Paul Amlehn - Libretto, composition, arrangement, production
Eve Babineaux - Mezzo-soprano
David Lynch - Visual art

From the avant-garde opera: "The Marriage of the Animal and the Divine."

Libretto:

"Now that you'll riposte
Enjoy this...

The village festooned
With a wilderness of mirrors
The children forced into these
Image gone out
Image gone out.

Mandrake scream
In case you were wondering
Wandering in a sky of shredded stars
There's nothing here
There's nothing here.

Now what we have is this
No direct contact with
Waning companion
Eons in nanoseconds
Eons in nanoseconds."

A Wilderness of Mirrors

Paul Amlehn - Libretto, composition, arrangement, production
Nick Wilson - Quantum entangled singing
Hiroshi Sugimoto - Visual art

Libretto:

"The Abyssal Self
Projecting through non-existence
The Procreatrix.

I scan the mask.
I span the mast.

You are dear to me.
You are cherished and loved.

I scan the mask.
I scan the mast.

You are dear to me.

(...lux in tenebris lucet, 
et tenebrae eam exstinguere non possunt).

(...the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness cannot extinguish it).

I'm so glad."

A Thorn In the Soul, A Beam In the Void

Paul Amlehn - Libretto, composition, arrangement, production
Marie d'Aubigny - Voice
Frederick Sandys - Visual art

Libretto:

"Like a child
I trust.

I scan the mask.
I span the mast.

Master,
Cut away the bloat of my vanity.
Master, 
Lance the pustules of my pride.
Master,
Tear out the root of my disordered desires.

Master,
Grand and glorious,
Shower me with your outrageous grace.

Master,
Elope with me
To a place
Where the interstice
Between our bodies
Melts away and disappears.

My neck bared like a heavy twig,
Like Heaven's twin.

Master,
I surrender.
Do with me
As you please.

Master,
I surrender.
Do with me
As you please."

The Song of Mary Magdalene

Paul Amlehn - Compositional system and strategies, catalyst texts and vocals for music composition, production
Christoph de Babalon - Electronics
David Lynch - Still image from his series Twin Peaks: The Return

Glastonbury Grove (Between Two Worlds)

Paul Amlehn - Compositional system and strategies, catalyst texts and vocals for music composition, production
John King - Computer, viola, processing

This composition is one of five from the dance-theater work "Cage/Cunningham: Love Letters," inspired by John's love letters to Merce.

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde.

Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. As a choreographer, teacher, and leader of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Cunningham had a profound influence on modern dance.

Cage/Cunningham: Love Letters (Scene 1)

Paul Amlehn - Compositional system and strategies, catalyst texts and vocals for music composition, production
Elliott Sharp - Synthesizer, glissentar
Andrej Zulawski - Still image (with Sam Neil and Isabelle Adjani) from his film "Possession," title from his screenplay for his film "Possession"

Maybe This Is Something All Couples Go Through...

Paul Amlehn - Libretto, composition, arrangement, production
Fay O'Brien - Voice
Salvador Dali - Visual art

Libretto:

"In the private, pain-filled dark
In the stillness
In the quiet
Desire
Sits on the tongue
Like a communion wafer
Like a butterfly
The beating of wings."

Like a Butterfly

Paul Amlehn - Libretto, composition, arrangement, production
Sal Cobb - Narration
Michaela Damrau - Aria
René Magritte - Painting: "The Lovers"

Libretto:

"I'm thinking of your message and the brutality of it," she said. "Why do you communicate with anyone, if every time you do, you leave a trail of corpses behind you?"

All our betrayals that leave undone.

Your voice
A bell
At bottom of
A crystal well.

And you will not find me
When you look for me.

We had drinks at DeBretts and then went to the Derek Jarman exhibition at the Gus Fisher Gallery. Omnia showed me the Rose Chatouillé oil paint she had purchased earlier this afternoon. "It's such a beautiful colour," she said.

No. We didn't go to DeBretts for drinks, nor did we go to the Jarman exhibition together. The communication broke down between us so it did not happen. Although we did go, a week later, to Le Garde-Manger. And it was there, in the outdoor courtyard, over wine and escargots, that she said we should go to a hotel and have wild sex.

