So elegant and refined music. It sounds really good Mark! Lovely!

Stunning sax solo... Velvety voice my friend!!

Cool lyrics.  The flow of this tune is super good.  Great textures all over.

This collab is perfect, everything is in place, I love her style, so pleasant and enjoyable to listen to.

Oh Mark and the gang , this is superb , well done all !

Mmmm, romantic vibes indeed, and can see why you shot off on that path Mark, lyrics and vocals work beautifully and that sax just gorgeous...Rodolfo again produced a goodie, and time matured the ideas, rather than lose them

Camto De Embalar

When https://soundcloud.com/ipg1, historical SC member, offered this open collab from one of his pages: https://soundcloud.com/level-one-up1/unused-multiples-140-bpm-open-for-collab, I was immediately inspired by the modern sound where I felt some rock wanting to get out!
IPG1: Try the link above to find his great prog-nu-hop-trap-track!
RUIZZOIDMAN: guitars, bass, added drums, lyrics from an old poem, vocals, choir.

Letra  /  Translated lyrics

TU AUSENCIA  /  YOUR ABSENCE

(Tu ausencia, tu ausencia…)  /  (Your absence, your absence...)

Hoy que la noche es oscura,  /  Today that the night is dark,
(y estridente)  /  (and strident)
hoy que la noche es brumosa,  /  today that the night is foggy,
hoy que la luna se oculta,  /  today that the moon is hidden,
(largamente)  /  (for long)
la soledad es odiosa.  /  loneliness is hateful.

Hoy que he roto la sonrisa,  /  Today that I broke my smile,
(del pasado)  /  (from the past)
hoy me grita la conciencia  /  today my conscience screams
para acrecentar la prisa,  /  to increase the hurry,
(demasiado)  /  (too much)
careciendo tu presencia.  /  lacking your presence.

El frío de esta noche que ya no es clara,  /  The cold of this night that is no longer clear,
¡el frío de esta noche me llueve tanto!  /  the cold of this night rains on me so much!
y estas gotas que ruedan por mi cara,  /  and these drops that roll down my face,
¿son gotas de lluvia, o son de llanto?  /  are they raindrops, or because of crying?
(¿Son gotas…)  /  (Are they drops...)

Un pasivo gris inunda mi mente,  /  A passive grayness floods my mind,
un gris silencioso que empaña el cielo,  /  a silent grey that steams the sky,
y estos tonos muertos que nadie vierte,  /  and these dead tones that no one pours,
¿son de la tormenta, o por mi duelo?  /  are they from the storm, or from my mourning?
(¿Son de la…)  /  (Are they from the...)

La gélida oscuridad que me viene  /  The cold darkness that comes to me
es la nube fatal de mi existencia,  /  is the fatal cloud of my existence,
pero el frío afilado que me hiere  /  but the sharp cold that hurts me
¿es frío por la noche, o por tu ausencia?  /  is it cold of night, or because of your absence?
(¿Es frío…)   /  (Is it cold...)

Tu Ausencia (with IPG1)

HAGE PARADISE

THE SEA WAS WATCHING US

“How Deep Is The Sky?” (Paploviante Open Collab) – Download for Free
Written by Chris Barnett for Questionable Enterprises LLC. © 2023
Music by Paploviante 
Vocals by Wild Christopher
If you want the dry vocals, send me a DM

Paul’s Open Collab Offer (Sweet Dark Sky)
https://soundcloud.com/paploviante-and-friends/sweet-dark-sky
If you publish it, you have to mention Paploviante in the description and title!

A love in the heat of summer
But remember seasons change
In the cold of the winter
Feelings often fade away

She left me in the moonlight
She left me with the rain
Something meant to be forever
Will never be again

How long is the dark night
How deep is the sky
Does her voice still carry 
An eternal goodbye

How deep is the sky
How deep is the sky
Memories of sailing
But clipped wings never fly… fly

When I awoke it was from a dream
A heavenly body floating over me
But the nightmare is in the waking
To a ghost that still speaks
Even though she never returns
There’s a fire that still burns

She left me in the moonlight
She left me with the rain
Something meant to be forever
Will never be again

How long is the dark night
How deep is the sky
Does her voice still carry 
An eternal goodbye

How deep is the sky
How deep is the sky
My memories of sailing
Clipped wings never fly…

How deep is the sky
How deep is the sky
Does her voice still carry 
An eternal goodbye… goodbye

