IF POWER ASKS WHY
ANDREA PELLEGRINI/TANJA ZAPOLSKI/MARTIN HALL
LP/CD
OKTOBER 2012
PANOPTIKON (OPTIK 25)
If Power Asks Why er et album fuld af (på tidspunktet for udgivelsen) nyskrevne Martin Hall-sange fremført af mezzosopranen Andrea Pellegrini og den klassiske pianist Tanja Zapolski. På indspilningerne medvirker også ensemblet Lydenskab.
Pladen er produceret af Martin Hall, og materialet er for størstedelen af numrenes vedkommende arrangeret af Alexander Zapolski, der også medvirker som førsteviolinist på albummet.
1. Dead Horses on a Beach (5:32)2. Rather Quotable than Honest (3:36)3. MILFs, Cum and Schopenhauer (4:07)4. A Garboesque Leaning (4:21)5. Feeling like a God (4:11)6. The Stench of Your Pity (5:00)7. Hope Is a Lack of Information (5:29)8. Notes on Self-Destruction (4:26)9. If Power Asks Why (5:40)
DEAD HORSES ON A BEACH
Dead horses on a beach
Red starfish at my feet
This used to be the place
Where we would hide away
The mirrors of the streets
The cafes where we’d meet
All places in the past
Where we would hide away
I used to believe
That there would be a way
I used to believe
That I would find a way
To cure this pain
Dead letters make up words
Scar tissue seals the hurt
This used to be the place
Where we would hide away
I keep running to the shore
I keep calling out for more
Blood-driven to the sand
To see it wash away
Keep running to the shore
To try to see your face
Keep running to the shore
Still trying to find a way
To cure this pain
Life doesn’t cease to amuse just because people die or get crippled
Neither it stops being sad just because someone laughs
Someone sing me a song
Somebody tell me a joke
Make me cry, make me bleed
Make me wake up and see that this dream ain’t for real
All these suicidal wrecks
These aristocrats of death
Keep running to the shore with me
The bodies at my feet
The horses in my dreams
Somebody take them away
Dead horses on a beach
Red starfish at my feet
This used to be the place
Where we would hide away
Keep running to the shore
Keep calling out for more
Blood-driven to the sand
To see it wash away
RATHER QUOTABLE THAN HONEST
Like a beacon in the gutter
Simulation’s your ideal
Rather quotable than honest
Seems to be the way you live
You tell me women fake their orgasms
Men entire relations
Well, I couldn’t really give a damn ‘bout your moral indignation
It’s a sign of constipation
Some Darwinian frustration
You apply divine intention
To your spontaneity
Even add a little reason
To the lack of sanity
You tell me women base their promises
Entirely on emotions
Well, you’re such a great authority
In all your self-indulgence
You’re so stupid it’s insulting
Even your clothing is revolting
Pardon my French
But you’re too lazy to be a nihilist
At best you’ll make a travesty
A tragedy that needs to be unzipped
You’re a male, but you’re a cunt
Second only to no one
Yea right, well take advice
The only thing that alcohol does not preserve for long is the state of dignity
I raise my hand
To swear a sacred oath, to make a toast
For wasted times, for blinded eyes
For tragedies and suicides
Yet the ride was my delight
It’s the story of my life
Oh God, I need advice
Yet, Freedom! yet thy banner, torn, but flying streams like a thunderstorm against the wind
MILFS, CUM AND SCHOPENHAUER
What a wonderful mixture of glamour and pain
In a room with the rich and the famous, the useless and vain
People reading each other like price tags, oh what a game
First the artist’s a painter that drinks, then a wino that paints
Give me MILFs and cum and Schopenhauer any day of the week
Give me white bread and dark beer to avoid more of this
Luciferian figures and shemales wherever you go
Plastic spoons on a table that’s covered with traces of snow
Someone lights up a swaggering reefer, look at him choke
Hear the sound of your brain cells go “pop” by the smell of the smoke
Better check the urban dictionary, the guy is out of hand
His excitement and vocabulary need coordinated plans
Remember that song
They used to play everywhere we went
At airports, in homes
