Set in Cornwall in the autumn, looking out over the sea and thinking fondly of previous times spent there, as well as about friends far away who, despite time and distance, manage to stay close.

Lyrics
Will the swallows be waiting there for me?
Like they’ve done before, take me to your door

Pick me up where we left
Through the days we forget
We returned just before the winter came
Set me down at the end
Where the sea meets the land
We returned just before the winter came

Bracken to the sea, waves will always be
Breaking on this shore, take me to your door

Pick me up where we left
Through the days we forget
We returned just before the winter came
Set me down at the end
Where the sea meets the land
We returned just before the winter came

Winds rolling, souls calling
Dive under deep water
Leaves turning
The tide’s a comin’ in
We’re boats on the deep water

Pick me up where we left
Through the days we forget
We returned just before the winter came
Set me down at the end
Where the sea meets the land
We returned just before the winter came 

Before The Winter Came

A song about longing, about a broken past and an uncertain future. A song about regret and vain hopes. A song about love.

Lyrics
Our hearts barely beat with all these broken parts
And it seems unlikely we’ll mend them in the dark
Morning sun don’t rise and show me
Colours slowly fading away

Ghosts in my coffee and underneath my skin
The seams of my dresses the ones you loved me in
And the cells of my own blood
Dreaming pathways back to you
I don’t know what I should do
I don’t know what I should do

I want you, I want you to be by my side summer kills
I want you, I want you to be by my side summer kills

This is me at midnight I’m calling out to you
Clutching at memories in search of something
You don’t have to tell me baby, I know you are true

But I lost my footing back there upon the rocks
And I lost my soul to someone I should not
You don’t have to tell me baby
I’ll find my way, I’ll find my way back to you

I want you, I want you to be by my side summer kills
I want you, I want you to be by my side summer kills
I want you, I want you to be by my side summer kills
I want you, I want you to be by my side summer kills 

Summer Kills

A story about a brother and sister who find a dead horse and its orphaned foal in the woods. The children have to decide what to do about the motherless foal: its leg is broken; it will surely starve or be eaten by the wolves if they leave it; so they find a rock and kill the hapless creature.
It's a song about human morality, the choices we make, the ability to change our environments. Consequence, conscience, care and mortality. 


Lyrics
Pine needles underfoot
After rain, dripping in the woods
We wear no shoes when we cross the stream
Dappled shadows, brother pulling on my sleeve

Move in cautiously behind the bushes
There’s something in the leaves

A foal is crying, its mother on the ground
Her eyes are open but she makes no sound
The foal’s leg is broken, crows circle all around
A scream shoots through the branches
Then he covers my mouth

What would father do?
We’re all alone here and we don’t know what to do

He leaves me standing by the mother and foal
Says he won’t be long but the minutes pass slow
And after what seems hours he returns to me
With a rock in his hands, he need not speak

Moonlight on the stream and over our hands as we clean
Mists rise through the green of the forest as we leave
Mists rise through the green of the forest as we leave

Foal

Some fifteen miles north of Stockholm, there are some grey, barren rocks by the coast of the Baltic sea. Local history has it that the wives of the sailors and fishermen used to stand there looking for their men, hoping that they would return unscathed. Sometimes they did and sometimes they didn't. In a crack in the cliffs there grows a wild rose bush; according to the legend, it was planted by a widow in the 19th century.



Lyrics
Gray waves carve the shore
November skies are chasing
Pine trees bending low
Cling their feet in the buckthorn weeds

Seagulls crying out
The wind against our faces
Eyes fixed far away
Silently standing still as stone

Waiting for the fisherman
For the sailor boy
For the long lost son
For my lover’s arms
To return

(For the long lost son, for my lover’s arms)

Gray waves carve the shore
Like they’ve done for ages
Rosebush braves the sea
Planted by loving hands long gone

Waiting for the fisherman
For the soldier boy
For the long lost son
For my lover’s arms
To return

(For the long lost son, for my lover’s arms)


Solitary Wives

This song is inspired by seraphim, "burning ones", flaming messenger angels from the first testament, coming down to earth like spaceships, watching over all the lost souls of man. It's about searching for a god who has vanished, or never really existed. It's about building towers higher than Babel. It's about loneliness, despair, aspirations, curiosity, angels and spaceships.

