more from
Half Edge Records
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Hidden Music

by Dan Ecclestone

/
  • Streaming + Download

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

      £5 GBP  or more

     

1.
Pale as, pale as I am I am... anchored at your shoulder Holding fast at your side As awakened, awakened you are You are... reaching toward the water Whispering wild-eyed and wired Saying ‘watch the lights, Watch the lights flicker down there’ As there in the shallows Tiny minnows danced as if flames in a fire All the world was watching us that day Silhouettes of everything we feared But you said ‘half of all we see are shadows anyway’ Pale as, pale as you are You are... deep in the forest Pulling me fearlessly on Resting only for air All the trees were watching us that night Silhouettes of everything we feared But you said ‘half of all we see are shadows....’ So stay with me tonight And keep me close by
2.
Cri Du Couer 04:29
We heard voices from the trees that night A disembodied cri du coeur Hidden by the might Of mighty cedars and ash, White trash, some might say They carried fireworks And in the flash we saw, Collapsed in each other’s arms, All the flowers. We heard the crying of geese in flight A mesmerising cri du coeur As if broken, or burned alive; Were they searching for their young? Would they sleep that night?
3.
As I approach the age My father died And the point at which Everything we’d ever know of him Had arrived I look back at the image of a boy And ask ‘did I say goodbye, Did I say goodbye?’ And then as if from Behind my shoulder A voice, so much colder, Calls my name, I stammer ‘well it’s evident I’m not the man, It’s plain for all to see’ But who are we to dwell on sentimentality? And so as I approach the age he died I find myself short on vanity Or wounded pride I am not the man he was And I can only hope I showed him good grace For manners make a man, Make a man, But I was raw
4.
Something caught my eye But there was nothing where I thought there would be As I turned and held my breath Something made a sound that echoed down the hall But you were still sleeping Deep beneath the waves The voices called me nearer Bewitching me They said 'You could be King of lands of skies & sea' Something got a hold of me And led me to believe I was in some way either Cursed or blessed Something got me thinking I was heading for the wall And took a lifetime In the long grass To resist You could be King of lands of skies and sea If you follow me For I am wealth and dignity
5.
It took a long time To get where we were going Get where we were going Although we were strong And I believed you Everything you said Everything you said all along. ‘Get behind the mule’, ‘Get behind the mule’ I’d say With a smile And the wine would flow When the work was done. I believed the American dream I built my house beside a stream And sailed this uphill river to the sea But I can’t reach the ocean Without you. It took a wild wind And everything the good Lord Could throw at us It took the rising rivers of Noah The seeds and the sowers of dust Then.... you called my name, so slow And as if in a dream, you fell Turning on your plough You fell, back to the soil Seemed as if unreal How could this be? Still the field was green.... I bought this American dream This house of love From which to reach the river Flowing uphill to the sea But I can’t reach the ocean, The final scene, And leave them all behind To work another day If you’re not here with me.
6.
Will you still be there when I get home? Will you still be there when I get home? Will you keep the embers, Keep the coals Red as raw meat on the bone? Keep the car running when I'm gone Keep the caller on the telephone So afraid am I of all I can't control That I forever dream of home. And soon enough The world outside Will summon us attend We'll be pulling on, pulling on Every last layer. And soon enough If fears are realised The cracks will mend The snow will cover up, cover up We will disappear....

about

Hidden Music

I first heard ‘Spirit of Eden’ by Talk Talk when it came out in 1988 – I was seventeen. The idea of creating music in which the singing barely rises above a whisper, the beat often disappears completely beneath a haze of static buzzing trumpets, strings and double bass, and yet, out of nowhere, all is a sudden and ear-splitting white noise…. seriously appealed.

I realised these six songs worked together both lyrically and musically after three albums with Ember Rev but these songs were conceived at and for the piano and wouldn’t work if reconfigured for different instruments. Also, I had little desire to perform live such intensely personal downtempo ruminations on family, fatherhood, status anxiety and the memory of ambition. So it became this: a solo album of music for headphones, music for contemplation, music that is, and has been for many years, hidden.

Half Of All We See Is Shadows…
…was a great observation my seven-year-old son made as we peered into the shallow water of a brook and saw tiny fishes, apparently doubled in number by the sunlight. I was holding on as he reached in and I felt the disapproving shadows of people nearby, wondering if we’d slip. The sound is full of silences filled only with the vapour trail of each passing chord; blocks of sound assembled as if monolithic.

Cri du Coeur….
…was for years just a bassline; a strange 18-bar thing that seemed to be endlessly descending. Eventually the lyric - a memory of two cries - emerged: one heard from a forest in which kids were letting off fireworks, having the time of their lives; another heard from flying geese, an extraordinary, apparently heart-broken, sound. Was one the cry of those escaping; the other of those desperately searching?

Approaching Silence…
… is in some ways the backbone of this album as its lyric is so obviously about reaching a particular age, a pivotal age, and discovering how so much falls away, how the vanities and insecurities of youth are suddenly irrelevant. I considered calling it ‘Desiderata’ after Max Ehrmann’s great prose-poem in which he says ‘If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter for always there will be greater or lesser persons than yourself’

King of Lands, of Skies and Sea…
…is that kind of thing we most fear and yet so often aspire to: the big, sweeping, powerballad. And in this instance I’m aspiring to the sounds of Arcade Fire, Elbow, or Mercury Rev at their most cinematic. The devil is still there, or perhaps Shakespeare’s three witches, whispering like sirens then promising great wealth and fortune, sovereignty over all I survey. The teenage fear of either being a great success or a dismal failure is, as with ‘Approaching Silence’, replaced in time with a perspective borne of compromise.

This Uphill River…
…Is the point at which after two songs of reflection we’re suddenly in the present, building a home, progressing steadily from the house by the stream, down the river, to the sea. It has an inexorable pull and yet is, at every point, hard work. And so the groove is heavy, relentless; the violins are scratching and swooping whilst the tuned percussion is hammering away; it’s the sound of a life being built.

I Forever Dream of Home…
…is, conversely, a final look back at the memory of my childhood home, within a disturbing dream in which the fear of leaving is realised when I discover I can never return: the cracks are sealed, the snow covers the door and I try but can’t get in. Too often we imagine that those who are forced to leave their homes are seeking fortunes and never look back; in fact the memory of everything we leave behind is always there. Music is perhaps some way in which we can revisit places and people lost, or at least a soundtrack for all our imagined homecomings.

credits

released January 8, 2021

Trumpet: Jake Hatter
Violin: Julia Black
Viola: Katharine Parsons
Cello: Abby Wollston
Piano & Vocal: Dan Ecclestone
Double Bass: Richard Partridge
Drums: David Youngs

Words and Music Dan Ecclestone
Recorded by Sam Inglis
Mixed by Simone Silvestroni @ Minutes to Midnight
Mastered by Ian shepherd @ Mastering Media
Cover Photo by Gary Bendig @ Unsplash

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Dan Ecclestone Cambridge, UK

contact / help

Contact Dan Ecclestone

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Dan Ecclestone, you may also like: