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Black Water

by Ian Humberstone

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1.
Hesten 03:37
2.
Black Water 03:31
By black water in island night Where a silence steals in on life Warm blood is taken By beast, or by cold There is murder where life leaves bone By black water, down in the loam I see two bloody faces One warm, and one cold Mist settles on me I cannot pick it from my clothes I see a ganfer, a glimmer, as I arose, From black water, from endeavour, alone
3.
The Storm 03:38
Fighting a way through the grey Trying to stay on my feet There’s a way, there’s a way Through this decay
4.
A king is in the mountain Asleep within his tomb Where he awaits the traveller To tread upon his gloom In shadow on the island Where I walked out alone I listen for the rhythm of My footfall on the stone The way before me withers as The storm is coming on A cowl of wind around me And the beating of a drum Where no name, will sound Or shelter me The life within the fire Is longing for a name That I can scarcely summon from My fingers in the rain I will her from the darkness Until she stirs again, and The holy name of fire Is singing in the flame A wave of glowing embers where Her body comes away Into some higher quarter Where the air and spirit play And her name, will sound And sing to me
5.
Half-dead in half-light I shiver and sway Out from black water Like the fool in a play Falling through fever Pursued by shade Death-breath wet on me With the stench of a cave Blood on my t-shirt And blood in my hair I feel bloody-handed For wounds that aren’t there No one has passed here Since blue bit the hill Shadow blind behind me Feeling for its kill The fool in his fire Wears my mask as his own Fell out from black water Dripping in gloam In limping midnight I hear for the stream As sisters of brilliance Glimmer and gleam Their beauty beacons Wax-wane in the brim That washes the shoreline From dream into limb The fool will wander Through any gateway And stand astride edges He cannot convey
6.

about

Black Water is a collection of songs originating in an ill-omened overnight hike through the remote Norwegian island Varaldsøy in 2017. The tracks pick out scenes from this trip. Marching off alone along the coastal path in the direction of an upland ridge called Hesten (The Horse). Trudging east through a storm several hours later into pathless forest towards the ominously named Svartavatnet (Black Water). Stumbling down the mountain road at midnight, the woods humming with bioluminescence.

credits

released October 18, 2022

Players: Owen Curtis Williams (drums); Seonaid Aitken (violin); Sarah Leonard (viola); Pete Harvey (cello); Ian Humberstone (vocals, guitar, keys, bass, autoharp).

Songs by Ian Humberstone. Strings arranged by Pete Harvey and performed by The Pumpkinseeds. Recorded and mixed by Graeme Young at Chamber Studio, Edinburgh. Mastered by Simon Heyworth at Super Audio Mastering, Dartmoor.

DVRC Lantern Series vol. 1.

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Ian Humberstone Edinburgh, UK

Musician and writer based in Edinburgh. Recording sound to magnetic tape since 2005.

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