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the skin, the sea, the sound

by Joshua Stamper

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    Download includes 10-page lyric and art digital booklet.
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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Classic black 150-gram vinyl, jacket with matte finish, with art and lyric sleeve. Album download and 10-page lyric and art digital booklet included.

    Includes unlimited streaming of the skin, the sea, the sound via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Planets move and brows are smoothed and night leaks from the sky Spiders glance and moth wings’ dance, dew leaves begin to dry Rise up, fall down above clock faces' rigid regime Marking your graceful glide, units of sixty degrees One thousand planets shake One million atoms break You outpace the wind, all other terrors will bend Unrelenting as the sea But will you find me, O Star from the East? O Glowing Hunter, O Lover of Beasts... Rend the skin and bend the bones dust rusted webs and fray Light, breathe through the ladder rungs of this brittled frame I’m rendered by shapes and a shadow that's softer than snow undone, immobilized, only one life left to go Handshakes that obligate I'm mute till it's too late I'm felled by the breeze that gently kisses the trees So kill me, O Lion, mend me, O Lamb Purge me, submerge me, oh destroy the dam One thousand planets shake One million atoms break You outpace the wind, all other terrors will bend Unrelenting as the sea But will you find me, O Star from the East?
2.
Eye blinks Stone sinks Doors shut Tongues stutter You look like you are a bit cold, dear You are cold here Etching sticks click ice brick thick such Ledgers keep while fountains sleep Scores are frozen, sides are chosen Lattice frostwork, woven hauberk, Foxes close cold tails to nose You look like you are a bit cold, dear You’re still cold here Fingers felt and snow banks melt Crimes acquit by fires lit Lockstep precepts’ resolve dissolves Ledgers broken, fountains woken Foxtails flash red through the wooded bed You look like you want to be warmer Eye blinks Tree drinks Walls end Breeze bends Fleeter feet new ground entreats, “Warmer, you’ll be warm here” You look like you are becoming warmer
3.
Cradling the careful egg the damaged head the bruised bed Gently press the rippled brick the quivering drip the halting lips Hold the cloud, hold the sand, hold her fingers in your hand Drink the brine, trace her spine, take the bread Take the wine Time between the in and out whispers and shouts the faithful doubts Empties down the rusty grate evaporates too much too late Hold the cloud, hold the sand, hold her fingers in your hand Drink the brine, trace her spine, take the bread Take the wine To the one-winged sparrow, to the bone without marrow You whistleless kettle, you field choked with nettles To the mute allegorist, to the stump in the forest O bow without arrows, O window too narrow Your time will come, your time will come Needle pins will split the skin will enter in will drain the sin Time between the in and out whispers and shouts a shoot will sprout Counting breaths, hedging bets, broken bones must be reset Fill these lungs, songs be sung of battles waged and battles won
4.
A leaf is a world and its flag is unfurled, and an ocean is dropped from the sky. Splintered suns play inside watery walls, with the pitch and the shift of a pearl. I'm trolling the trill of the tiniest sounds, while six-legged citizens bustle and build. Dip oars in the dirt, create eddies of earth, sail past skyscrapers under the ground. O but Pattern maker, Pattern breaker, you've gotta grip, you've gotta grip around my heart. For you, I need a better microscope, O you, you are off the charts. My instruments break, my readings won't take I want to be with you. My eye skirts and rims the vault's colorless lid, and spinning larks sing and fling light at the sky. I race and I reach for the whirling whipped wake, the trail of a star’s peel and skid. Pattern maker, Pattern breaker, you've gotta grip, you've gotta grip around my heart. For you, I need a better telescope. O you, you are off the charts. My instruments break, my readings won't take I want to be with you. I want to be with you. For you, I need a better calculus, With you, the math no longer works. My equations are drained, a picture-less frame, You’re terror, you’re grace, you are rest, you’re the chase, you're the notes on my page, the wild with no cage. I want to be with you.
5.
Gently break Gently break the smooth skin of a swollen note’s head Tender night’s yolk spills across the paper peaks (And the music gets everywhere) Lay my head on a pillow of sea Slipping under the skin (Diving deeper, striving steeper, dive, dive) Whales are watching me breathe You turn my head to see that bolder place What was I before fire spoke my name? (Naked you’ll go) It is laying me waste Seared by the heart of a star, my eyes have died I feel the dust of the moon beneath my feet Tell me the name of this color that I see. (You’re falling through You’re falling through the sky The trees have moved The trees have moved to catch you And when you reach the ground I will tell you the name of this color that you see. You’re falling fast So very quickly, fall Rest Fall)
6.
Peel past the starry scrim to find Peel past the starry scrim to find, to find me Dig down, a righter rain will fall inside me Reach round the drowsy din and cut a key Please find me, unwind me Peel past the starry scrim to find Peel past the starry scrim to find, to find me, to find me. Under the skin, the sea, the sound O Lover of Beasts, O Star from the East, Will all things soon be found?
7.
I'd like to be like you who take tea with lions winged and angels of fire You who spin the stars, cradling the hills, waking whales beneath the sea, you who walk the wind I'd like to be like you measuring the distance from one hair to the next Gathering your clouds, the rainy diamonds fall, plumb lines dropped to calculate the center of the earth I'd like to be like you Wind inside the sail I'd like to be like you Respite from the gale I'd like to be like the sun that gilds the sea, The dead bolt turning key The pardoned prisoner's plea I'd like to be like you Wind inside the sail I'd like to be like you Respite from the gale I'd like to be like the sun that gilds the sea, The dead bolt turning key The pardoned prisoner's plea I'd like to be like you speaking skies, birds black with downy wing cleave the air Whistling for the morn, your whisper shakes the earth The same that balms the reedy bruise, and woos the weary wick, It's you who spins the stars, who wakes the whales beneath the sea, it’s you who walks the wind
8.

