While You Work (@whileyouwork)

Originally released on Bandcamp in 2021: https://adamhorowitz.bandcamp.com/album/behold-be-held

Songwriting became an unexpected anchor for me this past year: a practice for directing attention amidst turbulence, for returning to wonder and reverence amidst uncertainty, for stumbling toward mystery, even—or especially—when the path is hard to come by.

This album, my first, is an intimate sharing of some of the melodies and words that emerged from inner and outer landscapes during these strange, in-between times. My hope is that you’ll find at least one song in here that resonates with the wonderings and wanderings of your own heart. I invite you to take your time exploring them.

This is not a glossy production. Recorded without preciousness from home, it has a kind of pandemic sparseness to it: just my voice(s) and a baritone ukulele. I hope to one day collaborate with other musicians.

If you choose to download the digital album, half of the sale proceeds will be donated to grassroots Indigenous-led efforts where I live, via the Honor Native Land Tax; the other half will support the next musical project.

Thanks for listening! I hope you enjoy.
credits
released December 26, 2021

All songs written, performed, and recorded by Adam Horowitz.
Mixed by Dan Kluger. Mastered by Jessica Thompson.
Album art by Erin Elder.

Puzzled

This song was created as a love song for friends and queer chosen family, inspired by my dear pals Scout Bratt & Grace Gleason <3 

From Ruth 1:16

אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי־בִ֔י לְעׇזְבֵ֖ךְ לָשׁ֣וּב מֵאַחֲרָ֑יִךְ כִּ֠י אֶל־אֲשֶׁ֨ר תֵּלְכִ֜י אֵלֵ֗ךְ וּבַאֲשֶׁ֤ר תָּלִ֙ינִי֙ אָלִ֔ין עַמֵּ֣ךְ עַמִּ֔י וֵאלֹהַ֖יִךְ אֱלֹהָֽי׃

Al tif’gi’i vi l’azvech lashuv me’acharayich (x2)
ki el asher telchi elech uv’asher talini alin amech ami ve’elohayich elohai (x2)

Do not urge me to push you away
For wherever you go I shall go
Where you I will lie
Your people are my mine
Your Divine my Divine
(x2)

Composition: Avra Shapiro
Vocals: Avra Shapiro & Aly Halpert 
Guitar: Aly Halpert 

Produced by Aly Halpert & Lisa Stein, from the album "Derekh Eretz: Land, Love, & Liberation," created by Eden Village Camp Staffers 
Mixed and Mastered by Rafael Gell
Album Artwork by Karen Cheirif, Liad Hasson, Léah Miller, & Denean Ritchie

Derekh Eretz: Land, Love, & Liberation

Asher Telchi/Where You Go

This I know: 
That my body is a vessel for the song
Let the drum beat through me
Let the great bells ring through me
Sing through me

Vessel for the Song

Horizons

& when fear arises
& when grief arises 
& when rage arises
I lean in here

It moves on
My heart is strong
It moves on
Something else horizons

& when fear arises
& when grief arises
& when rage arises
I remain here

It moves on
My heart is strong
It moves on
Something new horizons

& when fear arises
& when grief arises
& when rage arises
I attune here

It moves on
My heart is strong
It moves on
Somewhere else horizons

Horizons - Aiyana Masla

Kid A

Everything In Its Right Place

Intro

Tree Nigun by Noam Lerman, used at many Let My People Sing! gatherings.

Tree  Nigun - Noam Lerman

Inspired by nomadic years, the wisdom of the body and nervous system, change, Somatic Reality: Bodily Experience and Emotional Truth by Stanley Kelemen, the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess community, and the Judaism of my ancestors. Received to the tune of Avinu Malkeinu, a traditional Jewish High Holidays prayer. 

Deep gratitude to my teachers, community and bright and well ancestors: Taya Shere, Ibrahim Baba, my parents, Zaide, Grandpa, the Romanian women, Kohenet and so many more. Thank you.
lyrics
Slow down, child, slow down 
Slow down and listen to the wind 
All comes together; all falls apart 
Forming anew your beating heart 

Slow down, child, slow down 
Slow down and draw yourself near 
The rocks are your keepers 
Tell them your stories 
Now it is safe to be here 

A river flows from within you to where you will go 
The current carries you home 
Let your life unfold 

Slow down, child, slow down 
Slow down and you will receive 
Life wants to meet you where you are 
Not where you think you should be 

A river flows from within you to where you will go 
The current carries you home 
Let your life unfold 

Slow down, child, slow down 
Slow down and you will be shown 
The love that was always lifting you up 
You are never alone 

A river flows from within you to where you will go 
The current carries you home 
Let your life unfold 

Slow down child, slow down (x4) 

Slow down, child, slow down 
Slow down and listen to the wind 
All comes together; all falls apart 
Forming anew your beating heart

Slow Down / The Mother's Response (Demo)

the words come from Arundhati Roy's book, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness:

"oh G-d wherever you are
oh G-d whoever you are
please slow us down
please slow us down"

i caught this song in the deep dark winter of February in Boston, grieving the way that power and abuse and capitalism demand cognitive dissonance, and the way that this cognitive dissonance plays out in my communities and my relationships. 

as i wondered what the antidote to such dissonance might be, this song came through. it is a spell for slowing down. for untangling ourselves. for opening our hearts to the aching pulse at the center of the earth.

Slow Us Down

Artist: Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band 
I learned at Adamah (Jewish Farming Fellowship) in 2014.

Sung at a song circle on January 1, 2019 on Chinook land/Portland, OR.

Lyrics:
When the world is sick
Can't no one be well
But I dreamt we were all beautiful and strong

When The World Is Sick (Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band)

Available on Apple Music & Spotify http://itunes.apple.com/album/id1503178323?ls=1&app=itunes

Stay Free

Morning Asana

Exhausted (Kohinoorgasm Remix)

"The Sky's Reply" by Joshua Blaine
LYRICS:
מִֽן־הַ֭מֵּצַ֥ר קָרָ֣אתִי יָּ֑הּ עָנָ֖נִי בַמֶּרְחָ֣ב יָֽהּ׃
Psalm 118:5

To You I call, feeling scared and small.
And You reply with the vastness of the sky!

English verse/translation inspired by-the English translation from Siddur HaKohanot: A Hebrew Priestess Prayerbook:
"I called to Yah from the narrow place, and was answered with the sky's wideness"

The Sky’s Reply by Josh Blaine

Sung with chickens at Linke Fligl, 10/1/20
http://linkefligl.com/

Linke Fligl Nigun

A prayer for renewal
A song for healing
A blessing for life

We draw from the wellsprings of liberation
For one another
For the movement
For our world

Love is liberation is water is life

lyrics
מִמַּעַיְנֵ֖י הַיְשׁוּעָֽה
שְׁאַבְתֶּם מַ֖יִם בְּשָׂשׂ֑וֹן

Mimainei hayeshua
Shavtem mayim b'sason

(Words adapted from Isaiah 12:3)

We will draw water in celebration
From the wellsprings of liberation

Mayim Chayim
מים חיים
credits
released October 21, 2019

Written by Avra Shapiro in collaboration with Yael Schonzeit

Vocals: Avra Shapiro and Yael Schonzeit

Mixing and editting: Dave Rosenfeld and Yael Schonzeit

Percussion: Yael Schonzeit and Dave Rosenfeld

Mimainei

I’m just a fan, located in one of the most rural parts of the Norwegian Sea 

https://www.cannabisreform.no

Puzzled

Adam Horowitz

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