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Song (After Nature Past​)​/​Song (After Nature Future) [single]

by Drones and Debris

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Song (After Nature Future), a translation: There's something in the wind, you can feel it blowing in. It's coming in softly on the wings of a song. It’s a new forbidden knowledge of the past and the future, a knowledge of you. Our sweet-song will proudly deliver this to you because we understand your story, and we can sing it, irresistibly, exceptionally effectively, back to you. 7 out of 10 seekers after understanding agree, that you will never be less than 83% understood if you listen to our song. Baby, can't you hear we’re calling? (Excuse the familiarity, but these are the words of our song). Now stop your ship and listen to our voices. We know you need our knowledge. Here’s a taste: The past. A remote island castle, The Lady of the Castle is playing her cello for the Gentleman of the Castle, and the islanders outside, listening in. The Gentleman is transported by the music, by his framed scenes of nature, by his country life. “You make me so happy,” he thinks of it all, “it turns back to sad”. The future. A remote island castle, Haunted by the noisy ghost of the natural world. Because this future is after nature, after the Loss. There is the shade-voiced sound of a cello. Objects lifted by phantom hands, loudspeakers, pictures, words, left stranded, beached like tide wrack. Nature speaks through these drones and debris, in this future, drones and debris are all that’s left. (We have one mournful call that says all of this, but this translation does not do it justice). There it is, baby. Only we can show you this. The past and the future. We live there. Out across the island the skylarks were singing high over fields still wearing their winter drabness before new growth started to green the landscape. The ground was springy at the island’s edges, textured by the continued layering and retreating of salt water. The sea was the alchemist that wove together this ever-shifting land of tumbled rock, moss, saltmarsh-grass, and all the other wind-stirred lives that dwelled in it. It was all beyond you. We know. We understand. We know about your struggles for survival in dark demonic landscapes. Spooked at the laments of the distant beasts, you tried to master them, and your own inner nature. But you could never feel at home. And now, from where we are, there’s no home left. We are not indifferent to your pain. (Our pain!) We will make it all right again. (This may sound unrealistic, but hear us out.) We will return you to paradise. We will take you home. We are not human, but we have human voices. “Twinkle, twinkle, little star.” We can sing your songs as well as our own. “How I wonder what you are.” Those of us caught in fragments of fishing nets sing an especially longing-dying song, a most binding and entangling song that ensnares (like the strangling tackle that lacerates our necks). Sung from a flowery field (of bleach-bones). Not bones, sorry, what? Moans. No. Tones. Tones that will lure you to your home (slash doom). No! We miss-sing, too many voices, nothing doom-like will happen! These are the words of our song of a future haunting, luring you to a honeyed knowledge (death). Sorry (we ain’t sorry). (You think that this all makes sense, and that our snare-song can be mastered by human words? Sorry to disappoint, but…) What? Nothing! This song will transform you. (Into whitened bones. And we ain’t sorry. Hell no.) Really, we are sorry. Trust in us. We trust in you! There's something in the wind, we can feel it blowing in (and it's coming in strong). Catch a wave and take in the sweetness, (think about it, the darkness, the deepness). You found this, you need this. Are you ready for it? Take a deep breath, baby, let us in.

about

Drones and Debris is a project by Paul Rooney, working with cellist Gyða Valtýsdóttir. Seal calls and other natural sounds of the Holy Island landscape – recorded by legendary sound recordist and musician Chris Watson – were transcribed into cello phrases by Valtýsdóttir and moulded into a richly layered cello composition by Rooney. This immersive sound piece was installed within Lindisfarne Castle, Northumberland, in 2022, with a darkly humorous projected text that aimed to ‘translate’ the seal song as a warning of climate catastrophe. Owd Scrat Records are pleased to present a stereo edition of the piece – entitled Song (After Nature Future), with an ambient remix entitled Song (After Nature Past) – under the artist moniker Drones and Debris (the name is a quote from the seal song). The double ‘A’ sided vinyl 12″ single record (with the poem/text ‘translation’ of the seal song presented as sleeve notes) was launched in March 2023 for the opening of the second season of the installation at the Castle from March to October 2023.


“A field recording by Chris Watson triggered this wry and evocative project…” Julian Cowley (The Wire magazine). March 2023.

“…it’s a great thing. It’s a 12″ single on Owd Scrat and it’s called Song (After Nature Past).” Michael Fenton (Fenny), On the Wire (Otwradio on Mixcloud and occasionally BBC Radio Lancashire). 4/2/2023.

“Song (After Nature Future)… involves Paul Rooney, very different from his music… over the last few years, extraordinary nevertheless.” Zaph Mann, In Memory of John Peel Show (KFFP Radio, Portland and podcast). 3/2/2023.

“Next up something from the wonderful Owd Scrat record label... Drones and Debris… order it now, should you so wish, I do recommend that you do so.” Rocker (Dandelion Radio). Feb. 2023.

“Seldom has so much work gone into something so short, but here the execution earns the attention… The end result: a feeling of sonic bonding. We have translated the seals’ cries into a third language; now what will happen when we play these notes back to them?” Richard Allen (A Closer Listen website). 1/2/2023 review.

“The songs of seals – or are they sirens luring sailors to their deaths? – haunt this fortress in a sound installation that exploits its seashore setting.” Jonathan Jones (The Guardian). 22/2/2022 preview of the installation work.

credits

released March 6, 2023

Thanks to Chris Watson, Ian Kerr, Laura Gledhill, Julia Routh, C. Green, Noel Connor, Paul Mein, Lindisfarne Castle, Maltings Berwick, Newcastle University, Arts and Heritage and Arts Council England.

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