Lyrics
Oh, we heard the calling from
The eaves, where we would sleep some more
The embers burned and so did our sleeping hearts

Oh, we heard them calling from
The towers where we could climb no more
The way was lost, along with our sleeping hearts

Oh, we heard them calling from
The stairs of our father’s house
Like memories, they followed our sleeping hearts

There’s a turning key
There’s a burning light
How they call to me
I can hear them from the rooftop
Souls out in the night

Oh, there’s no one calling from the towers
So we will build them higher
Than before, build with our fearsome hearts

Oh, there’s no one calling from the stairs
Of our father’s house
We closed the doors and followed our fearsome hearts

There’s a turning key
There’s a burning light
How they call to me
I can hear them from the rooftop
Souls out in the night

Turning Key

We wanted to include a cover on the album and as soon as we heard this song by Christian Kjellvander, we knew it was the one. The lyrics paint a picture not only of travelling, but of time and distance and how we relate to the world outside and within us. And the music… The craftsmanship is just brilliant.

Lyrics
(Christian Kjellvander)

I never wanted it to end
This m/s can roll and is built by steel that bends
Under a million star sky
The bow wind brought more than tears to my eyes

And we all have ways of dealing with this pace
Now the nights are simply transports for the days

I’m transatlantic...for a while

Goodbye to you, fair Canada
The St Lawrence slowly fades beneath my sleep
And like a thousand burning hells
I will cleanse my soul with mid-atlantic swells

And one can get addicted to this pace
Sometimes it seems like it’s all about getting away

I’m transatlantic...for a while 

Transatlantic

A fictitious couple, unhealthily obsessed with one another, addicted to the drama of their love, fated to be together in a perpetual cycle of dysfunction. When we were recording the record in Mölnbo, we went out for dinner most nights to a Turkish pizzeria called Abhi's. It was the only restaurant/bar in the town. Before doing the vocal take on this tune, we visited Abhi's and Emily got steamingly drunk so she could get further into character.

Lyrics
I believe every lie that leaves your sweet lips
In return for me babe never tell me how it is
Let’s fill in all these cracks with excuses

Crash your love upon me
All your flames and fury
Smoke us out the house and damn us both to hell
Your love is deadly
All your flames and fury
I’m burning like a fever and we’re both damned to hell

I blinkered my eyes and covered my ears
So I’ll follow you blind for hundreds of years
Let’s fill up our souls with excuses

Crash your love upon me
All your flames and fury
Smoke us out the house and damn us both to hell
Your love is deadly
All your flames and fury
I’m burning like a fever and we’re both damned to hell

So pucker up my babe and come over here
I’ll fall at your feet in worship and fear
Let’s fill in all this shame with excuses

Crash your love upon me
All your flames and fury
Smoke us out the house and damn us both to hell
Your love is deadly
All your flames and fury
I’m burning like a fever and we’re both damned to…

Crash your love upon me
All your flames and fury
Smoke us out the house and damn us both to hell
Your love is deadly
All your flames and fury
I’m burning like a fever and we’re both damned to hell

Flames & Fury

This is a love song, pure and simple. Loving someone so much that the only expression big enough to hold all of that emotion is to ask them to marry you. And when they say yes, a spell is cast and time stands still, just for a moment.

Lyrics
Under the shade of the Jarrah tree I’ll ask you to stand
Still as the water in the Blackwood river that winds its way beneath our feet
I’ll ask you to hold your breath for a minute and I’ll hold mine too
Maybe we could keep so still that time will cease

And I’ll ask the question I’ve always asked and always will
Fate stretches like fabric the cloth in which we bind ourselves

My heart will shout and stumble hearing the answer
Skip to the end of the red dirt road that leads to your home
Slip through leaves and the smell of summer to the magpie’s carol
Reeds in the river wade out to the middle of the clear, clear blue

And I’ll ask the question I’ve always asked and always will
Fate stretches like fabric the cloth in which we bind ourselves
And I’ll ask the question I’ve always asked and always will
Fate stretches like fabric the cloth in which we bind ourselves

Magpie's Carol

There’s a place on the west coast of Australia called Hamlin Bay where stingrays come right up to the shore at dusk to eat the scraps of fish the fisherman throw them after a day out at sea. By the broken jetty, there's a plaque that explains the history of the local Karri trees being shipped to London to pave the streets. These trees were felled by hand when pioneers cleared the land during settlement. Much of the Australian landscape, due to this extensive clearing, now experiences massive salinity problems and has rendered much of the land arid. Thankfully the old growth forest is now protected. So this song talks a bit about this history and about human beings' short-sightedness.


