A little something to keep myself busy the last couple of hours - courtesy of Daniela Andrade, Jose Gonzales and The Knife.

Heartbeat (The Knife/Jose Gonzales/Daniela Andrade)

First in a series of experiments combining acoustic folk with elements of ambient and electronic music.

The first I knew was when the wind came down like winter
To resonate with the hurricane in me
Come the calm, tore the splinters from my palms
But snow, to my alarm, had spread as far as I could see

Still on I wander, still on I roam
No need to wonder as to where these roads will go
I have not vice nor vanity and, dire the delay may be
I fear that I may never make it home

There was no warning of the coming of the water
The tidal waves here to herald our demise
Singing psalms, sons and daughters in their arms
The flow above the farmhouses continued to rise

Still on I wander, still on I roam
No need to wonder as to where these roads will go
I have not vice nor vanity and sing not for my sanity
I fear that I may never make it home

There may be no reason, there may be no rhyme
The changing of the seasons and of water into wine
But traitors get no mercy, nor do devils by design
So I make my great escape
Take these mistakes and make them mine

Still on I wander, still on I roam
No need to wonder as to where these roads will go
No predator can prey on me and time will have no sway on me
I have not vice nor vanity and care not for my sanity
I only ask that I never make it home

The Wanderer

A little demo I threw together continuing my experiments in electro-folk.

Excuse the clipping and audio artefacts - this one was really a rush job, and it turns out my acoustic doesn't respond well to body percussion.  Oops.

I’m a man of many faces
Each a map of where I’ve been
I’ve walked forth to earn every scar, every burn
To mirror the earth on my skin

I’m a man of many places
Each, for the moment, my home
To place every step in the paving-dust left
By my fathers, on trails of their own

But someday the roads run dry
And all we sought for us
Under this spider spun sky
Returns now to the dust from whence we 
Came up crying for air
As comrades, the roads that we shared
Diverged in a yellow wood, here
Where there’s no distinction to bear
As we’re lain in our graves

I’m a man of many talents
Each turned to carry me on
No shelter nor shade from the heat of the day
Just solace in the comfort of neon

But someday the roads run dry
And all we chased for us
In dreams of climbing too high
In our haste crumbles to rust beneath our
Fingers grasping for air
As rebels, the trails we dared
Diverged in a yellow wood here
Where there’s no distinction to bear 
As we’re laid in our graves

But someday the river will rise
For all the difference it makes
To pass the last crossing-roads by
Knowing how way leads on to winding
Way to the bowels of the black
I doubt I should ever come back
To the trail that tore there in two
And for all of those men passing through
That left them the same for wear
And with no distinction to bear
As we’re laid in our graves

I’m a man of many faces
Each has made no difference

Roads

The monster in me is brought into being with all these
Thoughts to conceive of the fought and the fleeing - ignore the
Arteries bleeding, we ought to be seeing we wrought for
Naught the costs and cautions to be tossed at our feet in our

Exhaustion the proof here in the madness of our methods
Distorting the truth, shearing the graphs less our debtors indebted
Explorers intrepid but the lessons left to learn
In the scratches and the sketches of these pads we left to burn

And these flames are well known to me - they feel like home to me
Recreation the statement and recollected totally
Sin the song selected and sure of surface I sowed the seeds
Prophetic, problematic in the grand scheme and schematic

The changing scene dramatic and pages seen in the static
The basic need to breathe of this blanket, this air erratic
And all these other things, these momentary mementos
These deep sea dependencies, ecstasies and their echoes

Are the crux of its existence, to savour and sate its appetite
That it might never fester again, but then again it might
The shadow at my ankles, the chain hauling the anchor
Perpetually pushing that this weight give way to anger

To cracks in the surface, rubble and bubbling refuse
To stem the offending nerve endings and tears in the tissue
So I seek my solace in the light among the stars
Pen and ink my sword and shield to keep the beast behind these bars