From Zurich to Munich
Girls pulling off their panties
Yet they don’t
They leave you all on your own
Begging for mercy at the throne of the poster stand
From barbarity to decadence at incredible speed
Skip the whole state of civilization to suit current needs
Such a marvellous scientific study, it’s such a relief
‘Cause it proves what I’ve known all along:
That everyone – else – is a hypocrite
A GARBOESQUE LEANING
What a Garboesque leaning towards seclusion
What a glorious way to believe in yourself
What an elegant way to uphold your composure
Such erratic behaviour all veiled in a mist
Sliding down rainbows
Pale moons keep rising
Tongue-tired conversing
In Saturn draped autumns
No more kitchen sink dramas or sweet temptations
No more coloured belief in the way that you liked
All this Vaseline might get it on, but it’s filthy
It’s the caricature of a heart made of gold
Sliding down rainbows
Pale moons keep rising
Tongue-tired conversing
In Saturn draped autumns
Good-looking boys on runaway trains
Hiding their hard-ons with the same old phrase
Still cracking cheeks with wildfire smiles
Suggested behaviour in lingerie styles
There were bags and mags and crazy stuff
We drank some wine and we laughed a lot
We talked about all the glamour and pain
First Lana Turner and then Cheryl Crane
What a Garboesque leaning towards seclusion
What a glorious way to believe in yourself
What an elegant way to uphold your composure
Such erratic behaviour all veiled in a mist
Sliding down rainbows
Pale moons keep rising
FEELING LIKE A GOD
What is not worth saying is what you sing about
What is not worth believing is what you rant about
A failed suicide, you can’t get much lower than that
What is revenge but love caught with its trousers down
Can’t say that you love someone
Then rape them all ferociously
Yet that’s what people do all the time
Forgiveness might appear a little too extravagant
Behaving like a pig while feeling like a god
Feeling like a god
Better to be hated for all of the things you are
Than appreciated for what you are not
Oh vanity, it’s the uncertainty of arrogance
All very cultural, ’cause really nothing’s going on
Can’t say that you love someone
Then rape them all ferociously
Yet that’s what people do all the time
Forgiveness might appear a little too extravagant
Behaving like a pig while feeling like a god
Feeling like a god
What is the perfect pleasure?
Exquisite in its nature
Yet it never satisfies you
Scratch in the surface, you’ll only find a little more
Is there a difference – artist, criminal or whore?
A sympathetic worn-out understanding of living
Won’t get you anywhere, not anywhere at all
Yet you’re feeling like a god
THE STENCH OF YOUR PITY
Don’t make me suffer the stench of your pity
Don’t make me suffer the sound of your voice
Don’t make me embarrassed on behalf of your conscience
Don’t make me offer you any way out
You made me feel so obsolete
You made me feel so incomplete
Half socialite, half necrophile
You only desire what you despise
So absent-minded it seems contemplative
So absent-minded it seems all profound
Convincing the public of your noble nature
Taking advantage of naïve rebounds
Dove of delight, pigeon of peace
Relieving yourself on all you meet
All high and dry, up in the sky
The smell of your piss all over me
HOPE IS A LACK OF INFORMATION
Hope is a lack of information
A spirit of temptation
A flicker inside of each heart
Even though you don’t believe it
Still you’re goaded on to seek it
Revolted by all of its claims
Hope is the absence of summation
Disregarded calculations
A whimper inside of your heart
Though you might want to believe it
It will fail you when you need it
Someone is said to have died for the sake of your lies
Well, be my guest – what a feast, what an armoured belief
Bring out your credos and songs, your perverted mischief
All these excessive delights make you cry like a child
I need to see nothing else than the look in your eyes
It’s so pathetic, my God, it makes me puke at the sight
What does it do to you?
