Listen to my music on Spotify / Escucha toda mi música en: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4hAdpygElM5qnAI534XVRp

La Verbena

A new song about my home suburb, will be released as part of a double A side single soon on Metal Postcard Records.

Maylands, you're on your way, a sunlit day, hangs before us.
Maylands, the lion roars, the swallows soar, the milk gets poured so

Stand in line, it's breakfast time, as trains roll by the Midland line.

Maylands, you'll have your day, your lands of May, are getting nearer.
may long, the gun shop run, we will be armed, to the teeth

Stand in line, it's breakfast time, as trains roll by the Midland line.



Maylands

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

The Phantom Of The Opera (performed By Vitamin String Quartet)

released 26 May 2015

Words and music: Siv Jakobsen
Produced by Siv Jakobsen and Charlie Van Kirk
Mixing & Engineering: Charlie Van Kirk
Mastered by Kevin Reeves

String-arrangements and piano: Christian Li
Bass: Jared Henderson
Vln 1: Katie Kresek
Vln 2: Jesse Hanson
Viola: Rachel Golub
Cello: Yoed Nir
Percussion: Charlie Van Kirk

Recorded at Ant Food, Stadiumred Studios & Virtue & Vice, i Brooklyn NY

Assistant-engineering by Jay Marcovitz and Ben Talmi

Artwork & photography by Jørgen Nordby (jorgenordby.com)

Dark

Little Boy In The Grass - Aurora (acoustic cover)

as the end approaches
and i lie here in wait
as they watch with disappointment 
at the mess that i've made
i'm just another mistake
with all this hate i create
and if there is a god above me
there's a lot  on his plate

breathe
no im damned on this earth
breathe
to hurt and to hurt
and if there is a god above me that's been watching since birth
then give me one good reason, tell me what it's worth.
if there's just one good reason, tell me what it's worth

bed-ridden, tears dripping, locked in my room
downswing, aching flowers dont bloom
there's not much i can take if i take it at all
leave me alone now im crying in blue

i used to be a dancer yeah i used to swing
i used to comfort people yeah i used to sing
but now my voice is the devil
my music his horns
and my friends are dead
from this world we are torn

wont you take me away 
----------------------------------------
im writing disease till the day im deceased 
begging you please wont you listen at least
love in decrease heeding the priest's decrees
with ease is the only way to feel peace

but nothing makes sense no more,
my eyes, heart and brain are sore.
love's a bitch love's a whore
cant take this anymore

oh lord take me in, 
wash away all my sins
and deliver me from evil
and let me begin

the end

Passerby

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:
http://www.facebook.com/ValerioLysander
http://soundcloud.com/valeriolysander
http://www.youtube.com/valeriolysander
http://twitter.com/valeriolys
http://instagram.com/valeriolys

A Woman - Valerio Lysander

Radiohead - Exit Music (Orchestra)

In this episode, Graham Priest introduces logic, an area which is often wrongly perceived as having little to do with rest of philosophy and even less to do with real life. 

Learn more about "Logic: A Very Short Introduction" here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/logic-a-very-short-introduction-9780198811701

Graham Priest is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the CUNY Graduate Center, as well as a regular visitor at the University of Melbourne (where he was Boyce Gibson Professor of Philosophy), and at St. Andrews University.

Follow The Very Short Introductions Podcast on:
- Apple Podcasts: https://oxford.ly/2SQQ79R
- Blubrry: https://oxford.ly/2IVCep0
- Google Podcasts: https://oxford.ly/34W2bvY
- SoundCloud: https://oxford.ly/3nPvtoD
- Spotify: https://oxford.ly/3dxUJuP
- Stitcher: https://oxford.ly/3k9kEvH

© Oxford University Press

Logic - The Very Short Introductions Podcast - Ep 3

Oxford University Press’s academic insights for the thinking world combine authority, innovation, and excellence.  We share audio resources for students, scholars, and researchers.

Logic - The Very Short Introductions Podcast - Ep 3

Oxford Academic (OUP)