The monster in me, the awesome behemoth is calling
Demonstrably needed as much as I fear that I want it
So long I’ve searched for a signal amidst the static
That perhaps the message missed would be meaningless in its absence

A vendetta this Rosetta, a testimony on tablets
This shroud of thought dissolved into the ether it inhabits
This mask forms many faces in the facets it’s reflected
And I fear upon reflection that the balance be corrected

The Monster In Me

Promises in diamond eyes
Wandering fingertips entwined
Ascending in the shadow of the elm
Messages and metronomes
Silver bands and studded stones
When called upon to represent the realm 

I’ll fall to pieces quietly
All the while my heart beating your song
I’ll sail the streetlights silently
All the wilderness to bring you home

No way to ward this winter
No safety from these splinters
The winners and the cinders so akin to
I know, though dear departed
That home is where the heart is
And home is where I am when I am with you
 
Rhetoric and revelry
The kings and all their cavalry
Summonsed up to wager with their men
Those souls who sold their swords for hire
When clock struck twelve the smoke soared higher
The fire claimed the fallen in the end

I’ll broker peacetime privately
Locks upon the doors and curtains drawn
And stoke this dying fire
In denial of the coming of the storm

No coat to ward this cold
Chest deflated, sunken shoulders
The sinners and the cinders, fallen into
I know, though dear departed
That home is where the heart is
And home is where I am when I am with you

Where The Heart Is

A lyric tucked away on my hard drive for the last couple of years, which fit nicely into my current experiments.

Maybe today will be the day our shadows cast no longer
Dragging our feet, the trails we left on this moss and stone
Maybe these faded dreams will bear our wanderings ever closer
Each step one less to catch our breath as we make our way back home

Maybe today will be the day these stars fall from the ceiling
Bidding farewell to candlelight on dusty shelves
Maybe mistakenly we've deigned to place our trust in feelings
In fables, in stars and fairly lights to save us from ourselves

Fables, Stars and Fairy Lights

Listening to a lot of Olafur Arnalds recently.

Also listening to a lot of Illmaculate.

Made a thing.

Rainsong

Probably the last demo I'll throw up here for a while - compiling some stuff to do a proper release.  As always, critique is welcomed.

Today I am a traveller and all the road’s run dry
Motionless, the ocean yawns before my weary eyes
Even as the storm relents to leave me in the dirt
It was never my intent that anyone be hurt

My hands will hold these hidebound hymns and heal this heavy heart
The question sheathed in lettered leaf is knowing where to start

The wretched and the revelry I sought to leave behind, chasing
Fables, stars and fairy lights suspended in the sky, before
My marching feet, the heart that beat they merely did mislay
The rosy tint in retrospect to show me where I strayed

Three cheers for the puppeteers searching for a spark
A momentary message to be whispered in the dark
My hands will hold these hidebound hymns and heal this heavy heart
The question sheathed in lettered leaf is merely where to start

Lettered Leaf

A quick Chris Cornell cover that took me.

Sloppy as all hell, but that's the best part, right?

The Day I Tried To Live (Soundgarden Cover)

This was a song I wrote last year for a friend's cousin who unfortunately
is no longer with us.  This recording hardly does him justice but I just thought
that I should get the song out there to you all.

Breathe

An experiment in writing for piano - as a non-pianist (or at least a talentless hack).  Drawing a little from John Luther Adams, from John Adams and from Thomas Ades.

(This Parting Is) Such Sweet Sorrow

Just a half-done cut of a song I was throwing together at the college before exams.  Probably won't get to finish it so here it is.  Mostly one-takes, I play everything.

Just A Crack (Half-Finished)

Some nice, soft, treble-free improv jazz.  All one-takes, tracked for fun at Artisanz Studios

Smooooooooooooth

I believe in music that has something to say.  I have become all genres to all people so that by all possible means I might speak to some.

Reece Gielen

Popular tracks