Making a fool of you!
Look what it does to you
Where is the love – and the beauty, the truth we all seek?
But in the mind of the stupid, the feeble and weak
It makes me sick to my stomach, my bones and my core
To see you drool in delusion while begging for more
To see you high as a kite on sedated beliefs
Just a sick little junkie in search of relief
Don’t lay your hands on me!
Hope is leprosy!
Stay away from me
Filthy leprosy
Hope is a lack of information
A mere interpretation
A flicker inside of your heart
NOTES ON SELF-DESTRUCTION
Self-destruction remains
The quickest way to regain
Control over your destiny
It’s so blatantly clear
Give me a rule and I’ll break it
Show me a fool and I’ll shake ’im
Erratic censorship rules
An angry ass ridicules
Time to burn off some fuel
Do-re-mi-pla-ce-bo
Baby, mama, girl, ho
Could you please make up your mind?
Your metaphorical ass kicking is going nowhere
It’s surely not as in Santa comes to town
It’s all men imitating women
Women imitating men
People are imitating other people’s lives
Without the caricature of yourself where would you hide?
I’m gonna tear your playhouse down
So whenever in pain
Self-destruction’s the game
You’ll fake your way into history
Though you’re only a parody
It’s all a matter of spleen
Of downright dirt, be obscene
There ain’t no easy way out
You rave and twist and you shout
Gonna go down real loud
Do-re-mi-pla-ce-bo
Baby, mama, girl, ho
Could you please make up your mind?
Your metaphorical ass kicking is going nowhere
It’s surely not as in Santa comes to town
It’s all men imitating women
Women imitating men
People are imitating other people’s lives
Without the caricature of yourself where would you hide?
I’m gonna tear your playhouse down
Let’s turn the light off now
Let’s pass the night on now
In just a little while
We’ll reach the midnight hour
IF POWER ASKS WHY
If power asks why
Then power is weakness
If silence is shy
Then silence is cheap
For so long
I’ve seemed to manage this role
Consider
How do you short-circuit control?
High status women
And narcissistic men
Articulated
They do it all again
Salon des Refusés
Depressingly out of date
If power asks why
Then power is weakness
If power abides
Then power is lost
To conquer
You need to silence the prey
Relentless
There’s nothing left here to betray
A lover’s rental
Don’t get too serious
If sentimental
You’ll get delirious
Salon des Amateurs
Such a despicable waste
A vague embarrassment at play
Profound desires came too late
Cosmetic changes all the way
The comfort zone of silent hate
A female victim once again
Innocence caught by the male gaze
Such an ambiguous display
Enacted by a renegade
She’s nodding tentatively towards you
Recalling how she once adored you
She’s running out of social graces
She’s running out of fitting phrases
A figure carved out by uncertainty
It’s the veneer of jaded hostility
Just an illumined hunger admiring itself
She’s out of breath
”Te med eddike: Fremragende melodisk materiale og glimrende arrangementer. Nej, der er ikke mange, og slet ikke herhjemme, der i disse tider kaster sig ud i musikalske udfoldelser som disse, men dette her er vellykket fra ende til anden.”
( * * * * * )
Gaffa – Ras Bolding (27. september 2012)
”Et mesterligt hovedværk!”
P6 Beat – Anders Bøtter (1. oktober 2012)
”Guderne, og vi andre, skal vide at Martin Hall altid er gået egne veje – og helst de veje som ligger uden for kortets ramme … altid interessant, når der er nyt fra denne ener.”
Lydtapet – Peter Krogh (2. oktober 2012)
”Jeg synes, den er fantastisk! Meget burlesk, P.J. Harvey møder Marlene Dietrich … modigt i en dansk sammenhæng. Jeg har ikke hørt noget der minder om det.”
DR2’s Smagsdommerne – Leonora Christina Skov (4. oktober 2012)
”Det er en vildt god plade. At man tør være så ambitiøs omkring en udgivelse, det synes jeg, er enormt sejt, og det er virkelig flot.”
