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Heavenly Bodies

by Douglas Dare

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1.
A ball of light fills my room dances in without a tune, but banging drums overhead pin me down upon my bed. Open up my mouth to scream, are my parents proud of me? Mother, Father can I lie between your bodies tonight? Are the Gods just playing games, rolling stone down sky lanes? Count the seconds one, two, three miles away but coming for me. Open up my mouth to scream, are my parents proud of me? Mother, Father can I lie between your bodies tonight? Can I grow up, be a "man"? It's been like this since time began. Maybe if I hum along it will soothe me in to song. A ball of light fills my room, if I danced would it dance too? And with the sheets from the bed I could scare the storm instead. Open up my mouth to scream, are my parents proud of me? Mother, Father can I lie between your bodies tonight?
2.
Take me out of this old case and show me to the light Too long now been kept inside Locked out of sight and mind Forgotten Forgotten I've waited so long How many years gone, My love? Without the touch of your coarse hair I'll lie here silently Songs that I used to hear Are fading rapidly Forsaken Forsaken I've waited so long How many years gone, My love? I've waited so long How many years gone, My love? Play my heartstrings Louder darling Play my heartstrings Louder darling Beautifully
3.
Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin Dance me through the panic til I'm gathered safely in Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the end of love Oh, let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon Show me slowly what I only know the limits of Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the children who are asking to be born Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn Dance me to the end of love Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin Dance me through the panic til I'm gathered safely in Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the end of love Dance me to the end of love

about

Released digitally on December 11, the 3-track EP features the London Contemporary Orchestra accompanying Dare’s charismatic voice on both the title track and a mesmerising rendition of Leonard Cohen’s Dance Me to the End of Love, whilst the third piece sees a duet with the American composer and fellow Erased Tapes artist Peter Broderick.

At the beginning of September 2020, between lockdowns, Douglas Dare came together with a string quartet of players from the London Contemporary Orchestra to record an audio- visual performance in the beautiful St John of Jerusalem Church in Hackney, London. The video was directed by award-winning documentary film maker Simon Lane who previously worked with the English indie folk trio Daughter and made a short doc about Bob Marley.

“I really wanted to create a feeling that matched the ‘haunting' and raw feeling of Heavenly Bodies. The one-take journey of our camera sees Douglas move around within the church in one continuous shot. We set up pools of light in four areas so he could seamlessly move between them.We shot using a Kodak Super 16mm film stock which picked up beautiful images both in these pools of light and the darker areas outside of them”, Simon explains the making of process.

The audio recording of the title track sits alongside two other string-supported vocal pieces that make up the EP. The second track is a previously unheard song that Douglas wrote way back in 2012 whilst he was still at university, a song personifying the violin itself. It was recorded with Peter Broderick in his Berlin apartment in 2013 — “we waited a long while but now feels the perfect time to release it”, Douglas states. The third and final track of the EP is a re-interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s Dance Me to the End of Love, which was originally commissioned by the Contemporary Art Museum of Montréal for the Cohen exhibition ‘A Crack in Everything’ that has toured the museums of the world. This recording however is of a completely new arrangement, recorded in the church with the glorious LCO.

“I can’t wait for people to hear these songs, new and familiar, all with strings.“
— Douglas Dare

credits

released December 11, 2020

C&P 2020 Erased Tapes Records Ltd.
Erased Tapes Music Publishing Ltd.

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Douglas Dare London, UK

Douglas Dare is a London-based singer-songwriter, originally from the coastal town of Bridport, South West England. The son of a piano teacher, Douglas began composing instrumental music from a young age but it was not until studying popular music at University in Liverpool in 2008 that he began songwriting. ... more

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