How Deep Is The Sky

How Deep Is The Sky? (Paploviante Open Collab Free Download)

The Valuable Friends:

@janinelevinson - Incredible Vocals and Voice Effects
@rick-4-1 - Beautiful Drums
@phil-mcwalter - The Other Stuff

WAITING FOR THE RAIN

And the vines abide
And lean on old familiar ways
From Hadrian to the Satellite Empire
You can feel it in your soul
Standing on Dryhill
You can feel it in your soul
Standing on Dryhill

The hidden lines and lives
Walk their natural time above the plain
From hill fort to the bunkers underground 
The hill can quicken up your pulse
Standing on Dryhill
You can taste it on your breath
Standing on Dryhill
Looking from Dryhill
Waiting for the rain 
Waiting for the rain

Aeons old and yesterday
In a scintillation (Standing on Dryhill)
A breathless moment under 
The curious twinkling stars (Standing on Dryhill)
The water moves beneath us
It moves below the ice

(below, be-low)

A long-gone, summer swift scream
The hill is not dry
The vines do not wither
Rippling the waters of our many lives
The heart of the hill 
Beats on
Pushing the sleeping rabbit to awake and run (run, run, run)
Seize the seasons
Hang the reasons
In a thousand years the hill will not remember us or its many names…
Our heads boiled, eaten down to the white bone

And the vines abide
And lean on old familiar ways
From Hadrian to the Satellite Empire
You can feel it in your soul
You can feel it in your soul
Standing on Dryhill
Standing on Dryhill
Waiting for the rain
Standing on Dryhill
Looking from Dryhill
Looking from Dryhill
Waiting for the rain
Waiting for the rain

Standing on Dryhill…

Phil McWalter Jan 2023
Recorded at Dryhill, Upper Rissington, Coventry and California
Art: My own manipulated image from the top of the hill...

Waiting For The Rain

Spotify

Rodolfo https://soundcloud.com/rplanes first shared this beautiful piece with me 2 years ago, which has had a gradual development since I first wrote the lyrics back then. More recently Ce Mastro https://soundcloud.com/cemastro added some exciting backing vocals which transformed the chorus and then even more recently we invited Dave McKeown https://soundcloud.com/dave-mckeown to contribute some lovely sax that we believed was just what the song needed. Rodolfo's song has such a feeling of romantic innocence yet with a wonderful rhythmic flow, that I hoped the words might feel from a simpler time. We hope you all enjoy our song of innocence (and inexperience) which thankfully is a work of fiction. Thanks again to Rodolfo for sharing this magical piece and his great skills as well as Ce and Dave's unique gifts to make this one happen. 
We thank you all for taking the time to listen.

Rodolfo Planes - Music composition, instrumentation, arrangement, production and mix.
Ce Mastro - Backing vocals
Me - Lead vocals and lyrics
Dave McKeown - Sax solo and fills

https://continentalcollision.bandcamp.com/track/almost-lovers

Almost Lovers (by Rodolfo Planes / Mark Bennett)

Once we were almost lovers, without a care.
We weren’t like all the others, somehow we just didn’t dare.
We never faced the fact,
What we had wasn’t real,
Didn’t have to deal,
With the truth while we were putting on an act
We’d have to pay,
And quite how that would feel.

The moment when I discovered, not wanting to share,
You with any of the others, that I just couldn’t bear.
But when my back was turned,
You made out with a guy,
I thought was my friend.
Then I knew that my world had been overturned,
Put out to dry,
And what a way to end.

It’s not the way that I’d hoped this scene would play out,
Leaving the stage in the first act. 
It was cruel but at least I was left in no doubt.
C’est la vie, as a matter of fact.

Were never really lovers, just make believe.
Like sister and brother, with only ourselves to deceive.
I should have known right then,
I’d be out on my ear 
Instead of in love.
Waiting for the finale, not knowing when,
I’d disappear,
When the push comes to shove.

It’s not the way that I’d hoped this scene would play out,
Leaving the stage in the first act. 
It was cruel but at least I was left in no doubt.
C’est la vie, as a matter of fact.

Almost Lovers - Continental Collision (featuring Ce Mastro & Dave McKeown) Now Available on Bandcamp

Gosh!  Over a year since I've posted a new song!  It’s been a rough few years, but for me, the past 6 months have been particularly hard.  