Lyrics
Stingrays move from the dark to light blue
Drawn to the shore by the fish that we threw
Our skin it was burnt by a stolen sun
As ships said goodbye and set sail for London

We’d walk through the trees until leaves gave way to sand
And wondered what we’d do after falling every tree in the land

Branches break and the purple bark sheds
To the soil then the street where the strangers all tread
We’ve tired out our muscles and the jokes are all spent
As we carry the timber like wounded old men

We’d walk through the trees until leaves gave way to sand
And wondered what we’d do after falling every tree in the land

Rivers and roads run to the sea
Where boats wait like coffins down by the jetty
The last of the wood is taken below
Now the Karries are gone and the roses won’t grow

We’d walk through the trees until leaves gave way to sand
And wondered what we’d do after falling every tree in the land

Stingrays

Inspired by a series of books by Ursula K Le Guin, called The Earthsea Quartet, The Mapless Sea is a song about journeys. About how journeys can be a reason in themselves, and the destination is secondary. It's about listening to the world around you, following your deepest instincts, watching and listening for signs, sensitivity to the soul of the earth, like in Paolo Coelho's "The Alchemist".
And finally, it's about the dark in us all; the instincts and behaviours we wish we could change, but always come back to.

Lyrics
There was a boy who wandered
Travelled the oceans wide
Followed the constellations
They kept telling me I’d be just fine
They kept telling me I’d be just fine

Boy of the mapless sea
Called to the birds above
Followed the tides of the moon
She kept telling me I’d be just fine
She kept telling me I’d be just fine

Well the boy had a shadow
He followed it all the way
It whispered to him at night
Keep on rowing and you’ll be just fine
Keep on rowing and you’ll be just fine

Follow the silver lights
That shine beneath the waves
Swim down to the bottom
Keep on swimming and you’ll be just fine
Keep on swimming and you’ll be just fine

When he got to the bottom
There was nothing to find
Broken boats and bottles
Swim back up and you’ll be just fine
Swim back up and you’ll be just fine

So the boy left his shadow
Beneath the rolling sea
All the waves were singing
Keep on rowing and you’ll be just fine
Keep on rowing and you’ll be just fine

Calling out, tearing at the darkness
Calling out, slipping through a memory
Calling out, swallowed by a shadow
Calling out, out across the morning… 

The Mapless Sea

Written in the darkest of times, originally the lyrics were all about things that would never happen, making the chorus almost ironic. But that felt wrong. The lyrics were re-written as a sincere and heartfelt prayer for happier days to come, but the darkness remained - and looking back, I honestly can't tell whether the chorus expresses hope or despair.

Lyrics
Each day these days are darker
Than the day that came before
The cats and dogs are silent
And the rooster crows no more

But this crooked path will straighten out
And the blackbird change its tune
The meadows will be blooming
And the sun will shine come June

All will be well, will be well
All will be well, will be well

The silence of the night it seeps
Into our very core
It stares through every window
And it’s knocking at our door

The moon has turned away
And all the stars are angled wrong
But time will turn them right
And put them back where they belong

All will be well, will be well
All will be well, will be well

The words we whisper softly
Are choked by their own sound
They lose their loving meaning
And fall cold upon the ground

Your touch is soft but distant
As we slowly drift apart
But warmer days will come
And they will thaw our broken hearts

All will be well, will be well
All will be well, will be well

All will be well, all will be well
All will be well, will be well 

All Will Be Well

Vänner is Swedish for "friends".
This album is a collection of remixes of tracks from Vena Portae's debut album, all done by friends of the band. How lucky we are that we have such talented friends!

Track 3 - Transatlantic, remixed by Emmy's Unicorn

Emmy's Unicorn are Emmy-Lou Kay & Mr Ronz.
They have a new EP, penned in Nashville, out the same week as Vena Portae is released - have a listen here: https://soundcloud.com/emmysunicorn/sets/not-dead-yet

http://www.emmysunicorn.com

Transatlantic (Emmy's Unicorn Remix)

Vänner is Swedish for "friends".
This album is a collection of remixes of tracks from Vena Portae's debut album, all done by friends of the band. How lucky we are that we have such talented friends!

Track 2 - Solitary Wives, remixed by Ali Friend


Ali Friend is the distinctive double bass and electric bass player who is a founding member of cult band Red Snapper. He writes and performs with Beth Orton, Emily Barker, The Imagined Village and Clayhill, as well as producing washboard and Moog fantasias. He also makes a mean apple crumble.

http://www.redsnapperofficial.com/


Solitary Wives (Ali Friend's Seabass Remix)

Vänner is Swedish for "friends".
This album is a collection of remixes of tracks from Vena Portae's debut album, all done by friends of the band. How lucky we are that we have such talented friends!

