Kenneth Patchen reads with Jazz in Canada

"Writing is a difficult job. There is no trouble at all in knowing what you want to say; the trouble begins in keeping out the rest of it. I'd like to talk about God all the time. I know less about this than anything else. I know that you encourage me to show my heart. I have never belonged to a political party. Please tell all your friends to read my journal. I have spent many lives learning to write."

(Kenneth Patchen, "The Journal of Albion Moonlight")



What Is the Beautiful?

The narrowing line.
Walking on the burning ground.
The ledges of stone.
Owlfish wading near the horizon.
Unrest in the outer districts.

Pause.

And begin again.
Needles through the eye.
Bodies cracked open like nuts.
Must have a place.
Dog has a place.

Pause.

And begin again.
Tents in the sultry weather.
Rifles hate holds.
Who is right?
Was Christ?
Is it wrong to love all men?

Pause.

And begin again.
Contagion of murder.
But the small whip hits back.
This is my life, Caesar.
I think it is good to live.

Pause.

And begin again.
Perhaps the shapes will open.
Will flying fly?
Will singing have a song?
Will the shapes of evil fall?
Will the lives of men grow clean?
Will the power be for good?
Will the power of man find its sun?
Will the power of man flame as a sun?
Will the power of man turn against death?
Who is right?
Is war?

Pause.

And begin again.
A narrow line.
Walking on the beautiful ground.
A ledge of fire.
It would take little to be free.
That no man hate another man,
Because he is black;
Because he is yellow;
Because he is white;
Because he is English;
Or German;
Or rich;
Or poor;
Because we are everyman.

Pause.

And begin again.
It would take little to be free.
That no man live at the expense of another.
Because no man can own what belongs to all.
Because no man can kill when all must live.
Because no man can lie when all are betrayed.
Because no man can hate when all are hated.

And begin again.
I know that the shapes will open.
Flying will fly and singing will sing.
Because the only power of man is in good.
And all evil shall fail.
Because evil does not work,
Because the white man and the black man,
The Englishman and the German,
Are not real things.
They are only pictures of things.
Their shapes, like the shapes of the tree
And the flower, have no lives in names or signs;
They are their lives, and the real is in them.
And what is real shall have life always.

Pause.

I believe in the truth.
I believe that every good thought I have,
All men shall have.
I believe that what is best in me,
Shall be found in every man.
I believe that only the beautiful
Shall survive on the earth.
I believe that the perfect shape of everything
Has been prepared;
And, that we do not fit our own.
Is of little consequence.
Man beckons to man on this terrible road.
I believe that we are going into the darkness now;
Hundreds of years will pass before the light
Shines over the world of all men...
And I am blinded by its spendor.

Pause.

And begin again.




Kenneth Patchen and the Alan Neil Quartet recorded in Vancouver in 1958.

http://www.mediafire.com/?8qfccj4guqgxx

Lungfish

What can be said about Lungfish that hasn't been said before? Words like minimal, meditative and monolithic are frequently mentioned and much is made of Daniel Higgs' poetry. The case I would make is that they are a true American folk band.

Their are two collections here, the first covers the period from '91-'98 which covers their debut album "Talking Songs for Walking" through to "Artificial Horizon" and concludes with a 10 minute live version of Armageddon, which has never been recorded or released by the band.

The second covers the period '99-'05, The Unanimous Hour through to Feral Hymns, taking in some live unreleased tracks from the Necrophones sessions.

Lungfish 1



tracklist

1. Descender
2. Animal Man
3. Abraham Lincoln
4. Creation Story
5. Savings
6. Cleaner Than Your Surroundings
7. At Liberty to Say
8. Gorilla Monsoon
9. Solid State
10. Signpost
11. Sphere of Influence
12. You Did Not Exist
13. e=fu
14. Urania
15. Organ Harvest
16. Ann the Word
17. Love Will Ruin Your Mind
18. Black Helicopters
19. Armageddon (live in Philadelphia 98)


