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Knells II

by The Knells

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD comes in a 6-panel digipak with lyrics and album credits. Artwork and design by Shepard Fairey.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Knells II via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Limited edition 12" vinyl LP comes in a gatefold sleeve with photo, album credits, and lyrics. Transparent, red vinyl in a black, polylined inner sleeve. Comes with digital download card inside (in addition to Bandcamp download). Artwork and design by Shepard Fairey.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Knells II via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 4 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $20 USD or more 

     

1.
First Song 04:41
FIRST SONG Sensing all your mind shifts, feeling all your tides — can there be love enough for every one of us in this vision of heaven that we create for ourselves in our blindness? Worlds of possibilities contained in an embrace, burning from conception to the cradle of the grave — paradise is lost between the seconds of the clock, like a figure in the rain that dodges every drop. So free the albatross, and let it fly out from your thoughts until it is lost. Just cut the ball and chain and free yourself, claw out of the hole. It's not so difficult to let it alone — untie the rope you use to hang yourself, and absolve your soul. Pain's a distraction, static on your radio: dial in your frequency, tune back into the show.
2.
Interlude I 02:30
INTERLUDE I Stars die, but their light goes forever: Stars die, but their light travels on. Stars die, but their light goes forever: Stars die, but their light travels on and on. We're the only ones dying for the sun to rise? Stars die, but their light goes forever: Stars die, but their light goes on — on and on forever.
3.
COULD YOU WOULD YOU If you could whet the blade, remove the rust — slice through the knot, erode the stone, dissolve into dust: would you surrender all your fear and hardship, or wear it like a blanket, cloaked in your own blood? If you could mend the hole and sew it shut — or push and pull a needle through your own open cut, would you? If so, pain is all you have to lose. Would you untether your dead weight, or would you stoically carry it to your grave — or would you let it go, watching as it falls so far below?
4.
Sub Rosa 04:52
SUB ROSA Best to bend with wind, go with the flow from within — lost bets and past regrets are nothing less than death. Don't you worry now, because it's only natural — stalking quietly, until it owns your soul. Come, sub rosa: nothing but a killer's secret shadow. Oh sub rosa: won't you go today, and come tomorrow? When your life is flashing right before your eyes, I hope it's worth watching all the boring times. Hear the clock and chime and know it's only natural — don't be sorry, time will always own your soul. Come, sub rosa: nothing but a killer's secret shadow. Oh, sub rosa: won't you go today, and come tomorrow? Oh so quietly, ever so slyly, never blatantly but surreptitiously: until gracefully, single-handedly it owns your soul.
5.
Coda 02:52
(instrumental)
6.
Bargaining 02:31
(instrumental)
7.
Final Breath 03:35
FINAL BREATH Trouble — back to the wall with nowhere to fall. Struggle — time dissolves and slows to a crawl. Another time and place: a harsh surrender follows the sweet sludge of regret that comes to steal your final breath. Life is so fragile. Outside in time and space, toxic concoctions plot and conspire to lay waste — to undermine and devastate, to ravage and annihilate. From ether, air, and earth; water and fire from birth; ashes to dust dispersed; nothing then — bubble burst.
8.
POLTERGEIST There is a poltergeist living in my soul. It keeps me up at night, sweat burning cold. It comes when least expected, forecasting doom — clanging its ball and chain in my psyche's attic room. I'll cast the salt, and burn the sage. I'll drive thee out — break from your cage. Poltergeist: why won't you go? Leave me alone! Sacrificed: my life and peace of mind to pay your price. Oh poltergeist, hear me now when I say, I hereby drive thee out: cast the salt, burn the sage.
9.
Interlude II 05:24
INTERLUDE II A pinhole light in the distance, to where it goes and from where it comes in existence, nobody knows and... Stars die, but their light goes forever — stars die, but their light goes on. Descending ladder staircase, late afternoon, a slipped foot into deep space, took his breath much too... Stars die, but their light goes forever — stars die, but their light goes on. Stars die, but their light goes on.
10.
Immolation 06:57
IMMOLATION When your joy has fled and left you lonely in disconsolation, take a corkscrew; drive it into your persistent agitation. And say goodbye, and let it go, and let it bleed out from your soul until it is lost. Just cut the ball and chain and free yourself; claw out of the hole. It's not so difficult to let it alone — untie the rope you use to hang yourself, and absolve your soul. Life is a river, spanning a great divide: don't make it difficult swimming against the tide. When the darkness and depression sabotage all your defenses, secretly the apathy can poison all your other senses. So say goodbye, and let it go, and let it bleed out from your soul until it is lost. Just cut the ball and chain and free yourself; claw out of the hole. It's not so difficult to let it alone — untie the rope you use to hang yourself, and absolve your soul. Life is an ocean — don't fight the undertow: move through the vortices, ease back into the flow.

credits

released November 10, 2017

Nina Berman, soprano
Charlotte Mundy, mezzo-soprano
Blythe Gaissert, contralto
Paul Orbell, guitar
Andrew McKenna Lee, guitar
Jude Traxler, percussion, Rhodes, electronics
Jeff Gretz, drums
Joseph Higgins, bass

Words and music by Andrew McKenna Lee
© 2017 by Still Sound Music (ASCAP) New York, NY

Recorded by Andrew McKenna Lee and Joseph Higgins at Creekside Sound, Brooklyn, NY

Mastered by Joe Lambert at JLM Sound, Jersey City, NJ

Artwork and design by Shepard Fairey

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The Knells New York

photo credit: Scott Friedlander

The Knells are an art rock ensemble from Brooklyn, NY. Drawing inspiration from over 1000 years of western classical music and deftly fusing it with the worlds of progressive, psychedelic, and experimental rock, their music “is a must for those seeking untamed new musical hybrids” (The Daily Beast). ... more

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