Rodolfo https://soundcloud.com/rplanes gave me this piece and title to write a lyric around. I was drawn to man's not unnatural obsession with the cosmos from the earliest days, through using it to navigate the world and gain power, to now potentially using it as a last ditch escape from our polluted and depleted home. I particularly enjoyed this song as I get to sing in Spanish and also a good proportion of this song is instrumental. So sit back and let this journey wash over you. Many thanks to Rodolfo for all his great work and a special thanks to you for listening. Mark

Rodolfo Planes - Music composition, instrumentation, arrangement, production and mix.
Me - Vocals and lyrics

Southern Star by Rodolfo Planes and Mark J Bennett

It’s written in the stars,
When seen from Earth,
Venus… even Mars.
Whatever it’s worth.

The Southern Star 
The Southern Star 

Is that ‘Pie in the Sky’? 
Take the bait,
Maybe just a lie,
Trust in fate?

The Southern Star 
The Southern Star 

Estrella del sur
Estrella del sur
Estrella del sur
Es la clave,
Del rumbo del destino
Del rumbo del destino.
(Southern star, it's the key from the course of destiny)

Man’s knowledge and skill,
Charts land and sea.
In order to fulfil,
Destiny			
 
The Southern Star 
The Southern Star 

Celestial sphere,
Obscured now by,				
Tears and fear.
The end is nigh.		

The Southern Star 
The Southern Star 

Estrella del sur
Estrella del sur
Estrella del sur
Sin la clave,
Nos niega el destino
El curso del…
El curso del	destino
(Southern star, without the key, fate denies us the course of destiny)

 
Need and hunger, 
Has our innocence
Rent asunder, 
By its wickedness
 
The Southern Star 
The Southern Star 

Escape to stars.
Throw right off of your
Shackles and bars.
We need to endure.

The Southern Star 
The Southern Star 

Estrella del sur
Estrella del sur
Estrella del sur
Sin la clave,
Nos niega el destino
El curso del…
El curso del destino
(Southern star, without the key, fate denies us the course of destiny)

Southern Star - Continental Collision (Rodolfo Planes/Mark J Bennett)

A real joy to have Karin-Maria Brunner join me on this song. She has really done an amazing job with my basic track. My grateful thanks and deepest appreciation to you, Karin-Maria. (@user-53145152-479345033)
https://soundcloud.com/karin-maria-brunner

K-M: Epic pad, Vintage synthesiser strings, harp, violin, viola, cello, crash, bass, processing, mixing and mastering 
Me: vocals, guitars, drums, keyboards

Promise Me (Brian Peters)

It's hard to believe
Takes courage of man to admit it
There's a memory within me
The sound of your name recalls it

We're living in days
Dancing too close to the heat
There's pockets of fires
Scattered all over the streets

*Promise me baby
You won't let another come between our love
Promise me baby
You won't imprison the dove*

They tied up the servant
They killed the messenger
Made a home explosive
Marked it ‘return to sender’

There’s a crack in the conscience
A finger of light in the skies
There’s bug on your telephone
Your windows are full of eyes

It’s the day of the aliens
Night of the UFOs
They took all the war brides
The baby boomer girls

There’s halls of illusion
Perverted sex on the screen
Young minds in confusion
Old men with adolescent dreams

The prophet is dishonoured
Especially in his own home
I’ve been reading Borges
Listening to Leonard Cohen

There’s sex on the telephone
A hundred iniquity dens
But the women are sexless
There are no real men

There’s blood on the doorposts
The angel of death is near
Speak softly, darling
Even the walls have ears

There’s a place in the hills
It’s like the top of Masada
It’s the gateway to paradise
Or the scene of a murder

Well, the world’s getting smaller
It’s like a one horse town
But the circle gets faster
As it spirals down

And the more things are changing
The more they are the same
And I sound like my daddy
I guess he felt the same

Promise Me

My friend and close collaborator @rplanes offered me this great arrangement and the title and theme that he thought might make an interesting subject matter. Initially, I was scratching my head as the topic seemed too vast but then the ideas started to attach themselves to his melodies and I was hooked. Humans en masse appear to be taking wrong-turnings and making things worse rather than better. This is me letting off a little steam with Rod's help. Thanks for taking the time to listen.

Rodolfo Planes - Music composition, instrumentation, arrangement, production and mix.
Me - Vocals and lyrics
Photograph - Courtesy of Douglas Corrance

Reverse Entropy (by Rodolfo Planes and Mark J Bennett)
We drift from order to chaos,
Like it’s the norm.
Without a sense of pathos,
To see the storm.
Following your safe instinct,
Where it may go,
Or go where you are told.