"Fffffff-f-fuck me yeahhh
Fffff-f innocent f-fuck meal soft
Learn
More
Fucking
Meal
You'll be my new lover!"

Omnia's smiling face is the surgical spoon that I use to eat my own brains for breakfast.

"Would you like a second helping?" she asks.

She towers high above me, on altitudinous limbs, gazing down from immeasurable heights.

Her long tresses billowing in the stiff breeze. 

Her bare, barbarous breasts banked with pearl-grey clouds."

Rose Chatouillé (Redux)

Paul Amlehn - Lyrics, composition, arrangement, editing, mixing, production
Tony Cascarino - Vocals
Declan Walsh - Guitar, effects
Aidan Byrne - Bass
Will Barrett - Drum machine programming, drums, percussion
David Hamilton - Photography

Lyrics:

"O your beautiful neck...
O your beautiful neck...

Proud, illegible
Bared like a heavy twin
Silent even when
Saccading the smooth paths
On a Sonntag
Morning.

It's on high
This smooth part
Is un-sired.

O your beautiful neck...
O your beautiful net...

Taming man (and monster).

Eliding meaning
Arresting motion
Suspending time.

O your beautiful neck
O your beautiful net
In which no fissure enters
Hauling my heart to Heaven.

O your beautiful neck
O your beautiful neck.

It's your world
You can change it
Dreaming wide awake
Dreaming with eyes open.

Love still abides...
Love still abides...
Love still abides..."

O Your Beautiful Neck (Love Still Abides)

Paul Amlehn - Lyrics, composition, arrangement, production
Shalia Keene - Voice
Man Ray - Rayograph

Raidne is one of the ten sister sirens in Greek mythology. 

Lyrics:

"What time is it?

11:11.

I can feel
The intimate melancholy
Imprisoned in the poem of your body
In the delirium of your tresses
In the oblivion of your sex.

We will go beyond
We will go beyond
Beyond anything you ever dreamed or wished.

Beyond romantic trauma
Beyond unhinged eroticism
Beyond the puzzle of your own existence
Beyond the terror of your own existence.

Beyond, without hesitation
Into a future that was always on the (way) wait.

Whether by chance or fate
Whether by chance or fate
Whether by chance or fate.

I can feel.

Come feel."

Raidne's Song

Paul Amlehn - Lyrics, composition, arrangement, editing, mixing, production
Boaz Abebe - Vocals
Man Ray - Rayograph

The title for this composition comes from a poem by Emily Dickinson: "Hope is the thing with feathers."

Lyrics:

"Twilight encroaches upon the hives of limerence.

A man with a broken neck
Is sitting in the corner of the room.

He says: "The stars are made of bone."
He says: "The stars are made of bone."

But we must not worry.
We must not stop believing.

It will be better 
When tomorrow comes around."

The Thing With Feathers

Paul Amlehn - Text and music
Kristen S. - Voice of Venesia
Man Ray - Rayograph

Venesia and her twin brother Venexia are the daughter and son of the characters Omnia and Paul (not to be confused with the author Paul) in my novel: Monument to the Unimaginable. 

The parents discover their teenage children have begun a romantic and sexual relationship, and separate them, with Venesia staying with them in Paris, and Venexia being sent to Berlin to live with his aunt. 

After a month of the children being separated, with Venesia still very much in the doldrums emotionally, Paul and Omnia decide to take a trip to their holiday home in Italy. Here, Venesia pens a letter to her brother.

"My Dearest, Darling V.,

I am writing to you from the holiday house on Lake Orta. It started snowing two days ago. 

Père and Mère are always fussing about, hovering around, getting on my very last nerve. They're unendingly asking me how I am doing, how I'm coping without you. As if they even care.

We are cooped up together here like sardines in a tin. I never get a moment to myself. I wish they'd just let me be and suffer on my own.

I won't forgive them for doing this, taking you away from me, not ever, I promise you that.

Last night, when I was getting dressed for bed, a fox came to my window. He looked at me and I looked back at him. His eyes were unbearably sad. 