http://www.mediafire.com/?233d3ws04bc91dz

Paranoia warped into a gravity
which spread a smothering blanket—
an evolutionary launch pad
vision was tested on blank sky
and a voice said
let me tell you about the time
that something occurred
medication caused an ear to hear
and a conflict of interpretation arose
landscapes were drawn from a plague of particles
and the burden was distributed
the law would return
as inflated skins
while music initiated architecture
animals, living through a velocity of fear
began to modify their behavior
to comply with human observation
thus dropping the keystone
into the eggshell honeycomb
of anthrocentric history sense
as for the plants
they had been with the music
science procured a steepled shell
dressed for immortality
a hollow to hold the music
the motion repelled all opinion
and refused to consider it's origins
apples happened
bringing acids and enzymes
the spinning recorder
disguised an an endless bouquet
things became erotic at the drop of a hat
a tyrant placed an apple on a table
and lorded over it
as a fish realized it held a monkey
inside itself
and expelled it on the beach
in a larval salamander form
the voters clamored for more circles
and the whole rig began to rotate
books were used for fuel and money
and everybody was writing them
the planets turned inside out
to expose their freight
no charges were pressed
because all involved agreed
that they could die
these are the secrets the world sung to me
truer than the truth
a young order of birds
that eats the eyes of believers
science predicted forms of worship
and reveled in them
an orgy of mutation took place
for many years
between stones
near water
inside clouds
the peoples bound their feet
with the skins of animals
to trample their own cities
and each other
they developed external organs
like guns and television sets
they believed that they owned things
one mind in a generation
will hear the eternal broadcast
the voice saying
let me tell you about the time
something occurred
that mind's body will be strapped down
and that body's mind will be subject
to testing or electrical currents
rippled through the brain
but the music pervades
it was music that gave the shove
and resolved in music
we shall breathe
it was children
that crafted a parent
and resolved in children
we shall live



Lungfish pt 2



Tracklist

1. Space Orgy
2. God's Will
3. Hallucinatorium
4. Symbioses [live from Brownies NY 12.11.99]
5. Screams of Joy [live from Brownies NY 12.11.99]
6. Between You [live from Brownies NY 12.11.99]
7. Sex War
8. Cross Road
9. Hanging Bird
10. Love is Love
11. This World
12. Hear the Children Sing
13. No False Suns
14. All Creation Bows
15. Sing
16. Way Out Is The Way Out

http://www.mediafire.com/?jhhwyxy5rfbpnxn






(art by Ernst Haeckel)

Before the Spring mix pt II

Tracklisting

1. Sundog Ash - Shalabi Effect
2. Tree Trail - Moondog
3. Stone Circle - Third Ear Band
4. Travellers 4; Churchyard Entertainment - Meredith Monk
5. Big Science - Laurie Anderson
6. Daydreaming - Dark Dark Dark
7. Devotion - Evolutionary Jass Band
8. Flight Song - Fire On Fire
9. Eywat Setenafegagn - Getatchew Merkuria + The Ex + Guests
10. Ratsekr Grec - Black Ox Orkestar
11. Smok - The One Ensemble
12. Haneros Halelu - Muzsikás
13. King Kong Kitchie Kitchie Ki-Me-O - Chubby Parker & His Old Time Banjo
14. I Was a Young Man - Albion Country Band
15. La Blanche Biche - Malicorne
16. Puit D'Amour/Tiennet - Whirling Pope Joan
17. Fear of the Unknown and the Blazing Sun - Colin Stetson
18. On a Beautiful Day (Keep the Flies off the Butter) - Scott Tuma
19. Bright Phoebus - Lal & Mike Waterson




The Lament of The White Hind

Those who go to the forest are a mother and her daughter,
The mother goes singing but the daughter sighs.
"Why do you have to sigh, my white Marguerite?"
"I have a great curse on me, and I don't dare tell you.
I'm a girl by day and by night, a white hind,
The barons and the prince hunted me there,
And my brother Renaud, who is worst of all.
Go, my mother, go right soon and tell him
To hold back his dogs until tomorrow morning."
"Where are your dogs, Renaud, and the noble hunt?"
"They have gone to the forest to chase the white hind."
"Hold them back, Renaud, hold them back, I pray you!"

Three times he blew his copper horn,
And at the third time the white hind was caught.
"Let us call the skinner that he skin the hind!"
He who skinned her said, "I don't know what to say!
She has the golden hair and the breasts of a girl!"
He drew his knife and cut her in quarters.
"Let us call for a dinner for the barons and the prince!
Look, we're all seated except my sister Marguerite."

"You only have to eat until the first course,
My head on the plate and my heart on the butcher's hook,
My blood is spilled all through the kitchen
And over your black coals my poor bones are roasting."

Those who go to the forest…



http://www.mediafire.com/?1619t3761siaspt