We let others cloud our vision,
Like they know best.
What happened to our ambition
Never addressed.
Following your safe instinct,
Where it may go,
Before we get too old

You have the choice,
When you have the will,
And it’s backed with the,
Knowledge, and fulfilled by skill.
 
We fall for the theorists,
Like it’s gospel.
Go find yourself some realists,
Who’re less hostile.
Following your safe instinct,
Where it may go,
While you still have a hold.

We’ve been duped at every turn,
By those we trust.
Without alarm or concern,
Now we are bust.
Following your safe instinct,
Where it may go,
If you can still feel bold.

You have the choice,
When you have the will,
And it’s backed with the,
Knowledge and fulfilled by skill.

All our futures are in your hands
With all that it commands
Focus on how it now all stands
Before making your demands.

Reverse Entropy - Continental Collision (by Rodolfo Planes and Mark J Bennett)

Rodolfo Planes offered me this great arrangement and suggested the title of 'Professional Liars' as a starting point. I changed the title to Career Liars as it scanned better with the melody and although we didn’t discuss the subject closely we both had our own ideas who these usual suspects might be. You all may also have your own choices other than these potential ‘Comeback Kids’. 

This was first written in 2022, but has developed gradually over the last two years with Ce Mastro’s spectacular chorus harmony arrangement lifting the song to astonishing new heights, then lastly Georg’s additional sax work giving a renewed energy and power. Thanks to everyone for their valued collaboration on this. Thanks for taking the time to listen.

Rodolfo Planes - Music composition, instrumentation, arrangement, production and mix - https://soundcloud.com/rplanes 
Me - Vocals and lyrics
Ce Mastro - Backing vocals and chorus vocal arrangement - https://soundcloud.com/cemastro 
Georg Boehme - Sax solo and fills - https://soundcloud.com/georg-boehme

https://continentalcollision.bandcamp.com/track/career-liars

 Career Liars by Rodolfo Planes and Mark J Bennett

How are you ever able to live with yourself? 
What do you really care about? 
You can cope just as long as you’re not left on the shelf, 
Hear me out. 

Are you ever conscious of the harm that you do?
 Or is all fair in love and in war?
And there is no depth that you and your crew won’t sink to. 
We’re done for.

Career liars, 
Truth deniers,
Big high flyers,
 Falsifiers.

Making all of your deals with your old cronies,
I think that is all that you’re good for. 
Nothing is ever sincere coz you’re real phoneys.
 Show them the door. 

Lying for a living, as long as we’re forgiving,
 We’ve been truly hood-winked this time for sure.
 We’re learning a lesson about the true cost of living 
Now we’re all poor.

Career liars, 
Truth deniers,
 Big high flyers, 
Falsifiers.

Career Liars - Continental Collision featuring Ce Mastro & Georg Boehme - Now Available on Bandcamp

Lover x Shape Of You

Art Expressed in Music – Leonardo's Genius	
April 2024
Duration: 3:30
Listen to the Playlist: soundcloud.com/bruce-klepper-1/sets/art-expressed-in-music-i
Painting: Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 to May 2, 1519) was an Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer.  His “Last Supper” and “Mona Lisa” are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance.  His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness that were centuries ahead of their time. He is renowned in the fields of civil engineering, chemistry, geology,  hydrodynamics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, optics, physics and zoology.  As an engineer, Leonardo conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, conceptually inventing the parachute, the helicopter, an armored fighting vehicle, and the use of concentrated solar power. The unique fame that Leonardo enjoyed in his lifetime has remained undimmed to the present day rests largely on his unlimited desire for knowledge, which guided all his thinking and behavior.  As an artist, Leonardo considered his eyes to be his main avenue to knowledge; to Leonardo, sight was man’s highest sense because it alone conveyed the facts of experience immediately, correctly, and with certainty.  He used his superb intellect, unusual powers of observation, and mastery of the art of drawing to study nature itself, a line of inquiry that allowed his dual pursuits of art and science to flourish.  In Florence between 1500 and 1506, Leonardo began work on the “Mona Lisa”.  The “Mona Lisa” set the standard for all future portraits. The painting presents a woman revealed to likely have been Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocond.  The picture presents a half-body portrait of the subject, with a distant landscape visible as a backdrop; the expressive synthesis that Leonardo achieved between sitter and landscape has placed this work in the canon of the most-popular and most-analyzed paintings of all time. The sensuous curves of the woman’s hair and clothing, are echoed in the undulating valleys and rivers behind her. The sense of overall harmony achieved in the painting—especially apparent in the sitter’s faint smile—reflects Leonardo’s idea of the link connecting humanity and nature, making this painting an enduring record of Leonardo’s vision and genius.  In 1517, a drawing by Giovanni Ambrogio Figino depicted an elderly Leonardo with his right arm wrapped in clothing. The latter, in addition to the record of an October 1517 visit by Louis d'Aragon, confirms an account of Leonardo's right hand being paralytic when he was 65, which may indicate why he left works such as the “Mona Lisa” unfinished.  He continued to work at some capacity until eventually becoming ill and bedridden for several months.  Leonardo only produced about 20 paintings in his lifetime. It is estimated that Leonardo produced between 20,000 to 28,000 pages of notes and sketches spanning across 50 different notebooks about work related to whatever topics that interested him – painting, engineering, philosophy, warfare, engineering, physiology, landscape, proportion, perspective, geography, and geology.... Unfortunately, Leonardo's interests were so broad, and he was so often compelled by new subjects, that he usually left projects unfinished.  Leonardo died at Clos Lucé on 2 May 1519 at the age of 67, possibly of a stroke.   Leonardo was described as lamenting on his deathbed, full of repentance, that "he had offended against God and men by failing to practice his art as he should have done”. 
For virtual voices, piano, marimba, tubular bells, virtual instruments, sound effects and percussion.

