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Made From A Broken Star - 135CD (2022)

by Army Of Briars

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Sax panel card sleeve and booklet with artwork by Julie Cole

    Includes unlimited streaming of Made From A Broken Star - 135CD (2022) via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £10 GBP  or more

     

1.
rainfall the valley rests how fell the dust of an open house caressing memory the garden in a kind of gathered waiting shadow drinks cold i have put tigers there the leopard wet grass bent kale and spinach with tiny bright tongues speak it: i have been like sound on a raindrop raincloud blinding the lake’s eye i have been the heart that never beats but flows away on my two feet in the forest a ribbon of green lightfeather air fumbles in black crowns of wet birch and sycamore
2.
Go Song 04:33
go song enter her thoughts like a bird that enters the green horizon fall like one leaf exactly onto her shoulder like one rain drop onto her eyelashes and change it all send leaves from her fingernails opening and scattered and rooted and broken and growing and empty and running and torn and held and fallen afire and leaving and pollen and ember and thirsty and petal and dying and snowdrop arriving again again on the red wall the tiny holly tree thrills in the wind polished green crackling spineflower the stream forcing its way up again how will we live? what is the least bread of living? to stand in space hugging the garden? the tiny birds fly off with it bouncing through dense branches singing its secrets in a tongue beyond us i could be all i wished to be with a pen in my hand
3.
Arbor Low 03:59
trembling all of it except the stones jewels fallen from cloud cloud-coloured wearing medals of lichen earned under cold time peppery rain but they’re warm these stones the summer still in them all the dry grass undone rippling with praise in the wind’s temple asleep or eyes staring upward into light years of sun all this they see all in their mind’s eye grass hymns sinuous and hesitant the song of curves and searching: we have licked all surfaces to test them we have looked in all the weave of this for everything our song is everything swept into one long shape one long phrase i am on the lip of the wind’s fall i am the black rag lost and resolving into a crow i live on the wing-thin surface of disappearance here i meet all that happens or has happened i never leave i have learnt to be grass
4.
slow sun signals through torn cloud stones of the old mill bask in fact why is the traffic so secure? to learn again what song was over and over long notes on the edge of breath do not equal it the world of music far from here inside the body closed in here a little oak tree at the hedge foot green as a lime and springy with two leaves where my heart lives who escapes? and through what door? the leaves sink into me and change i fall through the leaves and change they found cellars hung with scarves of dust to hold their children they found only the cage of the sabbath to stage their exhaustion they found earthless theatres of soot to hang clean clothes they found the furnace of rum to burn their images all falling pinched to disaster always falling hopeless and employed now they lie fixed in my mouth like a host of wooden tongues all who pass my way are changed who is lost? and through what door?
5.
green air between trees slanting white dust through swart sycamore a roof of feather-light slow rain silver-green jackdaws pepper it falls out of time with itself a reforming monster strides the lanes like rain
6.
made from a broken star i am exactly what you are come from afar when white was black went out into the dark home on a flight’s arc falling through years of light ripped down the wall of night making every handhold bright kiss of particles in love with time quicken the heart’s fire quicken the stone’s climb universe in a lover’s eyes gazing onto dust like rain that flies above a rising tide
7.
having nothing i have nothing to justify no character only choice across the landscape right or wrong wind moans in the rooftimbers cold september sunlight the trees are green only last week we saw swifts summer’s confusion coming clear all we have is to live tender buds without recollection push at the dry dam of every leaf to fall in useful dissolution the minerals of a smile stay close to the heart’s fist that’ll grip all misplanted flowers and sail out free will the rootless die? what am i? each goes into death as if under trees a history of touch a crowd in rain
8.
jack of all trades master of none keeps all the trees alive the deer know him and move slowly round his hands listen on tree trunks learning the heft of the wind jack of all trades master of none attends to every tree their wishing choir turns slowly round root-deep frequencies in the song jack of all trades master of none converses with flies bright metal on cherrybark turns swiftly round to follow the jackdaws’ casual descent jack of all trades master of none knows the map of saplings the badger’s path no need to turn around he hears the tide come over the grass jack of all trades master of none as if on the bridge of the sailing wood wishes into distance a long romance to uphold song
9.
birchsong of waterleaves swerves into harsh whispering there must be time for the stript twigs of wornaway heather there must be time for the single green birchleaf to dither crosswise and land in the heatherflowers alone there must be time for words to form around the sooty legs of the birch grove there must be time for the pine cone shadowblue within ochre-green blades i thought i had never prayed until i saw you dancing among the nine ladies your hair swept back reappearing like an echo danced of leaf-fall small decisive searching of ants
10.
Birdflight 01:58
all song bound in the heart of a bird birdflight beats in the heart of each song music is the see-saw deer cantering the stag sounds across the valley a harsh tenor
11.
the privileged weep so bad the times become the pen is empty? write with charcoal rain the kindest water rolls off the atlantic onto our wounded moor a salve of powder a shower of kisses knocking on seeds’ deep thatch drink of the universe clear dusk light the town folds flat angular & interlocked in grey and black and all its men and women merely players
12.
this is the sum the seen and heard: i will not walk this world as if in constant need strength flies to my arm sky drifts on my eyes soon the swifts and swallows will carve from air such shapes as make my song a doctorate in the movements of grass to disappear into looking light through glass the gale has dragged is claggy tail off to Norway still day clears of frost making faint smoke-mist under cloudscrape ready for sun green has begun oakwood stained by buds
13.
think of a time when the sky could be described the oak could be described white-hot black silk tremor at dusk before autumn uncertain light shifts cloud-weft stretches apart frays into blue to compress into number the skies in one day to fit on a dice in a pocket precious and smooth this and the call that brings it the hand that turns it so the eye contains a whole sky cloud-drift through the heart
14.
my voice become dust become starlight wind combs the canal my voice become sun in the swollen poppy coursing of light under ribbed petalskin voice become each pinpoint open mouth of the buds’ choir now pass and drift like sun through water voice become spiral flightdance frictionless orbit of bees butterfly petalwing lightskin voice become silk and stained-glass bluebottle motionless a moment on neon leaf like the world’s jewel unnoticed first and last voice become soft and delicate as moonlight’s kiss i have been the sap’s tide crystalline wire upflood into the moon’s pursed mouth oakdance under gales i improvised all for the purpose of falling i have seen my own hand vanish in soft rain i have been poured like a leaf into earth like a leaf’s wafer on the meadow’s green tongues i have been sung now
15.
a book put me here to watch the rain eat green into snow-patched moors the room and its music pretending as if that could begin it a clean flight's arc over the naked valley only sticks of rain below soft and cold
16.
in part two our hero dissolves into a tree like fog in the arms of a thorn a making bud an escapee i do not set my life at a pin’s fee dandelions plan grow tense to spring out light tilt on the current clouds lit silver magnesium run shadow sea-grey bruise words fall a field of rosebay in seed moulting all they remember all the garlands i might weave or hammers wield ---------------------------------------- rainfall the valley rests how fell the dust of an open house caressing memory the garden in a kind of gathered waiting shadow drinks cold i have put tigers there the leopard wet grass bent kale and spinach with tiny bright tongues speak it: i have been like sound on a raindrop raincloud blinding the lake’s eye i have been the heart that never beats but flows away on my two feet in the forest a ribbon of green lightfeather air fumbles in black crowns of wet birch and sycamore