I went to get him a bowl of water but when I came back he was gone. 

I wanted to tell him how beautiful he was, but I didn't have the chance to. I can't say what, exactly, but there was something about him that reminded me of you. Did you come visit me last night in your dreams? Were you the sad fox?

How are things in Berlin? Do you miss me? I miss you terribly.

I send you kisses, my love. We must find a way to be together again soon. I love you more than I can possibly say.

Your Sistren Other and True Soul's Wife,

V."

Venesia's Letter

Paul Amlehn - Text, voice, editing, mixing, production
Alex Bainter - Generative music
Edvard Munch - Print: "Woman's Head Against the Shore", 1899

The text for this work was written for the character of Omnia in my novel Monument To the Unimaginable. It is the final entry she writes in her diary before she commits suicide.

The text also doubles as an elegy for my father, Mike Amlehn, who died on March the 28th, 2015.

Text:

"Sometimes I think I see him, a face that might be his - but isn't, that distinctive walk of his - but it's not him. My desire almost, but not quite, gives his ghost a body. 

He no longer belongs to any place or to any time that I have right of entry to. 

He belongs only to the irrevocable instant, the instant right after the heart has been given away and cannot be taken back. To that moment when the earth tilts and the sea rises. To the moment when the horizon is skewed to a curve. When one has to run away from those who love them too much, or from those that cannot love them enough. In that strange between time. When the time for loving has ended and the time for remembering has yet to arrive."

Omnia's Journal (Her Final Entry)

Paul Amlehn - Compositional system and strategies, catalyst texts and vocals for music composition, production
Dean Hurley - Composition, keyboards, bass, drums, engineering
Sarah Conto - Sculpture, basis for title

This work is an instrumental version of another piece of music which had my text and vocals as part of the composition. I like this version as an alternative to the original because of its spacious, cinematic atmosphere, which gives the listener extra room to dream up a mini-movie on their Mind's Eye Screen.

Recorded at David Lynch's Asymmetrical Studio in Hollywood, CA.

The Night Falls as The Night Watches

Paul Amlehn - Compositional system and catalyst texts and vocals for Ben Somers' vocals, editing, mixing, production
Brian Eno - Guitars, bass guitars, synthesizers, drums, percussion, found objects 
David Byrne - Guitars, bass guitars, synthesizers, drums, percussion, found objects 
Ben Somers - Text-based vocals and extended vocal techniques
Melanie Scafide Russell - Extended vocal techniques
Unknown Photographer - Photomicrography of a human teardrop

This composition is a re-creation of the song "A Secret Life" from David Byrne's and Brian Eno's 1981 album "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts."

A Teardrop in the War Room

Paul Amlehn - Setting of parameters, introduction of variables, observation of model state and interactions taking place therein, final overall mix, compositional system and strategies and catalyst text and vocal for Rob Burns' composition, Photo-Painting
Brian Eno and David Byrne - Sourcing and selecting of vocal samples, Composers of original “Help Me Somebody” composition
David Van Tieghem - Clave
Rev. Timothy Wright - Sermon
Rob Burns - Bass, FX
Michael Holland - Recording engineer for Rob Burns
Dave Pajo - Slow guitar
Michael Brown - Copper, water, contact mics
Drew Daniel - Sampling, sequencing, digital editing
M.C. Schmidt - Amplified Bible, mix of Matmos music

hybridization
/ˌhʌɪbrɪdʌɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/
noun
the process of an animal or plant breeding with an individual of another species or variety.

This composition is a hybridization of two songs, "Help Me Somebody," by David Byrne and Brian Eno from their 1981 album "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," and "Action at a Distance," by Matmos, from their 1999 album "The West."

The Photo-Painting image pictured above was captured on analogue film one day in St Peter's Church in Wellington, New Zealand, and has no post production of any kind performed upon it. The image was captured as you see it, and seemingly portrays some kind of spiritual phenomena. Whether the manifestation is good or evil is unclear, but I personally feel it is the Holy Spirit also known as Ruach Ha-kodesh.