about

OUT ON GOOD BEHAVIOR

'Peel Past the Starry Scrim' video: vimeo.com/97111266

"It's the type of music where every note matters."
- Greg Saunier (Deerhoof, Mystical Weapons)

"Beautiful modern lieder from the moon.”
- Aakaash Israni (Dawn of Midi)

"...he seems to inhabit two or more contradictory planes at once. It’s a bit unsettling, but also intermittently beautiful, as emotive pop and austere experiment glance off one other, affect one another and communicate, without ever becoming the mush in the middle." - Dusted

"...surrounds a core of longing so earnest it might make you blush—if it weren’t accompanied by the blank terror of the cosmos." - Image

"The kind of album where every single bar of music seems to evolve from the last. With 'the skin, the sea, the sound', Stamper takes cues from prog-jazz, indie rock, and totalism in equal measure, but creates something entirely new, weird, and beautiful."
- Lushlife

"...sneaks up on you with its import." - The Blue Indian

"Don't waste your time putting a label on this album - really, just let yourself move into the songs and simply be." - Step Tempest

"In its strange mixture of gentleness, somewhat sad irony and orchestral expertise, this collection is probably destined to be revisited time and again..." - Touching Extremes

credits

released April 1, 2014

Paul Arbogast: Low Brass
Mike Cemprola: Woodwinds
Jon Rees: Woodwinds
Ruth Naomi Floyd: Vocals
Thomas Bendel: Drums
Emil Nikolaisen: Effects, Electronics
Joshua Stamper: Vocals, Guitars, Synths, Compositions

Recorded at Malabar Studios, Oslo, NO, and Familyre Studio, Clarksboro, NJ, by Martin Bowitz, Emil Nikolaisen, Daniel C. Smith
All other engineering by Joshua Stamper
Mixed by Brian McTear at Miner Street Recordings, Philadelphia, PA
Mastered by Jason Ward at Chicago Mastering, Chicago, IL
Artwork by Ben Stamper

'the skin, the sea, the sound' was supported in part through grants from the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Composers Forum and Lincoln City Fellowships / Speranza Foundation.

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