Art Expressed In Music - Leonardo's Genius

I've remixed a few songs that I think are worth a beter sound quality. There aren't many, but this is one of them, mainly because of the beautiful burlesque brass arrangement by my good old friend Dave.

[Rough translation of the Dutch lyrics]
DANCE FOOL
the wise is lagging behind the fools
the wise slowly walks on rigid foot
the fools stay constantly amazed
they have the music in their blood

dance fool, dance fool
dance fool, dance fool

the wise formulates in tight phrases
a judgment about evil and good
the fool hovers between despair and ecstasy
he will dance his way to fate

dance fool, dance fool
dance fool, dance fool

The end of wisdom 
is that one will never know anything
the fool forgets the truth
he picks a rose for the ball
whenever heaven breaks open
or the world will end
the wise claims and preaches
the fool stays in his illusions

dance fool, dance fool
dance fool, dance fool

Written*, performed & mixed by me
Saxes & Clarinets and horn/woodwind arrangement: Dave McKeown
Drums: Matt Snowden
Cover art: made with DALL-E

*the lyrics are an adaption of the poem “De wijzen blijven achter bij de dwazen” by H.W.J.M Keuls (1883-1968).

Dans Dwaas

DANS DWAAS (dance fool) with Dave McKeown

Une reprise d'une magnifique chanson de Dominique A sur cette période et ce(s) groupe(s) que nombre d'entre nous ont tellement admiré.
A cover of a beautiful song by Dominique A, about this time, the early 80s and the years that followed and this band that many of us  loved and admired so much

Nationale 137 
Juste une "deux voies"
Cent bornes assassines, de nuit
Les années '80
Pour qui s'en souvient
Deux villes se tournaient le dos 
Et Nantes était à la traîne
Parce que Rennes avait cette voix
La hissant sur un piédestal
Philippe Pascal 
Et ce son insensé
Anguleux, élancé
Cette élégance raide
Et comment espérer relever ce gant là
Quand la duchesse dormait entre ses bras de Loire

Philippe Pascal 
Et ce son insensé
Dans le petit local
Les punks en imposaient
On arrivait après
Avec nos pédales flanger et chorus à la Cure
On Joy Divisionnait, péniblement, toujours
Avec en point de mire la route vers le nord
Nationale 137
Une seule fois pour la conquête 
et l'aimant
L'aimant que c'était

Philippe, Pascal 
Sa voix de pluie de verre
Diffusée dans la brume
Il faudrait jouer là-bas
Faire plier la rivale, peut-être
Peut-être qu'il serait là

Oh, l'aimant 
L'aimant que c'était
C'était un soir de décembre
Où il pleuvait comme il fallait
On y a joué à pierre fendre
Dans un bar de la rue St Michel
Il n'était pas là, mais sa voix sortait de partout
Des murs, des visages de Rennes
La brume de sa voix y circulait, tenace
Et même des années après elle portait encore la rivale
On en trouvait encore la trace dans les bars
À l'angle des nuits, et même un jour
En face à face, où j'ai entendu cette voix me dire
"c'est bien ce que tu fais, prends soin de toi" 
(Dominique A)

Guitars - Vocals - Synth - Mix : Marc ELUSE aka NEMOROSPO

Nationale 137 - Cover (Dominique A)

DJ set recorded live during MAYDAY Block Party at Riwac Berlin 24|05|01

Robin Fx on MAYDAY Block Party at Riwaq Berlin 24|05|01

A smouldering cover of Marilyn Manson's NOBODIES from the 2000 A.D. album,  Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death).


Nobodies (Marilyn Manson Cover)

Producer, musician, singer, entrepreneur. 

Loves making music, and helping people.

www.auralphoenix.com

Nobodies (Marilyn Manson Cover)

AuralPhoenix

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