DR2’s Smagsdommerne – Kresten Osgood (4. oktober 2012)
“Punk and circumstances: Musikken står længe og vibrerer i luften – også efter at man har foldet ørerne sammen. For Halls sange i klassiske kjoler er som tatoveringer i hjernen. Men er de en slags Schuberts Lieder? Nej, og dog … Resultatet er et lækker-dekadent univers.”
Berlingske Media – Elisabeth Saugmann (9. oktober 2012)
”En hidsig kommentar til vores kultur.”
P1 Kulturnyt – Claus Vittus (10. oktober 2012)
”Hall iscenesætter som den musikalske auteur på eminent vis dynamikken mellem Zapolskis skarpt smældende anslag og Pellegrinis snart ekstatiske, snart hvislende kolde stemme i ni sange af lige dele lied og cabaret, pop og perversion. Vi er langt fra rockens autenticitetshunger i en række maskespil, der kækt iklæder især tidens kønsdebat en sært anakronistisk dragt af Weimar-tidens Berlin og fransk symbolisme … fortvivlende skønhed der er værd at give videre til de efterfølgende generationer.”
Information – Rasmus Steffensen (17. oktober 2012)
”Det er ikke pop, det er slet ikke jazz, det er simpelthen Martin Halls dekadente, syrede og syrlige univers … Outreret? Excentrisk? Ja …”
Fyens Stiftstidende – Mikael Krarup (29. oktober 2012)
”Man bliver som lytter smidt direkte ud over afgrunden på albummet If Power Asks Why, som er frugten af et samarbejde mellem pianisten Tanja Zapolski, mezzosopranen Andrea Pellegrini og endelig Martin Hall, som har skrevet og produceret de ni sange. Det spænder ikke stille af. Og åbner lige på kanten til kaninhullet med den urovækkende ”Dead Horses on a Beach”, hvor Pellegrinis varme og fortryllende klang kan få isbjerge til at smelte. Hun er albummets styrke, og helt vidunderligt er det, når hun på ”Feeling Like a God” synger flerstemmigt med sig selv.”
Politiken – Pernille Jensen (9. december 2012)
“Andreas Pellegrini, Tanja Zapolski und Martin Hall präsentieren mit If Power Asks Why ein handwerklich starkes Album.”
Kulturterrorismus (10. december 2012)
“Es ist anders, interessant und doch irgendwie luftig leicht, ohne einen tiefen Anspruch missen zu lassen. In unserer schnelllebigen Zeit schafft es Martin Hall sehr kunstvoll, daß man innehält und gebannt zuhört. Wann kann man das über eine neue Platte schon sagen?“
( 8 / 10 )
Music Scan (20. december 2012)
“If Power Asks Why is a release that is one you don’t hear every day. It will attract a wide variation of audience when it spreads, from the female metal voices fans to gothic fans, to fans of classical music. Give yourself the opportunity to be amazed and get this release.”
Tempelores – Sabine van Gameren (11. februar 2013)
”Genuinely thrilling … Give it a chance, it’s definitely worth it.”
Santa Sangre Magazine (5. marts 2013)
“Behind this output there is an enormous attention to detail and, above all, a strong vision. And the results are more than tangible: The talent we keep hearing about is real and not the result of some kind of hype artfully constructed … Moments like “MILFs, Cum and Schopenhauer” with its histrionics and groove to the sublime strings, the airy “Feeling like a God” or the passionate and intimate “Notes on Self-Destruction” emphasize the whole range and experience of this amazing congregation of Danish artists.”
( 8,5 / 10 )
Darkroom Magazine – Roberto Alessandro Filippozzi (6. marts 2013)
“Regardless of his past and affiliations with large labels, Hall has always seemed to be a relative outsider in the business end of the music world — a fact which, over the years, has eventually culminated into the climactic If Power Asks Why … Unique.”