about

"Made From A Broken Star is a most beguiling artistic statement that’s nigh irresistible both in its proud natural strangeness and in its uniquely original and powerful musical and lyrical expression. Diversity of expression, aural stimulation and honest experimentation go hand in hand with allowable and welcome creative eccentricity, while the level of musicianship ensures that the end product, while lovingly and painstakingly crafted, is shot through with integrity and a real sense of purpose. This is enhanced by the enclosed lyrics-booklet, which is adorned with a host of wonderful illustrations by Julie herself. The overall package is an example of old-fashioned presentation art and craft at its very best. This is one of those fabulous (if at times demanding) albums that comes along only once in a very long while. Keep an open mind, and you’ll discover this is a CD to be grabbed, explored at length and cherished – you’ll not hear its like anywhere, I’ll venture." – David Kidman, FOLK RADIO

Progressive songwriting in the finest tradition. All of us will have been present when a live band suddenly fuses into a miraculous torrent. The great thing about Army of Briars is that they seem to be able to create that sense of live miracle while working separately in different locations, and sending their contributions to be mixed together at Discus Music Studio. This covid-enforced approach to their new release, Made From A Broken Star, has resulted in music that feels live, and a band that feels united. This is hugely down to the voices of Tim & Julie Cole, vulnerable, honest, warm, pure, and the series of beautiful and strange melodies that the group has created for them, making a cycle of ballads and spells. The material ranges from stark, ghostly chant across to gentle folk confessional, via one or two Ivor Cutler moments and some passionate jazz, and together amounts to a single story of magic, witness, praise and flight. This is the tale of a shaman exiled in the harsh present, seeking a way back to the green world. And finding it. Keith Jafrate’s imagistic nature poems take the listener through multiple worlds, past, present, interior and exterior, all focused on a kind of radiant connectedness. The music inhabits them like wind in a great tree, sounding out their intricate forms. Despite the range of styles, the songs have a strong narrative cohesion, and the album is a cathartic journey through, and into, the landscape.

credits

released July 1, 2022

Julie Cole – voice
Tim Cole – voice, guitars, cello on 3
Martin Archer – woodwind, keyboards, electronics
Keith Jafrate – words, voice on 15

with

Paul Taylor – grand piano
Peter Sells – bass guitar
Martin Pyne – drums, percussion, vibraphone

string orchestra and quartet

Natalie Purton – violins and violas
Liz Hanks - cello

You can hear Paul Taylor's improvisations in full, which are sampled on this release, on his DL release Lumina: paulstephentaylor.bandcamp.com/album/lumin

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Discus Music Sheffield, UK

Discus Music was founded in 1994 by Martin Archer. The label releases leftfield rock music, free jazz, extended songform, electronics, improvised music, and other sounds which defy categorisation.

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