Rootless Tree (Live From Abbey Road)

Armellodie Records is proud to present Dunfermline’s Dan Lyth and the Euphrates with their new album, Benthic Lines, released as a Deluxe book (that’s right, we said book!) with CD and/or download on Monday 12th May 2014.

Dan Lyth was born in the Middle East but has lived most of his life in Dunfermline, Fife. A sound designer by day, Lyth began work on Benthic Lines some five years ago, his intention to record an album entirely outdoors. On rooftops and rowing boats, in forests and high streets, mountains and quarries, ruined churches and beaches, car parks and peat bogs. Anywhere really, as long as it was outside!

Having first had the idea while on a trip to Sierra Leone, Lyth quickly realised that it's one thing to daydream of such a plan whilst in the tropics and quite another to actually attempt it back at home in Scotland. 

“I think some part of me took perverse pleasure in the thought of having to undergo some real physical exertion to make this record. I have also always been drawn to creative work that has taken a considerable amount of effort, and recording an album outdoors whilst living in Scotland with its devious climate seemed to fit the bill.”

In an age when it seems anyone can produce an album in their bedroom, Benthic Lines attempts to re-explore the relationship between music and the environment in which it is created. What happens to a recording when you have no control over the surroundings? What anomalies and accidents may occur? And would it be possible to weave together the unpredictable sounds of these environments with more traditional performances to create a cohesive whole?

As Lyth’s fondness of field recording has grown more ambitious, so too has his talent as a songwriter. Album opener ‘All My Love’ is testament to this, merging the mythological with the reality of the uncertainties that are brought when becoming a father for the first time. The vivid imagery of ‘Four Creatures’, written from the perspective of someone living in Syria, draws upon Islamic and Christian eschatological imagery to startling effect.

The influence of Steve Reich is worth noting, from the repetitive female vocal sounds on ‘Standing Start’ to the cyclic piano and accordion patterns of ‘Super Nature’ and ‘Earth Broke Its Vow’, Lyth is the first to admit of his affection for Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. 

“A big chunk of inspiration came from Steve Reich’s work and one of the main aims of the album in terms of the arrangements was to try and make music that sounds electronic or programmed but is actually all live acoustic instruments.” says Lyth. 

Benthic Lines are the deep sea communication cables through which the world is now connected, and communication is a recurring theme throughout the record ("the cables installed along ocean floors is where we had lived too long for sure" sings Lyth on ‘How It Happened’). How our constant use of communication technology can affect our thought processes and relationships (“We shot some video, scenes that would not be shown, think what you will but the devil’s in the pixels on my phone”, sings Lyth on ‘Four Creatures’).   With recording having taken place in locations as far afield as Morocco, Australia, Turkey and Uganda, Dan is also exploring the lines of human connection and lines of ancestry.

Designed with love by graphic artist Sarah Lyth, the album arrives in a beautifully bound 60-page book and includes photos from the array of recording locations. Cover art from celebrated New York artist Matthew Cusick and an accompanying short story, Already Here, by talented Fifer Craig Rennie complete the desirable artefact that is Benthic Lines. So what has Lyth got to say for himself now that his affair with the great outdoors is almost over.

“After travelling, listening, recording and being constantly surprised over the course of the five years and four continents that I’ve made Benthic Lines, what will really stay with me is not only all the wonderful sounds we heard but also the many inquisitive, open-minded and generous people we met along the way. But it wasn’t all romantic. It’s quite hard work transporting a drum kit to a remote derelict church or dragging a piano out of a small flat. There were broken mic stands, bleeding fingers and failing batteries. And there was rain, a lot of rain.”


DAN LYTH & THE EUPHRATES - All My Love

August Rush Guitar Tapping Scene Cover.
Own arrangement. Sorry for the dog barks! XD

August Rush (Guitar Slapping/Tapping)

Green Eyes - Live Paris

The debut single from Doc Hartley's debut album, 'Everybody Needs Some'.