This song was written ages ago, but I wanted to record it, just to have a copy for myself.  It’s a one-take piano/singing thing, with flaws but a sense of the underlying feeling.  While I was producing it, it developed a life of its own.  I had thought I’d rock it up with quite a conventional sound, but the drums and bass insisted on having their own unique flavours – ribbons of synth.  Aah well, here it is, a bit rough around the edges but at least I can feel that I am making music again...  thanks so much for listening!

Rock it…

O rock it, come rock baby roll
there’s a tide rolling green through my soul
Somewhere faint I remember the person I am
Rock it, come baby rock baby roll

Seems everyone’s dancing to light, 
there’s a song we all hear in the night
With the moon wide and high static spitting the sky
seems everyone’s dancing to light
Some red and some yellow some white
seems everyone dances to light

And the dust, it comes muddy your veins
dreary life dull and moaning in pain
Circuits broken and lost and you can’t think to cry
lost the code lost the path and can’t understand why
and the meaningless days and interminable nights
when there’s nowhere to fly and the wings lost their flight
found the feathers all crushed on the floor
trampled broken, don’t work any more

O rock it, come rock baby roll
there’s a tide rolling green through my soul
Somewhere faint I remember the person I am
Rock it, come baby rock baby roll

But somehow the cycle moves through,
the winds of change whisper and call
some beat in your brain lets the sleep patterns change
to the pulse of the blood and the beat of the brain
and awaken arise to the life-song refrain

O rock it, come rock baby roll
there’s a tide rolling green through my soul
Somewhere faint I remember the person I am
Rock it, come baby rock baby roll

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

Written sung made and played by Emma

Rock it...

From the album Schopenhauer's Apprentice

when you lie to me
I can't believe
when you speak your words to me

when you lie to me
I can't believe
when you say you love me

when you lie to me 
I can't believe
when you speak those words to me

when you lie to me
I can't believe
when you say you love me

Schopenhauer's Apprentice

Cry Wolf

The image shows a slightly altered photo detail from: Tree Stump, Meanwood Churchyard, a photography by Tim Green from Bradford (Wikimedia commons)

________________________________________________________________________________

"They all go stupid in a race."
(Gustave Flaubert, 1821-1880)

The following text passage is mainly a translation from a blog by the author Goetz Eisenberg (*1951) called:
https://durchhalteprosa.de/ 
(which can best be translated as „Perseverance Prose“)

In the translation I have tried to stay as close as possible to the original text, however, due to phrasing, composition (etc…), I have used slight changes and additions.
________________________________________________________________________________

Desensitization

Apocalyptic images 
Every evening on the news 
Heat, fires and disease
Floods, earthquakes, famines, 
War and destruction…
We are given such a daily dose 
Of horror news 
That we loose 
The capacity for outrage and revolt. 
We become numb 
And also threaten to loose 
The abilities we need 
To have empathy. 

(ref1)
Then, as now,  	(2)
We should cry out 
And rise up collectively, 
But the mass of images 
And the flood of news 
Make us fall silent
And paralyse the hooves

All go crazy in a race …

The more drastic the images 
We are presented with, 
The faster we forget 
What we have seen. 
The abundance and above all 
The concreteness of the images
Is the best means 
Of making us immune
To others misfortune. 
This is a facet of the "dialectic of enlightenment" 
That is far too little considered:
The more clearly 
Barbarism can be seen, 
The faster 
We forget it. 
News had a greater impact on us 
When we only heard or read it. 
The images of it arose 
In our minds 
And then occupied us more than one time

All go crazy in a race …

(ref2)
Then, as now,  	(2)
We should cry out 
And rise up collectively, 
But the mass of images 
And the flood of news 
Simply fob us off
With the surface

All go crazy in a race 
They all go stupid in a race	(2)
and we float along with it…

Desensitization

no espero mas

Dear listener, Feel free to leave comments and I'll try to reply.

I've been making music for around 15 years now but because of the wonderfully generous community that is SC, I have learned so much in a short time. I look forward to learning even more by collaborating. 
I suppose my strengths are in lyric-writing and singing. I feel fortunate to have been able to work with some stunning compositions by some very talented SCers.

My very best to you, Mark

Some links to recent Continental Collision streaming sites, etc are available below:

Almost Lovers - Continental Collision (featuring Ce Mastro & Dave McKeown) Now Available on Bandcamp

markjbennett

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