The Movement of the Spirit

Paul Amlehn - Text, vocals, arrangement, production
Eraldo Bernocchi - Synthesizer, treatments and effects on Paul Amlehn's voice, vocal sculpting
Brian Eno - Vocals, vocal manipulations, production
David Byrne - Vocals, vocal manipulations, production
Grimes - Vocals, vocal effects, synthesizers, engineering, production
Trent Reznor - Vocals, vocal manipulations, synthesizer, engineering, production
Atticus Ross - Synthesizer, vocal manipulations, engineering, production
Alan Moulder - Synthesizer, vocal manipulations, engineering, production

This composition utilizes sonic elements from three previously existing compositions from the albums "My Life In the Bush of Ghosts" by David Byrne and Brian Eno, "Ghosts I-IV" by Nine Inch Nails, and "Miss Anthropocene" by Grimes, as well as new material created by Eraldo Bernocchi and myself.

"Music for Beings on Other Worlds" is a series I began working on in 2021. Each sonic composition is designed for a specific exoplanet, and the hypothetical beings that live on that particular world.

This composition for the speculative race that lives on the blanet designated "M51-ULS-1b."

A "blanet" is a member of a hypothetical class of exoplanets that directly orbit black holes.

Blanets are fundamentally similar to other planets; they have enough mass to be rounded by their own gravity, but are not massive enough to start thermonuclear fusion and become stars. In 2019, a team of astronomers and exoplanetologists showed that there is a safe zone around a supermassive black hole that could harbor thousands of blanets in orbit around it.

The team led by Keiichi Wada of Kagoshima University in Japan has given this name to black hole planets. The word is a portmanteau of "black hole" and "planet."

M51-ULS-1b is an unconfirmed extragalactic blanet in Messier 51a (also known as "The Whirpool Galaxy"). Although its status is as yet unconfirmed, evidence was recently discovered which supports its existence.

Music for Beings on Other Worlds: M51-ULS-1b

Paul Amlehn - Adaption of text, ambient and nu metal architectonics
Jason Lee - Vox
Edvard Munch - Painting

The text for the composition comes from Job 2:12 of the Bible and the original third person perspective of "him" is modified here to the first person perspective of "me".

"The people saw me coming from afar
They raised their voices and they wept
Rent their robes and sprinkled dust upon 
Their heads..."

Omnia is the central female character in my novel: "Monument to the Unimaginable."

Omnia's Song

Paul Amlehn - Text, ambient architecture, vestigial percussion traces, editing, mixing, production
Laura Williams - Vocals
Albrecht Dürer - Pen-and-ink drawing

"The aperture dilates
Aperture, aperture, a picture
Of you.

A picture, a prayer, a prayer
To hold you."

A Prayer

Paul - Text, Music, Production
Caroline - Woman falling in love vocal
Chiyo - Telephone gossip vocal 1
Rin - Telephone gossip vocal 2
Salvador - Painting

A Premonition of Love

Paul Amlehn - Libretto, re-definition of the verb "to sing," quantum vocal performance, electronic vocal augmentation, composition, editing, mixing, production
Sonya Petrov - Voice
Emma Smith - Voice
Isabella Conti - Voice
Charlotte Abbot - Voice
Louise Bourgeois - "Pregnant Woman" gouache and colored pencil on paper

Libretto:

"I'm swimming in the window.
God, let her in.
I'm swimming in the widow.
God, let me come in
To this flesh
System
Upside down.

Women 
Are the only 
Way in.

I'm scared, maman.
I'm so scared.

I'm swimming in you.

Listen now."

I'm Swimming In You

Paul Amlehn - Libretto, composition, arrangement, editing, mixing, production
Sabrina Carter - Voice
Gustave Moreau - Painting: "Thracian Girl Carrying the Head of Orpheus on His Lyre"

Libretto:

And I descend again
Magnetically
Drawn
Towards a dense silence
A silence broken only by
The dark beat
Of my blood.
 
And I descend again.

O me ill, my, I
Descend again
In search of you.
 
Orpheus I am
And I descend again
In search of you.

