I was walking straight and tall
Like someone with nothing and no one to carry
- A woman without a burden -
Till my feet got me to the sea

I let myself in and it 
dutifully, voraciously, swallowed me
Then spat me out like a bad taste
Been pretty bitter lately

We played this game for a while 
Till I washed up on the shore
smooth as driftwood and 
barely wiser than before

Sometimes you need to be 
tossed around 
so you can feel the new sound
rising 
Climbing you like ivy...
Been pretty bitter lately

bitterlately

Dragging around your history
You know it meant nothing to me
Live now as though you're never coming back
You know now is a good time to breathe

To say yes to this is
to say yes to suffering 
and joy in unequal measures:
It's to say yes to your 
pollution, and mine

In this moment -
permanent -
in all of the borrowed light
In this moment -
permanent -
things like us can happen 

Dragging around your history
You know it meant nothing to me.
You had no choice but to relive and relive
Sick of self-sabotage and -salvage

To say yes to this is
to say yes to suffering 
and joy in unequal measures:
It's to say yes to your 
pollution, and mine

In this moment -
permanent -
in all of the borrowed light
In this moment -
permanent -
things like us can happen 

Stop waiting for something external 
Stop waiting for something external to propel you 
Stop waiting for something external 
Stop waiting for something external to propel you 

You're just gonna have to accept that there are some things that I love about you 
that you never can know 
that you never can
You're just gonna have to accept that there are some things that I love about you 
that you never can know 
that you never can
I'm just gonna have to accept that there are some things that you love about me
that I never can see 
that I never can see

Here 
comes your strength breaking through 
like sun
from the bottom of the lake 





reliving (demo)

Released November 29, 2023
Vocals, guitar, harmonium, singing bowls and percussion by Amy Dawn
Cello and clarinets by Jamie Wilson
Bass guitar by Nicholas Bowen
Produced by Nicholas Bowen at Quay West Studios

Purple Flowers

A gamelan-inflected dream folk duo.

Live at The Others in Stoke Newington on 12th March 2023.

E-mail: insect.trainers@gmail.com
Facebook: @InsectTrainers
YouTube: @insect.trainers

Insect Trainers is a duo formed of two composers, instrumentalists and song writers, Victoria Major and Nick Gray. We use two Balinese gendér wayang gamelan instruments along with guitar, violin, keyboards and vocals to create a web of urban dream folk with postminimalist, surrealist tendencies. With a name conjured from a phrase in a Chloe Aridjis novel, Insect Trainers invites you to worlds of magic animals, sonic vibrations and Swedenborgian correspondences.

Gendér wayang is the name given to a small group of bronze metallophones used in Bali to accompany shadow puppet plays and ceremonies.

Draw Me (LIVE 12.03.23)

Blue Clouds And Red Ochre (LIVE 12.03.23)

A gamelan-inflected dream folk duo.

E-mail: insect.trainers@gmail.com
Facebook: @InsectTrainers
YouTube: @insect.trainers

Insect Trainers is a duo formed of two composers, instrumentalists and song writers, Victoria Major and Nick Gray. We use two Balinese gendér wayang gamelan instruments along with guitar, violin, keyboards and vocals to create a web of urban dream folk with postminimalist, surrealist tendencies. With a name conjured from a phrase in a Chloe Aridjis novel, Insect Trainers invites you to worlds of magic animals, sonic vibrations and Swedenborgian correspondences.

Gendér wayang is the name given to a small group of bronze metallophones used in Bali to accompany shadow puppet plays and ceremonies.

Llama Song (Taster)

The Glow

A song I made myself!

Lyrics:
Hands made of ochre
Painting all over
Scriptures of colour
Making me smoulder

All through these late nights
Late nights
Late nights
Late nights in love

Mexican summer
Burning hot lover
A means to discover
The beauty and wonder

In his deep black eyes
Black eyes
Black eyes
Black eyes in love

Teotihuacan
Teotihuacana
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacana

A dahlia sunset
Lighting up our bed
With petals of blood red
Nothing’s to be said

All though these late night
Late nights
Late nights
Late nights in love

With hands of sienna
He traced my embers
Loving and tender
I still remember

The depths of his black eyes
Black eyes
Black eyes
Black eyes in love

Teotihuacan
Teotihuacana
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacana

Teotihuacan
Teotihuacana
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacana

Teotihuacan

Revised mix of our first demo inspired by various alt-country songs we’ve hummed along to over the years

Fading Suns

Drunk, Again

Vocals - Veronica Thompson
Violins - Sophie Loyer
Cello - Sarah Gill
Guitar - Gavin Pearce

Lyrics:

Even now, I can still you smiling
I can still hear your voice as you whisper goodnight
I can picture you now, as you first called my name
In a hotel in Paris, at the dawn's early light

Even now I still hate you for leaving 
I still hate you for silence, cold as the grave
And I don't hope she's happy, and I don't wish you well
And I still hope that you would come back here again

All your pretty songs, I guess still hold their tune
In another bed, another hotel room
Time after time
Time after time I'll be dreaming of shadows and lost in your arms

Sometimes now I imagine you sleeping
And I reach for your hand and pull you to me
But the moon keeps on spinning 
And the stars bow their heads
And I don't know I'll ever be with you again

Lost in Your Arms

The idea of these songs is a rag-tag bunch of settlers in 1820 or thereabouts, corralling their carts for the night and singing songs. A few have guitars, a consumptive child plays violin, and someone else has an early version of garageband. They are sitting around the fire, ever more drunk and maudlin. The next day they're butchered to a man, by Apaches or some stray pack of soldiers on the escape from a Cormac McCarthy book. 

The grand plan is for other people to sing and play on these songs, to stealthily build some of them up to full orchestra and choir. Some songs seem to work recorded drunkenly with one guitar, whereas others seem to ache for sweeping strings and four part harmonies, like Gustav Mahler with a cowboy hat on.

Louise Riley, Veronica Thompson, Rasp Thorne and Shimrit Elisar have been the first to come wandering in barefoot and wild-eyed out of the vast imaginary emptiness and stand close to the fire for a couple of songs apiece. There is also some beautiful fiddle on a few tracks, played by Sophie Loyer. Nicola Cunningham sang and played glockenspiel at a recent live show. Sarah Gill has played most impressive cello on some of the songs.

Photo by Karla Da Silva

Lost in Your Arms

The Wolfe Sisters

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