Track 1 - Summer Kills, remixed by Peter Morén

Peter Morén has released six albums with Swedish indie legends Peter Bjorn And John since 2001 and a seventh is in the works.
He has also released three solo albums (two in his native Swedish) and has done lots of songwriting collaborations with other artists as well as session-work on bass and guitar. This is however his first remix credited to him as a solo-act!

http://www.petermoren.com

Summer Kills (Peter Moren Extended Remix)

Vänner is Swedish for "friends".
This album is a collection of remixes of tracks from Vena Portae's debut album, all done by friends of the band. How lucky we are that we have such talented friends!

Track 8 - The Mapless Sea, remixed by Full Colour


Full Colour is the monicker of London-based producer/songwriter Ian M Hale.

http://www.ianmhale.com/


The Mapless Sea (Full Colour Remix)

Vänner is Swedish for "friends".
This album is a collection of remixes of tracks from Vena Portae's debut album, all done by friends of the band. How lucky we are that we have such talented friends!

Track 4 - Flames & Fury, remixed by Atlas Crease

Atlas Crease is the moniker of Will Calderbank, a Brighton based musician and producer.  He plays cello, piano, and eccentric beats. A founding member of Brighton's Willkommen Collective, he has been a member of The Leisure Society, The Miserable Rich, Shoreline, Sons of Noel and Adrian, and has toured the world playing cello for Mumford & Sons.

http://www.soundcloud.com/atlascrease


Flames & Fury (Atlas Crease Remix)

Vänner is Swedish for "friends".
This album is a collection of remixes of tracks from Vena Portae's debut album, all done by friends of the band. How lucky we are that we have such talented friends!

Track 5 - The Mapless Sea, remixed by The Courage

The Courage is the production monicker of Jesper Jonsson, Vena Portae's drummer.
Jesper grew up on the remote Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic sea, before moving to Stockholm where he headed up the rhythm sections for highly regarded artists such as EP’s Trailer Park, Lisa Lindal and Laakso.


The Mapless Sea (The Courage Remix)

Vänner is Swedish for "friends".
This album is a collection of remixes of tracks from Vena Portae's debut album, all done by friends of the band. How lucky we are that we have such talented friends!

Track 6 - All Will Be Well, remixed by Cherif Hashizume

Cherif Hashizume is an East London based remixer/producer known for his outstanding skills for sound design and audio manipulation using self-made plugins and DIY modular synths. His signature sound has been praised by many artists including Jon Hopkins, PVT, Tim Exile, Leafcutter John and many more.

https://soundcloud.com/cherif-hashizume
https://twitter.com/moonbase3 (@moonbase3)


All Will Be Well (Cherif Hashizume Remix)

Vänner is Swedish for "friends".
This album is a collection of remixes of tracks from Vena Portae's debut album, all done by friends of the band. How lucky we are that we have such talented friends!

Track 7 - Turning Key, remixed by The Bitch


Turning Key (The Bitch Remix)

Vänner is Swedish for "friends".
This album is a collection of remixes of tracks from Vena Portae's debut album, all done by friends of the band. How lucky we are that we have such talented friends!

Track 10 - Flames & Fury, remixed by Biff Roxby


Biff Roxby is a musician, remixer, producer, DJ and partner in Manchester record label Debt Records. He is best known as trombonist for The Bedlam Six, Liz Green, Honeyfeet and The Scratters, as well as having played session brass on all sorts of releases across the genre spectrum (most notably for Elbow in 2012). Roxby's Wonky Disco is where Biff shows his production chops, having previously remixed tunes by Alabaster dePlume, Louis Barabbas, Jamie Harrison, Liz Green and Kirsty Almeida.

http://www.debtrecords.net


Flames & Fury  (Roxby's Wonky Remix)

Vänner is Swedish for "friends".
This album is a collection of remixes of tracks from Vena Portae's debut album, all done by friends of the band. How lucky we are that we have such talented friends!

Track 9 - Stingrays, remixed by Like Swimming


Swedish indie-pop trio Like Swimming will release their debut album this September, but Claes Carlström, Ida Hedene, and Petter Wesslander have been writing irresistible tunes together for seven years - and it shows. With seamless harmonies, lightly propulsive rhythms, and a knack for blending the acoustic with the electronic, they sound every inch a well-traveled, well-polished band that's ready to stake a bold new claim in the world of winsomely catchy love (and death) songs.

http://www.likeswimmingmusic.com/


Stingrays (Like Swimming Remix)

Anglo/Swedish alt folk/pop collaboration between Emily Barker (award winning writer of the theme to BBC TV drama Wallander), Dom Coyote (alternative theatre-maker, writer and performer) and Ruben Engzell (multi-instrumentalist and producer, EP's Trailer Park).

Pre-order the debut album here:
http://smarturl.it/vp-album

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