Fathomless…

Fathomless

Paul Amlehn - Direction, Compositional System, Compositional Strategies, Catalyst Texts and Vocals, Production
John Contreras - Cello, Electronics
David Lynch - Visual Art

In a Time of Plague

My name is Paul Amlehn. I am an artist working in the mediums of literature, music, visual art, theater, opera, dance, performance art, and film.

My poetry, prose, and texts for theater and opera have been published in literary journals in 23 countries, including Exquisite Corpse, the California Quarterly, Poetry Salzburg Review, and Evergreen Review.

My paintings, photographs, music, and video art works have been exhibited throughout the world, including at Artist's Space, Luhring Augustine, the Chelsea Art Museum, and Tate Liverpool, and at festivals which include Art 42 Basel (with the Serpentine Gallery - curated by Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist), documenta 14, and the 51st, 55th, 56th, 57th, 58th, and 60th Venice Biennales.

On my music projects I have collaborated with Robert Fripp (King Crimson), Ulrich Krieger (Lou Reed), Chuck Hammer (David Bowie), Jamie Saft (Iggy Pop), Susan Stenger (John Cale), Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno), Michael Blair (Tom Waits), David Van Tieghem (Laurie Anderson), Michael Johnson (Joy Division), Joe Gore (PJ Harvey), Terry Edwards (Tindersticks), Mick Rossi (Leonard Cohen), Jem Finer (The Pogues), Kate St John (Van Morrison), Mark Egan (Arcadia), Eberhard Kranemann (Kraftwerk), Reinier van Houdt (Current 93), Thomas Stern (Einsturzende Neubauten), Paul Barker (Ministry), Stephen Thrower (Coil), Jessica Stewart (Psychic TV), Colin Potter (Nurse With Wound), Ches Smith (Mr. Bungle), Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire), Susan Alcorn, Suzanne Ciani, Keiron Melling (The Fall), Julia Kent (Antony and the Johnsons), Mick Harvey (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds), Laurent Petitgand (Wim Wenders), Jen Baker (Werner Herzog), Phil Minton (Matthew Barney), Jim Pugliese (New York City Ballet), John King (Merce Cunningham Dance Company), Robert Black (Bang on a Can All-Stars), Frank Cassara (Steve Reich and Musicians), William Winant (Terry Riley), Andy Findon (Michael Nyman Group), Andrew Sterman (Philip Glass Ensemble), Jeff Zeigler (Kronos Quartet), and many others.

On my film and video art projects I have collaborated with actors, actresses, singers, and dancers, including Philippe Nahon (Gaspar Noe), Artur Barciś (Krzysztof Kieślowski), Anne Louise Hassing (Lars von Trier), Kate Moran (Peter Greenaway), Kate Fisher (Robert Wilson), Elisa Lasowski (David Cronenberg), Pamela Flores (Alejandro Jodorowsky), Stefania Casini (Andy Warhol), and many others.

I am currently working on an album of music which has texts and vocals by William S. Burroughs, in cooperation with the Burroughs Estate. I am also presently working on an album of music which reimagines the work of John Cage, in cooperation with the John Cage Trust.

Cover art for my albums has been provided by painter Gerhard Richter and artist, musician, and filmmaker David Lynch.

At the end of 2024, I worked on several re-creation compositions which utilzed sonic elements from pre-existing songs by Brian Eno and David Byrne, Nine Inch Nails, and Grimes, from their albums "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts," Ghosts I-IV," and "Miss Anthropocene, combined with new music by myself and other musicians.

I recently completed a short film in collaboration with the Austrian-Irish painter Gottfried Helnwein called: "Epigenetic Trauma Portrait No. 1".

I also recently completed another short film: "And God Created Sex".

(Both films can be viewed on my YouTube channel). 

I'm presently working on a new music recording project. Musicians taking part in this project are: Stan Harrison (Talking Heads), Ben Somers (Seal), Jarboe (Swans), Ghazi Barakat (Pharoah Chromium), Rob Burns (David Gilmour), Nicholas Currie (Momus),  Peter Hess (Philip Glass Ensemble), and others.

Soli Deo gloria.

Paul Amlehn 3

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