Come On

So you say we got it all messed up
But I don’t know that’s true
After all we got our minds made up
And that’s something quite new
I love you madly, sadly
You don’t think I do

So you wish you’d never met my love
But I can’t feel that way
After all the good and bad my love
To whom else can I say?
I love you madly, sadly
I can’t make you stay

Come on, you’ve got to love someone
You’ve got to love someone
Right here, right now
Come on, you’ve got to love someone in love

So you cry and say I always laugh
But you know that’s not fair
After all there’s many ways to laugh
And most mean I still care
I love you madly, sadly
I can’t find you there

Come on, you’ve got to love someone
You’ve got to love someone
Right here, right now
Come on, you’ve got to love someone in love

Come on, you’ve got to love someone
You’ve got to love someone
Right here, right now
Come on, you’ve got to love someone in love

I still love you
I still love you
So down you bring me down, down
Slow down you bring me down
But I still love you

Come on, you’ve got to love someone
You’ve got to love someone
Right here, right now
Come on, you’ve got to love someone in love

Come on, you’ve got to love someone
You’ve got to love someone
Right here, right now
Come on, you’ve got to love someone in love

Come on, come on, come on, I still love you
Come on, come on, come on, I still love you
Come on, come on, come on, right here right now
Come on, come on, come on
I sill love you


Come On

Coldplay - Trouble (Live 2003)

Sleeping at Last - Watermark

Carol Soundtrack By Carter Burwell

Lissie - Story Of My Life

Where The Skies Are Blue - The Lumineers Cover

Every mother is a woman, every woman is a human, every human makes mistakes and tries to be the best they can.

---

I wrote this song for as a gift for my mother's 50th birthday, a few years ago. I realised that forgiving her mistakes was much easier when I accepted that she wasn't as perfect as a child thinks their parents are, but that she also was a human being with her qualities and her flaws.
But this song is not only for her, it's for every woman and every man, and the child that lives inside us. It's a reminder that we are allowed to dream and to be unsuccessful, that we can also think we are worthless and then win the world. We are preciously imperfect, and that's the beauty of it.

There are so many reasons why I am so happy to share this with you, listing them all would be endless, so I will leave this as a present for you, so that you can shape it however you want inside you. 

----

A Woman 

music, lyrics, piano vocals, keyboards, programming, backing vocals, arrangement, production: Valerio Lysander
mixing: Nick Harris at Spare Room Recordings
mastering: Jay Fee at Conduction Mastering

----

LYRICS:

When I was young I thought she could fly,
but I grew wiser while we grew older.
She was beautiful and to my eyes
her little smile was like the sun when I needed it.

Then I grew tall, still green inside,
when she told me many things I didn't really like.
She was afraid and hurt by human kind
and her heart couldn't discern right or wrong

Even though I thought she was perfect, the only perfect person in the world
now I know that she's not flawless, she's a human, finding her best way to live 

So she laughed and she cried,
when she was younger she had dreams that she didn't achieve,
She loved men and she danced,
she rode a bicycle and  fell down on the street.

Imperfectly independent
she could live her life standing on her own feet,
trying to learn from the mistakes,
praying to the universe for her own light.
She fought lies and fought hatred,
fought the dangers that were lying in her bed.
She faced the punishments arising from her sins,
but she never fell to her knees.

Even though I thought she was perfect, the only perfect person in the world
now I know that she's not flawless, she's a human finding her best way to live 

So she laughed and she cried,
when she was younger she had dreams that she didn't achieve,
She loved men and she danced,
she rode a bicycle and fell down on the street.
She could give birth and death, 
she gave a name and gave a hand to whom needed it,
she felt regrets and silence,
she sang melodies far from home, close to the sea.

Never able to give order to her chaos she decides to dance inside it,
and for all I know about this blessed world,
What I learnt from her I treasure in my blood.

So she laughed and she cried,
when she was younger she had dreams that she didn't achieve,
She loved men and she danced,
she rode a bicycle and  fell down on the street.
She could give birth and death, 
she gave a name and gave a hand to whom needed it,
she felt regrets and silence,
she sang melodies far from home, close to the sea.

--------

If you like this, please like me on facebook and subscribe to my channels:
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A Woman - Valerio Lysander

None of the songs are mine, all credit goes to their original creators. I'm just re-uploading them so I can listen on soundcloud :)

Coldplay - Trouble (Live 2003)

Ahmed Marshal