Hiraeth 3.m4a

I offer you a reading of this book of deep resonance. It has been a true pleasure to have these words move through my lips. 

May the truths from Khalil Gibran bring you what you need as that need calls to you. 

With love,
Sebastian

28 The Farewell

Main vocals/Harmonies- Ria Madon
Guitar/Harmonies- Ria's father
Cello- Ria's sister

Fix You (Coldplay Cover)

Down

Down 2022 Remastered

When I was very young I asked my mum what my dad did for a living. "He makes boxes" was her reply and left it at that. It would be some years later that I learned what kind of boxes. 

My dad was an undertaker. After serving in the RAF during WW2, he returned to complete his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker for a local family firm that dominated my home town’s high street with any number of outlets providing the community with almost all their needs: furniture, shoes, clothes, haberdashery, carpets, curtains and … funerals. It was the last three in this list that my dad was involved in — fitting carpets, hanging curtains and, crucially, as an undertaker, not only making coffins and putting dead people in them, but also donning a black suit and officiating at funerals, burials and cremations. When the founders of the family firm one by one died and left it in the hands of an alcoholic nephew (the original heir having been killed in a plane crash in the Swiss Alps in the 1960s), it collapsed and my dad was obliged to move full time into the funeral director business, no longer having a hand in making bespoke coffins. For a period in the late 1970s/early 1980s, I was frequently called upon to help my dad remove bodies from where they had breathed their last.

Do The Body Box Bop

A song to celebrate the many weird and wonderful characters I've met at acoustic sessions, both musicians and punters, although none so weird or wonderful as those who people this song.

Friday Night at the Rose & Crown

Soulful, Semi Classical, Hindi, Soft Indie Rock, Deep lyrics

Zindagi Madham (Unplugged)

Written by Sindhu Mathew.  
Composed, sung and produced by Vinod Varma

January through Saturday
Wrapped in shaped light
Come, tell me why you stay -
Snared-
Driven out of colored time

A droplet of framed thought
A Chiseled memory
A rezoned  warplane
With a battle scar for a name?
Come, tell me who you be!

Bring these now in your best Chalice
I'll watch it stir around and clear
As you love yourself, a little tighter-
little sober.
Come, tell Yourself Now, 
who you be-

Bring me your pollard
Your silently retired treasure
That friendless trait,
Your most valuable Scarlet letter.
Better yet

Unfasten  those tight masks
Drink a little bitter to better
Come, now back to our stories
Stay happy Saturday- 
stay January's a Charlie Foxtrot away!

Bring these now in your best Chalice
I'll watch it stir around and clear
As you love yourself, a little tighter-
little sober.
Come, tell Yourself Now, 
who you be-



WHO YOU BE (original)vinod varma

This song is the outcome of a collaboration back in 2009 with Billy Simons, a very talented young lyricist from the U.S.
 
Billy asked whether I'd be interested to write the music for these lyrics he had just written and perform the song.
 
I thought the lyric was extremely well written and ready for the music writer to take over, without having to make too many changes.
 
I hope I have been able to do some justice to Billy's very evocative lyric. 

LIVING IN A POSTWAR DREAM

Lyrics: Billy Simons (c) 2009 
Music and performance: (c) Cyrus Vesuvala 2009 

Verse-1: 

I dreamt that dream again last night 
The one in which I'm dead 
The scene is grainy black and white 
But the blood is crimson red 
See a cardinal on that snow white beach 
On that cold and blustery day 
And I watch with trepidation 
As he turns and flies away 

Verse- 2: 

His red tail flutters in the wind 
As he races 'cross the sky 
And as the scene fades out to black 
I open up my eyes 
Within this strange reality 
Precursor to the screams 
That cardinal is always there 
Embedded in my dreams 

Chorus: 

Living in a postwar dream 
Where the fighting never ends 
More terrifying 'cos I've lost sight 
Of what I must defend 
Living in a postwar dream 
A lifetime on the mend 
A lifetime on the mend 

Verse- 3: 

The beachfront's now deserted 
Those soldiers, long since gone 
Their orders cancelled years ago 
But my battle rages on 
I can still hear that moaning 
It's a young boy face-down and 
He convulses as he's drowning 
In a pool of blood and sand 

Verse-4: 

So, everyday I agonize 
About the here and now 
Wondering how I'll set the stage 
To take my final bow 
It doesn't matter much to me 
When and where the curtain falls 
I've waited all these years to hear 
That final bugle call 

Bridge: 

So, yearning for tomorrow 
As today slips through my hands 
I'm trapped within this hour glass 
Half buried in the sands 
At the beaches here at Normandy 
Which never looked so grand... 
Oh, the beaches here at Normandy 
Are grand... 
The beaches here at Normandy 
Are grand... 

LIVING IN A POSTWAR DREAM

Kintsugi is the ancient and beautiful Japanese tradition of mending broken pottery using  gold or silver solder. 

When I first heard this song by Becky Thomas (Rebecca Milkwood)some years ago, I was completely blown away. The lyric and the overall atmosphere of that original recording were quite amazing.

Thought I'd record my own interpretation of that song today. …

CYRUS DALI VESUVALA
Gurugram
14th March 2020

KINTSUGI
Becky Thomas

You stood by the shoreline, feeling the undertow
I know you were smiling, thinking about where the currents go
You've been trying, you've been swimming against the flow
Seems like you're done fighting, seems like you're letting go

Funny how rope is a sentence when it's strung from the gallows
But it's a lifeline, a lifeline when you've drifted from the shallows

Well hold on, hold on and I will try to keep your head above the water
Hold on, hold on and I will keep you from going under, from going under

I've seen your fighting sprit, and I've seen you take it all on
Seen you crash into your limits, like a bird dashed against the rocks
Well precious things get broken sometimes, sometimes
But the scars that tell the story are the scars that you don't disguise

Funny how glass looks like diamonds when it shatters
Your heart, your heart looks like ribbons when it's in tatters

Hold on, hold on and I'll breathe life into you again
And your heart, your heart will fly like ribbons in the wind

And when the cracks in your soul are beginning to show
I will mend them with silver, I will mend them with gold

And when the cracks in your soul are beginning to show
I will mend them with silver, I will mend them with gold

And when the cracks in your soul are beginning to show
I will mend them with silver, I will mend them with gold

Kintsugi (Cover of song by Becky Thomas/ Rebecca Milkwood)

A singer-songwriter, with over four decades of songwriting experience, currently based in Gurugram, India 

Kintsugi (Cover of song by Becky Thomas/ Rebecca Milkwood)

Psyve