Magnificent! Evocative and emotional with shades of The Blue Nile. I lived as a kid on West Blackhall Street, Greenock and one of my favourite haunts was under Gourock pier. This is wonderful as an instrumental but when the singing comes in I am overwhelmed. Those words go to straight the heart. A brave and beautiful song.

quite a story and set up for this very thoughtful piece of music. The luminiscent plankton is one of the ever amazing wonders on this planet. To combine it with music and the memory of your father is something to behold.

a shimmering, luminous tribute. a genuinely moving piece of art.

Wow, how peaceful. Wonderfully peaceful! Thank you very much ; )

Lovely, calm and calming song. The two pieces fit together perfectly.

Just read your accompanying text. Beautiful and moving tribute to your Dad.

This is another track composed for my "Clutha Project" and is actually two tracks in one. The first part is an instrumental and the second a song, but both were inspired by the glittering reflections one often sees on the River Clyde at night.

I was always in awe of this view and was lucky enough for a while to live in a house that looked out over the Clyde towards Greenock and Port Glasgow and would spend hours just staring out of the window late at night. I was also lucky enough to go sailing on the Clyde and our crew even won a prize. We travelled over to Gourock in a small motor launch for the prize-giving and after a heavy night of partying we came back again in the launch in the wee small hours across a river that was smooth as a pond. The water was full of bio-luminescent plankton that glowed greeny-blue when disturbed and we left a soft luminous trail behind us as we crossed. Probably one of the most magical journeys I have ever made. 

In 1997 we learned that my father was dying from a previously mis-diagnosed cancer. I would frequent the shoreline at night to vent my helpless fury by lifting the biggest rocks I could manage and fling them into the water whilst shouting obscenities at Fate and Life in general. Shortly before my father died, there had been an attempt to blow up the mighty Goliath crane across the water in Port Glasgow to make way for redevelopment. The operation failed, however, and it only partially slumped to the ground, like a huge wounded metal beast, and lay there in limbo for several weeks, waiting for the inevitable end. To me, this seemed like a metaphor for my father. He outlasted the crane, but not by much.

Once the fury had passed though, there was always the beauty of the twinkling reflections as consolation.


This track contains a field recording of Eider Ducks made by David M and published on the Xeno-Canto Website, used with his kind permission. XC343114 - Common Eider - Somateria mollissima
==============================

Reflections at Midnight

It's midnight at the riverside.
The stars are all so clear.
I'm hurling rocks at water
To hide my rage and fear.

The ripples break reflections
Of the twinkling lights ahead
But the reflections all reform again
And their beauty cools my head.

Gentle as old ladies,
The Eider ducks they call;
Cooing in the darkness
Saying "Nothing's wrong at all".

Far off on the other shoreline,
Lights move as cars go by.
The Titan Crane stands silent
And does not ask me why

I'm crying by the water
In the middle of the night,
Throwing rocks into the river
As ripples break the lights.

He's been there for a long time.
He's seen it all before
And lost count of all the hopeless rocks
Folk have thrown in from that shore.

He knows his time is passing.
They're coming for him soon.
No more we'll share the rocks here
Below the silver moon.

Still the lights they twinkle
Across the gentle Clyde
And the Eider ducks are calling
As they drift off on the tide.

(c) enlimila July 2018

(Clutha Project) Reflections at Midnight

(Clutha Project) Reflections At Midnight

This is my spill-over page for newer stuff. The older material is at https://soundcloud.com/enlimila.

Thanks for looking. :-)

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