poem “The Crystal Joy” followed in 2007 (performed at The Bath Story Telling Circle), but it wasn’t until 2009 that the concept E.P. took shape, and not until 2011 that the prologue and epilogue poems were written and recorded.
The opening piece contains the lines:
From out two hats the brothers crept
to duel upon the life of knots entwined.
So know we well, how through the darkness pass
the tormented writhings of our minds.
and the final piece contains the lines:
You who would the knots of night to make untie
In error do you toil alone.
Our knots shall breaken be, by the medicines of laughter
And melted by the warmth of gentles’ love
Copyright Ash Mandrake 2011
These are reflections from personal experience of struggling through depression, and how the way through it may be simpler than one might imagine at the time.
lyrics
THE CRYSTAL JOY
Before the smiling of the stars
Before the meteors had tried to scar the dark
The crystal joy, complete as only one can be
Had charmed the emptiness into a sleep
And placed a spell upon the nothing where it lay
Before the land and seas were done
Before the birthing of the sun
The crystal sung itself a lullaby no more
And was woken by its loneliness
Before the earth was smashed into a spin
Before the moon was hurled into the void
The crystal grinned and cracked itself in two
Then mindful of another...
Whispered light into the dark...
To see its brother
credits
from
Footprints From A Tribal Id 2012,
track released August 5, 2012
Sound scape: Ash Mandrake
Vocals: Ash Mandrake
Guitar: Ash Mandrake
Mixing: Ash Mandrake
Mastering: Sprog
Paul Nocher for the loan of a recording system and Mic
Adam at The Percy Community Centre, Bath for use of a room for recording.
license
all rights reserved