( 4,75 / 5 )
Heathen Harvest – Sage (27. maj 2013)
“The thing that gets me about this album is the simple fact that the songs are so gorgeous, and yet the lyrics so hysterical and so biting that you really question what you’re listening to … This is definitely a rare album. I keep coming back to it with a twitch in my eye, because this really just should not work at all. Yet, the trio has made it work wonderfully, without a doubt, in every sense. I can wholly recommend this album to everyone who comes across my path; it’s an ironic self-enlightenment course with tasteful music on the side, able to make fun of itself and the world around it. This is not something you want to miss.”
( 9,5 / 10 )
Brutal Resonance – Steven Gullota (18. august 2013)
Nomineret til P2-prisen 2013 i kategorien ”Lyt til Nyt”
Andrea Pellegrini: Mezzosopran
Tanja Zapolski: Flygel
Alexander Zapolski: Førsteviolin
Anja Zelianodjevo: Andenviolin
Grigoriy Khodos: Bratsch
Mette Spang-Hanssen: Cello
Ida Bach Jensen: Kontrabas og strygere
Thea Vesti Pedersen: Akustisk guitar
Eskild Skovbakke Winding: Perkussion, harmonium og perkussivt klaver
Johnny Stage: Elektrisk guitar, mandolin, autoharpe og sitar
Ketil Duckert: Trompet og flygelhorn
Hans Nybo: Fagot
Martin Hall : Music box, tapes og detaljer
Design: Kenneth Schultz
Foto: Robin Skjoldborg
If Power Asks Why består af en række flygelbaserede “hybridlieder”, en samling rendestenssange med havudsigt, hvor titler som ”Hope is a Lack of Information”, ”Rather Quotable than Honest” og ”MILFs, Cum and Schopenhauer” måske kan være med til at give en indikation af projektets lyriske åre.
Der er tale om et værk fuld af affektbårne indsigelser mod tidens kulturelle imperativer – om en serie både højstemte og bramfrie kommentarer til tidens centerløse kønsrolledebat og standardiserede begærsparametre.
Andrea Pellegrini har hen over de senere år markeret sig som en af landets mest efterspurgte og prisbelønnede mezzosopraner og bl.a. modtaget Musikanmelderringens Kunstnerpris. Tanja Zapolski har ligeledes høstet stor ros som solist ved koncerter med de fleste store danske symfoniorkestre og er i den forbindelse blevet tildelt Victor Borges Musikpris. Hall og Pellegrini har tidligere samarbejdet på plader som Camille (2002), Das Mechanische Klavier (2004) samt Hospital Cafeterias (2009), hvorimod det er første gang, at Hall arbejder sammen med Zapolski.
If Power Asks Why blev udsendt som vinyl-lp, cd og download. Albummet modtog produktionsstøtte fra Statens Kunstfonds Tonekunstudvalg, Dansk Skuespillerforbund og Dansk Musikerforbund.
Pladen var yderligere nomineret til P2-prisen 2013 i kategorien ”Lyt til Nyt”.
“Dette her er vellykket fra ende til anden.”
( * * * * * )
Gaffa”Martin Hall iscenesætter med bravour mezzosopranen Andrea Pellegrini og pianisten Tanja Zapolski i maskespil af klassiske lieder og pervers pop.”
Information“Et mesterligt hovedværk!”
P6 Beat”Fantastisk! En vildt god plade.”
DR2’s Smagsdommerne”Et lækker-dekadent univers.”
Berlingske Media”Pellegrinis varme og fortryllende klang kan få isbjerge til at smelte.”
Politiken”Give yourself the opportunity to be amazed and get this release.”
Tempelores”Genuinely thrilling … Give it a chance, it’s definitely worth it.”
Santa Sangre Magazine“Unique.”
Heathen Harvest“Gorgeous … This is not something you want to miss.”
Brutal ResonanceNomineret til P2’s “Lyt til Nyt”-pris 2013